Hypertwins vs. the Kenmore 44052

Review

[ The Hypertwins 19:04, 1 March 2006 (EST) ] We bought our unit to replace a broken Kenmore 40052, and it was delivered the next day. The unit was on sale for $650, marked down from $800, but we were feeling paranoid about repairs (having just lost a comparably expensive unit – the 40052 – after only 5 years or so) and so opted for the Super-Duper Repair Plan which covered (for 5 years, with option to renew) annual service visits plus parts and labor if anything needs repairing, for about $260, which drove the total up to well over $900 with tax.

Part of the appeal of this model was the much larger opening, about 14.5 inches, versus less than 12 inches for our old 40052. (A more expensive model, the $900 Kenmore 46462 which was marked down to $850 at the time, had only a 13.75 inch opening and a correspondingly smaller drum, although it had other advantages.)

The first problem we noticed was that the electronic controls do not give you any indication of where you are in the cycle. This is an annoyance. We also noticed that clothes seemed to be coming out of the spin cycle substantially wetter than with our old unit when it was working properly. This is also a relatively minor issue. The real kicker came when we tried to wash some stuffed animals, and the 44052 refused to go into the spin cycle at all; the toys came out soaking wet, even after repeated spin cycles, which negates much of the energy efficiency savings though having to use heat instead of centrifugal force to do much of the drying. We ended up having to wash the toys one at a time, with a sheet tossed in to minimize the "bumping" as the toys were tumbled and thereby avoid setting off the "unbalanced" sensor; after that, all but the largest stuffed animals came out acceptably dry.

At this point, we are seriously considering trading in this unit for a Kenmore 44102, which hopefully will behave more like our old unit. It is not clear whether Sears will allow us to do this without charging further limbs for the privilege; watch this space.

2006-03-20 update

We decided to do the trade. Went to Sears; salesman said we needed to have a tech come out and make sure there wasn't anything wrong with the unit which might be repairable – the problem with the lack of spinning could, conceivably, have been due to a defective unit (although Harena's sister independently bought the same model and agrees that this is how it behaves), and we could probably have lived with the other issues in exchange for the larger opening if the spinning could have been fixed, but the tech could not find anything wrong with the unit.

(The tech also mentioned that using non-HE-compliant washing powder would automatically void the warranty; see the HE article for more on that story. We've decided not to get an extended warranty for the replacement unit unless Sears will guarantee in writing that it will be honored regardless of HE-compliance.)

So we went back out to Sears and talked to the salesman again, who told us to call 1-800-732-7747 extension 95111 (the number worked but the extension didn't seem to have any effect; had to go through the phone system as usual) to arrange for the pickup. Sears will issue a refund check as soon as the unit has been retrieved, and then we can go out to Sears yet again (this is, what, the 5th or 6th visit?) to order the new one.