The Shipping Bar!

So I was going through our photos and saw this one of Andrea and it reminded me of this funny story. So my dad got us a washer and dryer for our wedding gift, which we are incredibly grateful for... no more bag of quarters going to the laundry mat. We picked out our washer and dryer once we got to Colorado. We found a good sale at Sears and ordered them. Prior to ordering them I checked out some comments people had on the various washers and dryers we were looking at because we wanted to get some quality appliances.

Here were some comments on the washer we picked out:

"I have been very pleased with my Profile GE washer which I bought because my sister loved hers. The capacity is surprisingly large and regardless of load size the laundry comes out thoroughly clean and I have had no problem with large loads causing the laundry to tangle up or the machine to get unbalanced. There are many options and all are practical - they are useful to the average user and not just available for the sake of having options. I cannot think of a feature I would want that the Profile doesn't offer. Most important to me, the machine is so quiet my husband thought it wasn't working the first time we did a load of laundry! In comparison with other products this washer offers great value for the price and I recommend it to any buyer."

But it was these comments that really got my attention:

"I've had the GE Profile washer for a week, and selected it based on reviews. I find it INCREDIBLY loud, despite the laundry room being fairly far away from our main living area. Sounds like a 747 taking off!"

"I bought the GE profile washer and dryer because I knew GE to be an excellent brand, I have had family that worked for GE to retirement. I could not have been more dissappointed with the purchase. The day they delivered the dryer the motor was blown. The washer was so loud it could be heard from outside when it was running. The replacement dryer is yet to be delivered, but I am returning the purchase today. I would not recommend this product to anyone."

I thought, these can't be that bad, the washer comes with a new technology called "Deluxe QuietPower™ 2." So regardless of the warnings we got this washer and dryer set. They came the next week and needless to say the laundry had stacked up. We started up a load and everything was fine, water filled up the washer and then it started to spin. It sounded like some one was banging on it from the inside as the washer was moving across the floor (you notice in the picture above the washer is on the left side of that closet, it started out on the right side.) We didn't put up with that sound for more than 30 seconds. The 747 comment was no exaggeration! And as far as hearing the washer from outside, I'm pretty sure our neighbors on the first floor could hear it (we live on the third floor).

Anyway while it was running it had a bar that was fairly forcefully was moving in and out on the right side of the washer near the bottom. We thought this was odd because we had never seen that before on a washer. We really had no idea what this was, but it seemed to be the source of the banging. So I looked at the tag on the bar and it says "Remove shipping bar by pulling handle, operating washer with bar in place will damage the machine." We pulled it out, the washer quit banging and moving. We have been happy with the washer and dryer ever since.