Best Eco-Friendly Washing Machines of 2025

Six of our Green Choice washers are front-loaders, which are among the most water-efficient machines you can buy. (They use an average of 10 gallons of water per load compared with 13 gallons for high-efficiency top-loaders and 20 gallons for top-load agitators.) Here are the top three.

Four compact front-loaders earn our Green Choice designation. Worth noting: The two top-rated models are even less expensive than other compact washers in our tests.

Seven high-efficiency (HE) top-load washing machines in CR’s ratings earn the Green Choice designation. Here are the top four options based on their Overall Score.

Two top-load agitators earn a Green Choice leaf in our ratings, but only one is CR Recommended based on its Overall Score.

CR’s Green Choice program assesses a product’s environmental impact throughout its life cycle—from its manufacture to its distribution, use, and eventual disposal. Whether a washing machine gets a Green Choice leaf is determined by factors that primarily include energy and water consumption, the amount of materials used in its manufacture, and its performance in our tests. To a lesser degree, we look at specific materials that relate to durability (such as a stainless steel drum), where it’s made, how gentle the machine is on clothes, and affordability. The length of a washer’s warranty and its reliability (based on our member surveys) is also weighed. All Green Choice washers are Energy Star certified, meaning they use 20 percent less energy and about 30 percent less water than conventional washers.

Washing machines are essential household appliances with a significant environmental footprint, so making them as efficient as possible benefits consumers. In 2024, CR supported a proposal by the Department of Energy to raise efficiency standards for more than 60 categories of home appliances and equipment, including washers. Those higher standards, scheduled to go into effect in 2028, were rolled back in February.

“When we increase the efficiency of the appliances we use every day, it means we’re using less energy, water, and other resources; so more money lands in consumers’ pockets, and there’s less demand on electrical grids and water systems,” Shanika Whitehurst, Consumer Reports’ associate director for product sustainability, research, and testing, said at the time. According to the DOE, the higher standards would have saved American households $2.2 billion per year on their utility bills while significantly cutting energy waste and harmful carbon pollution.

Fortunately, Whitehurst says, most modern, top-rated washing machines are already designed for efficiency. “There are washers and dryers available today that already meet the new efficiency standards,” she says. “But without new efficiency standards for all washing machines, manufacturers have little incentive to improve energy efficiency in lower-priced models. These lower up-front costs, which may seem appealing at first but may cost you more in operation later.”