Frigidaire Affinity (High Efficiency)
by Samantha S
(London, ON)
Fridgidaire Affinity line Washer and Dryer in Glacier Blue
Recently my fiance and I moved into our first home and decided to head to the new Bad Boy furniture and appliance store here in London, Ontario. There we found a high efficiency washer and dryer set by Frigidaire called Affinity that we really liked and have been using them for about a month now.
My fiance insisted on buying high efficiency appliances and I insisted on finding the best value for our money. The Affinity washer and dryer set we purchased was being offerred for about $1300 at that time, which also included the bases (with drawers), normally priced at $200 each. I am not sure how this compares to the Affinity's regular price, but compared to other similar units in the store - which were also on sale - the Affinity appliances seemed to be high quality, without ridiculous features we didn't need, while still having plenty of programmable options.
After having used a regular washing machine for most of my life, these are the differences I have noticed with the high efficiency Affinity washer:
- clothes seem more thoroughly cleaned
- more water is removed from clothes during spin cycle
- it is easy to make sure you use the right amount of fabric softener/bleach (clear fill lines are indicated for these two liquids)
- more fun to use (could be the novelty of having a new machine)
- the storage space underneath the machines is useful
I would suggest that if you purchase this machine with the base, that you have two people who are strong enough to lift the machine onto the base when it comes time to set up your appliance. This washer was too heavy for my fiance and I to lift straight up off the ground as instructed, so that we'd be able to place it directly onto the four small metal pieces that hold it in place atop the base. We wound up putting the special screws back in that hold everything inside stationary so that nothing breaks while the machine is in transport. Then we laid the machine on its side, attached it to the base, and tipped it back up. No damage seems to have been done to the machine.
One thing that I think could be improved with the Affinity is its detergent reservoir. In our model the detergent disappears into the machine as soon as you pour it in. There is no fill line in the reservoir because the liquid runs straight through, which means using a measuring cup is necessary. Also be careful when using your machine for the first time: the default setting for a Normal load on our machine was for it to have No Spin, meaning that the clothes were filled with water when the cycle was over. Luckily, there is also a Spin Only option on this machine, so I wasn't left with soaking wet clothes.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the Affinity machine and would purchase it again. It also comes in a variety of colours, ours is Glacier Blue as shown in the picture.
