Tom's Views

I’ve laundered six loads in my new Maytag Bravos washing macine already since they delivered it this past Thursday, and I’m lovin’ it. I’m ripping curtains off the windows and doilies from tables, just to get some items to wash in it. This high efficiency style Maytag washer differs vastly from older ones; it’s much quieter and uses much less water. I know, because I watched it for an entire cycle yesterday through its glass window in its lid. It was like watching a good movie, actually. Nice!

This is a high efficiency top load machine; a Maytag Bravos MVWB750WQ clothes washer. It has no agitator, but does include what they call an impeller (a little agitator). The machine apparently agitates the clothes primarily via the circulation of water, the back-and-forth rotation of the impeller, and the movement of the surrounding tub as well. The stainless steel tub and plastic impeller move separately. So between the three forces inside, the clothes move around a lot surprisingly. A front loader might have been better. But those are more expensive than what I bought, and their cycle times are generally longer. But if I could have afforded one of those industrial grade front loader machines found in Laundromats, I would have. Ah but this Maytag Bravos top loader will do fine.

They dubbed this a high efficiency washer because it can wash bigger loads than a traditional top loading machine of the same size, due to the absence of the agitator. Plus, it draws less water and electricity, has less wasted motion in the direct drive motor since there’s no clutch to slip, runs much quieter, and seems to better compensate for off-balance loads so that the spin cycle extracts generally more water from the laundry. The Maytag Bravos MVWB750WQ well deserves the high efficiency label therefore.

The Maytag Bravos MVWB750WQ Washing Machine

• It’s the technology that gets me all gaga. For better or for worse, just about every aspect of this machine is now under software control.
• Plus, they’ve eliminated the transmission and clutch systems; a major improvement. This machine incorporates a direct drive drum motor, and the on-board computer controls the forward and backward agitations as well as how fast it spins, and when. So there’s less friction, and that translates into higher energy efficiency, way less noise, and fewer parts to wear and break. I just love modern stuff.
• Admittedly all these “bells and whistles” scared me at first. After all, the more features, the more parts there are to break down. But because this Maytag washer constitutes such a vast improvement over the traditional, electromechanical, timer-sequenced washers, I can live with the computerization. I do hope that it’s reasonably durable and that the computer modules inside last a decade or more before failing. Computer modules make for great appliances but can be costly to replace, which in some cases, can completely offset their advantages. Hopefully, Maytag put a lot of thought into designing a highly durable computer module for its Maytag Bravos washing machine.
• This Maytag Bravos clothes washer, is very much quieter than any of our previous machines.  Even the fast spin cycle makes very little hum, vibration, or other noises as compared to older units. I can’t hear it upstairs unless I really listen.
• Further, there seems to be no minimum size for the loads that this washer can correctly process, because the Maytag Bravos automatically adjusts the amount of water it uses based on the amount of laundry in its tub. It gathers information about load size and weight during the first-fill portion of the wash cycle, and applies the appropriate levels of water, washing, and spinning, to get the clothes clean without subjecting them to needless stresses in the process. So you can wash any size load from a single pair of socks to fifteen pairs of blue jeans, and be assured that the washer will not use any more water, force, or energy than is necessary to gently but fully clean the particular load at hand.
• Customers have also complained that the Maytag Bravos costs a lot. While this machine did set me back nearly twice what I paid for our last washer in 2004, it seems to be priced competitively with other high efficiency models, and it’s rated among the top five performers this year in Consumer Reports  magazine. In fact, I got my Maytag Bravos at Home Depot for $980 total (including tax, delivery, and removal of our old washer).
• I like that this washer tightly controls the water temperature in the tub, even when you’ve set it to hot.  In the Maytag Bravos, HOT does not mean as-hot-as-you-can-get.  This system maintains the water for its hot and warm settings within specified ranges.  So even if your water heater is set to the VERY HOT position, the Bravos washer will dilute that very hot water with a little bit of cold, to bring the temperature down to the standard hot value.  So yes, even when you’ve set the machine to use hot water, the Maytag Bravos will still draw some cold water.
• While this washing machine indeed costs more, it does more as well and saves money. The energy label that came with mine says that you can wash eight loads a week for a year, and only pay $18 in energy costs to operate it if you’re using a gas water heater, which we are. At that rate, I’m hoping to recover the additional money paid for this washer while I own it. We’ll see.

What I Dislike About The Maytag Bravos MVWB750WQ Washing Machine

• This machine loudly thumps the water supply pipes several or more times during each cycle, much more loudly and more often than our old Amana washer did. Since the Maytag high efficiency washing machine draws water many more times per cycle than a more traditional machine, the resulting numerous thumping  noises can grow quite distracting. Maytag might have used less abrupt, higher grade water valves, which do exist by the way. We had these much quieter valves in our old Amana.
• I am concerned that, particularly with bigger laundry loads, the clothes do not move around as much in the tub during the wash cycle as they did in washers past. But whether this means that they’ll get less clean remains to be seen in my opinion. So far though, the loads I’ve done seem very clean despite this lack of apparent in-tub clothes motion. You can get reasonable movement of the garments as long as you don’t pile too many of them in the tub.
• You must use detergents designated as being for High Efficiency (HE) washers. Seems like they could have designed the mechanisms inside to accommodate all laundry soaps, including those for the traditional agitator-style washing machines.
• For a major appliance as expensive as the Maytag Bravos washing machine, I found the manufacturer’s warranty a bit skimpy; one year for the whole machine and ten years for the main motor. With all the advances in computerization in this model, and with  the elimination of the transmission and clutch systems found in older machines, I expected Maytag to stand more firmly behind this product by providing at least a five year, whole-machine warranty. But they didn’t. So handle this washer with extreme care, lest you must either replace it earlier than expected, or pay hefty repair bills.
• Other owners say that this washer tangles and wads up clothes around the impeller.  Indeed I have observed some wadding and tight bunching near the tub’s outer edges, that results from the extraordinarily fast spinning of the load.
• During the “wash” and “rinse” parts of the cycle, as the impeller moves to and fro, the Maytag Bravos washer, at times, makes a rhythmic  knocking sound that corresponds with each change in rotational direction of the impeller.  This knocking can be unnerving from an appliance I’ve just paid nearly a thousand dollars for. But whatever causes this knocking noise appears to not interfere with normal operation of this high efficiency Maytag Bravos washer.
• In my opinion, the  Maytag Bravos washing machine has trouble completely removing strong odors (like old urine) from the laundry, even when you use hot water on the “Sheets” setting. I’ve found this to occur much more frequently in the Maytag Bravos than in our old Amana, and sometimes I’ve washed the same load one or two additional times to remove the smells.

Conclusion

Over all, my impressions of the Maytag Bravos MVWB750WQ clothes washing machine are highly favorable. I’m hoping that this machine lasts at least ten years, and think that there’s a good chance that it will, given how solidly-built it appears to be. I’d therefore recommend the Maytag Bravos to anyone looking to buy a mid-priced yet technologically state-of-the-art high efficiency clothes washer.  Make sure however, to put a surge protector on it.  After all, unlike the older electro-mechanical washing machines, the Maytag Bravos contains sensitive electronics (the computer).  So safeguard it, just as you would an expensive piece of hi-fi audio video equipment.

Tom Hesley

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