LG WM4000HBA 4.5 Cu. Ft. Smart Washer

very bad experience with

We chose this and its dryer mate because the NY Times reviewed it as best for the year model for cleaning cloths, gentleness on cloths, and expected durability and longevity of the product line. This is a DAY1 review.

First the Bad:

1. the manuals are terrible. There is so much missing about how to use the controls it is pitiful. Consider for example that there is NOTHING in the dryer manual to tell you how to use all the potential button settings. None of the buttons worked, until I figured out hours later that you must use the MANUAL selection on the dial before you can change stuff.. If you go to the LG web site, there are other documents you can read but I mean really. As a Software Engineer, if my QA and DOCUMENTATION people wrote manuals this bad about what I build, I would fire them.

2. availability is spotty on both the appliances and their accessories. We had trouble finding the matching dryer, and could not get the pedestal add ones because none were available. Chalk this up to COVID I guess but one outfit said we would need to wait five weeks to the matching dryer. So do some research and shop around to see who has what in stock. If your current washer/dryer are on their last leg, maybe don’t wait for them to fail before you but new ones? Just a thought.

3. the washer is louder that both the wife and I expected. OK in fairness, there was never any claim made about how loud or quiet these machines were supposed to be. And the door is still off the laundry room and the room is empty… so there is nothing to muffle the sound. I expect this to reduce significantly once the crap is put back into the laundry room and the door hung. So maybe I am over stating this negative.

4. 4.5 cubic feet ain’t as big as it sounds. Compared to our old top loader, it seems the size of loads we are putting in the washer is smaller. It is hard to judge without a side-by-side comparison, and maybe we over stuffed to old guy whish is why it had some problems, and I could in fact stuff more into the new machine if I wanted. But it does seem like the load size smaller.

The GOOD:

1. new looking cloths, fast. I kid you not when I say the stuff that comes out of washer and dryer looks brand new. I am a work-from-home IT guy so I am mostly a sweats and t-shirt man. All my cloths so far look brand new and soft out of the dryer. And the “seemingly” smaller load sizes get done in 30 minutes in the washer unless I pick one of the longer running cycles. We did upholstery covers, blankets and bedding, pillows, towels, slippers, and lots of cloths (yeah they delivered the machines @9:30am and I did 10 loads today) and ALL of it looked NEW after being cleaned by this pair of machines. The dryer takes about 54 minutes to dry whatever you put in it. I used the manual setting for a lot of it which allowed me to reduce heat and dry time to 40 minutes.

2. no-brainer operation. If you are not into all the options worry not, you don’t really need them. There are so many presets on the dial, you almost can’t fail to find a setting that works for whatever you are cleaning. You just turn the machine on, put a detergent plug into the drum, load, dial up your clothing match, and press the run button. The washer appears to have some AI that checks the washer load to see if any timing adjustment is needed off the baseline you dialed in, but maybe that is my imagination. Point is anyone can use these with great precision without any effort. Kind of makes up for the crappy manuals. Only thing I add is “extra rinse” at the end of the wash cycle.

3. has less expensive versions in the model line if you do not want to spend the money on these. I am guessing of course but I would think “lower end” models in the same product line are really just fewer features but same washing and drying ability and reliability of product. So if you need to save money on your set look at those instead.

Tomorrow is the Wife’s turn. If she has any major comments I will add them to this review later. Kevin

Can’t get it to pair to my phone for nothing! The internet where I live is too weak so that’s a bit disappointing! the App Store asks what you want to pair and combo units are not listed anywhere… there’s washer and there’s dryers but no combo units so this is confusing.
ALAS the tech support is woooooNdeeeeeeRfulllllll! They stayed on the phone with me for an hour patiently helping me along the way, I was able to send texts of photos of which buttons or lights I was talking about, they did the same and they were absolutely awesome!!!!!

The LG washer and dryer are complicated to operate and the results are not good. I think the LG engineers are brilliant scientists who wouldn’t understand why we wouldn’t want to read the owner manual.