I’d had Electrolux earmarked as our next washer practically from the day we bought our LG in 2010. Our LG was reliable, but when it hit the spin cycle it shook the whole house like a small earthquake. With laundry on the second floor, that’s less an inconvenience than a structural concern.
When our thirteen-year-old LG started sounding like a 747 on takeoff, I figured it was time. That washer had earned its retirement — it survived a tub replacement under warranty, a drain pump I burned out by washing old shoes (don’t), and multiple boot seal replacements, one of which I caused by stabbing it during a cleaning. But once it started threatening to walk itself through the floor, we were done.
Same complaint I had about the fridge applies here too: appliances are built to last about five years now, and the math on repair vs. replace is rigged to push you toward replace. Thirteen years out of the LG is no longer the expectation — it’s the exception.
The Purchase
Did I go to a store and look at washers in person? No. I’d had this model picked out for years based on its “second floor guarantee,” and I ordered based on website photos.
I did call our local family-owned appliance store instead of using a website — partly because I had real questions, partly because I like supporting them when they’re not vastly overpriced. The main question: would this thing fit our existing washer pan? The listed dimensions said no, which would have been a deal-breaker.
It turned out the base would fit; the back and door account for the extra depth. I bought a stainless 32×30 washer tray on Amazon to replace the tiny plastic one, plus a rubber underlayment to cushion it and discourage the walking-appliance problem.
Installation Day
I couldn’t pull the old stacked washer and dryer out until delivery day, so my wife and I hauled them into the hallway that morning to prep the space.
That’s when I had my first encounter with my builder’s love affair with PVC cement. They had cemented the threaded fittings instead of using thread tape. When I tried to back them out, I snapped both the threads and the PVC pipe. Great.
This kicked off the hardware-store relay — three stores in a ten-mile radius, none of which had all the parts I needed for one straightforward repair. I cobbled the fix together with literal minutes to spare before the delivery truck pulled in.
Living With It
The washer — Electrolux Front Load Perfect Steam, 4.5 cu. ft., model ELFW7437AW — is fine. Not life-changing. Fine.
The controls aren’t as good as the LG’s. The touch-only buttons need a very specific pressure — too light and nothing happens, too firm and you’ve start-paused yourself mid-cycle. The blue-and-white display looks like a 1980s calculator, and not in the way that brings back the satisfying upside-down-numbers nostalgia.
The 18-minute quick cycle is genuinely useful for the boys’ uniforms. Most loads we run on normal/eco cold/medium spin — same settings we used on the LG.
Does it shake the house less? At first, yes. Now? It’s gotten worse than the LG ever was — the whole reason I bought this thing in the first place. So much for the second-floor guarantee. Strangely, our old LG actually shook less once it started making the airplane noises. I have no idea what mechanical fluke caused that, but I’d take it back.
The real fix at this point would probably be reinforcing the laundry-room floor, which I’m still not doing.
One unexpected problem: we use detergent sheets, and this washer pushes the load forward against the door in a way that traps the sheet between the clothes and the glass. It won’t dissolve. My workaround is tossing the sheet into the powder detergent tray instead, which solves it.
The sound alerts are persistent. They keep chirping until you acknowledge them. I turned them off on the dryer and never turned them back on.
The Verdict
Would I buy it again? Honestly, no. The one thing it was supposed to do better than the LG, it now does worse. The LG ran for thirteen years and the last few were the only ones with the shake problem. This one came with the shake problem standard. And the dryer that came with it is a different story entirely — which I’ll get to next.
Even that's Odd 
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