Like just about every other pet parent out there, our lives are busy. Really busy. Between running our websites and our freelance writing jobs, John and I each work about 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. While that work is mostly done in our upstairs offices, making it easy to run downstairs and throw a load of clothes in the washer, that’s still another job to tackle and one that we’ like to simplify.
That simplification involves a few steps:
- Reduce the number of loads we do per week. Besides simplifying our workload, this will also ease our water usage which, in the country and relying on well water, is an important factor to us year-around.
- Reduce the number of clothes that need to be rewashed.
- Reduce the need to run down and pull clothes out of the dryer for fear of shrinking or wrinkling.
- Reduce the need to ever need a repair!
We’ve told you before about the laundry challenges in our home, everything from saving water to washing oversized loads like pet beds. Another of our challenges is stain removal. We’re exceptionally happy with the stain removal we’ve seen with the Maytag Bravos XL HE Washer. A few weeks ago, I attended a special Maytag seminar about stain removal and had the chance to speak with a pro about removing many types of pet stains. Even after many (many!) years of doing laundry, I learned so much about stain removal, identifying the type of stain, and pretreating to make stain removal easier. Since most of our pet stains are protein-based stains, we need an enzyme pre-treater to efficiently work to break down that stain before it ever goes into the washer.
Once in the washer, the Maytag Bravos XL has another trick up its sleeve for stain removal: PowerSpray Technology. This ensures even detergent distribution (no more wasting detergent by using too much). A mixture of water and detergent is sprayed directly onto clothes to instantly start cleaning soils and stains.
Finally, because of our busy schedules, we need to be able to put clothes in the dryer, turn it on, and let the clothes dry without worrying about them becoming the size of a chihuahua sweater! This had been a problem with our previous machine (nicknamed the shrinking machine.) It has NOT been a problem with the Maytag Bravos XL thanks to the Advanced Moisture Sensing system. It’s able to detect the dampness in the load to reduce the risk of shrinking. And for those clothes that we forget and let sit in the dryer for days? The Auto Refresh cycle additionally helps relax wrinkles and uses steam to refresh clothes.
Finally, our new machines have made our lives easier because of that dependability that Maytag is synonymous with–but dependability, of course, depends on regular maintenance. This is the first HE washer we’ve had so the idea of cleaning the washer was new to us but, according to the Maytag instructions, “the Washer Maintenance Procedure should be performed, at a minimum, once per month or every 30 wash cycles, whichever occurs sooner, to control the rate at which soils and detergent may otherwise accumulate in your washer.”
It sounds complex but it’s basically like doing a load of laundry minus the laundry. Using affresh® Washer Cleaner or liquid chlorine bleach to clean the inside of the washer, the job is super simple thanks to the machine’s Clean Washer Cycle. Cleaning out the lint trap with every load also keeps things working seamlessly here.
We’ve been very happy with our new Maytag Bravos XL HE Washer and Dryer, helping us to simplify this aspect of our lives!
Disclosure: I wrote this post participating in an Maytag Moms Dependable Laundry Ambassador program by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Maytag. I was provided with the Maytag washer and dryer set to facilitate my post.
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