LG WM3600HWA Washing Machine Review

• Stainless steel tub: Stainless steel is more durable than plastic or porcelain, which you sometimes find on less expensive front-load machines. It’s also capable of faster spinning on rinse cycles, which is crucial for high-efficiency machines because it gets rid of as much water as possible before the drying cycle.
• Automatic temperature control: The machine automatically adjusts to reach the optimal temperature for each cycle (it’s pre-programmed), so you don’t need to worry about damaging clothes from excessively hot water or running a cycle that’s too cold to create sudsing from your detergent. 
• Automatic dispensing: Load up the machine with bleach, fabric softener, and detergent (as appropriate) when you start the cycle, and it will dispense the correct liquids at the perfect time.
• Stackable: An optional bracket allows you to stack the LG WM3600HWA beneath its matching dryer, the LG DLE3600W. 
• WiFi: The machine uses WiFi to diagnose problems and download additional cycles, a rarity at this price.

We ran the LG WM3600HWA (and its predecessor, the LG WM3500CW) through CR’s rigorous lab tests. We also used the WM3500CW in real-world situations at home. 

In our lab tests, the WM3600HWA cleaned effectively while using significantly less water and electricity than some of the competition. It was pretty gentle on clothes and quiet, too—though there was quite a bit of vibration. 

I’ve been using the WM3500 in my home for more than three years—similar to the WM3600, except it lacks the steam feature, which you may not need (see The (Dirty) Truth About the Steam Setting on Washing Machines). With kids ages 6, 16, and 18, I can confirm that my machine has seen plenty of stains (think ice cream day at T-ball), and I run it almost daily. In addition to clothes, my family relies on the machine to constantly cycle through towels, bedding, and the 60 or so white washcloths we keep in the kitchen to offset our use of disposable paper towels. It can easily handle a queen comforter and bed linens, or a massive batch of bath towels.

We’ve found that the machine does truly offer exceptional cleaning performance. I’ve always owned roughly 12 identical shirts, and I’ve always been able to tell them apart by their stains. But my current batch of shirts—which I bought around the same time as my washer—all look identical and stain-free. They’ve also held their original color remarkably well for cheap tees. The clothing also emerges feeling fresh, soft, and most importantly, completely free of our giant lab mix’s white and yellow fur. 

The controls are both intuitive and easy to use, with a smooth, rotary knob to select cycles. And while you can choose between plenty of cycles, it’s also super-easy to select the normal cycle that we use 90 percent of the time. We’ve also gone over three years without any hint of a mechanical problem. Our one complaint is that there’s a definite odor from the gasket. It doesn’t transfer to the clothing, but it’s noticeable when you open the machine. This is a fairly common problem among front-load machines, however. The machine also vibrates noticeably during its spin cycle, though leveling the machine may help a bit. It sounds like a very mild version of a plane at takeoff if you’re sitting in the back of the house—definitely not as bad as the noise that comes from vacuuming, but loud enough that we flip on a noise machine if we’re running a cycle after our 6-year-old has gone to bed. 

The WM3600 is for families who generate a lot of laundry but are willing to do more loads, or live with longer cycle times, than they would with pricier models. Some of the more premium LG front-loaders, like the WM8900HBA, tout capacities of more than 5.0 cubic feet, compared with the WM3600HWA’s 4.5 cubic feet. Others, like the WM3900HWA, finish a cycle in 85 minutes instead of the WM3600HWA’s 105 minutes. But the WiFi connectivity is great for both diagnosing possible problems and downloading custom wash cycles if you want to tailor the cycle to your fabrics. You won’t find that on the more modestly priced washers.

CR’s test engineers launder swatches of fabric stained with red wine and cocoa, among other things, to see how well each machine cleans, using standardized loads of laundry, and while cataloging exactly how much water and energy are used in a standard cycle. They also use scientific instruments to measure vibration and how gently the swatches were washed, and to judge noise. Finally, we incorporate brand-level data on predicted reliability and owner satisfaction from our annual survey of CR members into each model’s Overall Score. You’ll find all this and more in our comprehensive washing machine ratings.