20 out of 20 people found this review helpful.
Boos for Bravos
Date of Review: Dec 27, 2008
The Bottom Line: Until Maytag improves on their technology and addresses the Bravos' perfomance issues, choose a model with fewer bells and whistles.
Considering that the washer this one replaced was over twenty years old, and a two-cycle, "no frills" model even by 1986 standards, you'd think I'd be easy to impress. After all, the Bravos is definitley a sleek, impressive-looking washing machine.
Not so. I've had this washer for eight months now, and have tried very hard to learn to like it. Unfortunately, it's proving to be a futile effort.
My priorities when I chose this washer were, #1 large capacity, #2 saves water, #3 saves energy. Granted, it delivers on all three, but at what cost?
When I turned the washer on for the first time, I was impressed by the variety of sounds it makes; not loud, but reminiscent of the way a small jet engine sounds when you're inside the cabin awaiting takeoff, and unusual enough to initially frighten small children within earshot.
The wash cyle is quite a bit longer than my previous washer's, but given the much larger capacity, I still found that I was spending a lot less time on laundry each week. And, it does feel good to know I'm doing my part to save both water and energy. The positives end there.
During the first week, I kept getting one of those error codes other reviewers have mentioned. Fortunately, the machine was under warranty, and a grumpy, little repairman was able to quickly diagnose the problem: "you need a new sensor. I just had to put one in another of these machines last week and it took all day. I think you should just return it." We ordered the part and grumpy came back and spent 4 hours crouching behind the washer putting it in. No more error code problems after that.
I'm not sure if the smaller amount of water is to blame, but this washer simply does not clean as well as my previous 20 year old Maytag. Grease stains are a particular problem, even with pretreating. My detergent is the same, Tide, so it has to be the washer.
The Bravos is also hard on clothes. I would suggest never using the "high" spin speed. We had a houseguest put a beaded top (washed in her washer many times) in our machine and almost every bead was rolling around in the wash tub at the end on the cycle. How embarrassing.
The biggest complaint I have about this washer is the one many others have mentioned, twisted clothes. No, not just twisted...gnarled and even knotted clothes. I spend a significant amount of time unraveling, de-twisting, and shaking out the clothes in a futile effort to diminish wrinkling. The matching dryer is unable to fluff them out, either. Small items invariably become wadded inside the twisted larger items, so you can't wash them together. There is nothing in the user manual that I have found to offer a solution to these problems (incluing lowering the spin speed), so, we live with wrinkled clothes. Fortunately, my little boys could care less.
I would not recommend this washer to anyone. For the cost, it should perform better. Hopefully, Maytag will address its problems with their newer models, and offer a top-loading washer that is both super energy efficient AND perfoms well.
US Appliance
