
Sarah of Vancouver, BC on April 9, 2011
I purchased the Samsung washer WF210 two weeks ago. I was surprised to discover that on my new washer, the hot and warm water wash cycles actually used only very cool water. In fact, the hot water wash cycle used cold water with a little bit of hot thrown in, thereby resulting in a very cool wash temperature, instead of hot as labelled on the temperature selector.
I called 1-800-Samsung and they arranged for a service call. The repair man checked the wash cycles and water temperatures and agreed that the water was far from hot, or even warm for that matter. He had no idea of how to resolve the issue and left saying that he would need to contact Samsung technical support and would get back to me in a few days. As you can imagine, this was not a good start to the relationship with my new washer, or with Samsung.
I then called Samsung to report what had occurred and they advised me that since I was still within the 30 days of the date of purchase, the store was obligated to replace the washer with a new one at no charge, since this one was defective. I called the store and indeed they did replace the washer.
As of yesterday, I now have the second WF210 washer. Once again, the hot water wash does not function and uses mostly cold water. I then spent over an hour on the phone trying to determine the cause of this with your customer service representatives. It took an hour to make it to "Tier 3" to try to get an answer to my question. "Why is any cold water being used on a hot cycle? " It seems absurd to me. I asked them to check with Samsung's technical experts to see if this is part of the design or truly a defect in the two machines I have had. They put me on hold over and over again.
Finally, unable to provide me with a proper answer, your Tier 3 customer service rep told me that I should have researched this better before purchasing. Imagine that! Who would I research it with? Not even Samsung employees could provide me with the details I needed. Furthermore, she said that it says on the machine "hot/cold", so therefore it is correct for the hot wash to be cold. Clearly the hot/cold refers to hot wash and cold rinse. Is this the level of expertise one gets from Samsung at Tier 3- apparently the highest level of support? Can you even imagine the level of frustration that I have reached at this point?
By the way, this was now the third day I had to stay home from work to have washers delivered, to be here for a service call, to have the washer replaced, and not to mention the countless hours on the internet and on the phone with Samsung and the appliance store trying to resolve this matter.
I now have a washer that is unable to wash my laundry in a manner that is commonly expected from a clothes washer. From my subsequent internet research, there are many customers unhappy with Samsung. In fact, it is now a common belief that your washers are intentionally designed to use virtually no hot water on the hot and warm cycles to meet energy efficiency standards. So it would appear that Samsung is deceiving its customers into believing that they will have a washer that actually washes according to the temperature settings, when it fact this is not true.
The user manual that accompanies the washer specifically states on page 35 that the temperature range for hot is 105-125 degrees F and 41-52 degrees C, while warm ranges from 85-105 F and 29-41 C. I can assure you that my machine on hot does not even reach 75-80 degrees F. The normal and heavy duty cycles provide only cool wash water on the hot and warm cycles and provides less water than on the delicate cycle. Why so little water would be used for a heavy duty load and why it would be cool instead of warm or hot is beyond me. Strangely, the only cycle that produces a warm water wash with sufficient water is the delicate cycle. Yet the delicate cycle does not allow for a hot water wash selection and will only spin on low. And of course the warm rinse is actually cold. As you can see I am already trying to find work around to do my laundry with this brand new machine. For something that was invented to save women time, this machine has thrown us back to the ringer washer in terms of the time and attention needed to do laundry.
So two washers with the same problem indicate that this is a design issue. My water connectors have been checked and the the water temperature and pressure are perfectly fine. The problem is the Samsung washer. Either the washer assembly is at fault or it is the design itself that is flawed. Either way, Samsung is producing an inferior product that it is knowingly selling to customers under the guise that the washer has the ability to run a hot water wash. The company staff act as though this is a brand new problem that they have never encountered before. This is nonsense. Unfortunately, far too many people are trusting that what they purchase will function as presented and are probably unaware of this problem because they haven't checked the washer water for themselves. Most probably do not have the excessive number of hours it takes to run the cycles to check if they are functioning properly.
In addition to the lack of a hot or even lukewarm wash, the wash cycle on this machine is way too long. How a machine that can take 2-3 times as long as an old top loader can be energy efficient is perplexing. Clearly this whole energy efficient issue is one that industries are trying to capitalize on. How unfortunate when the company does not have the expertise and capacity to do it honestly. This does not result in satisfied customers, and even more importantly does not result in repeat customers. I was actually thinking of purchasing the Samsung dryer before all this, but now I am planning to return the washer and definitely will not be buying the dryer. It probably also only runs on cool. I will never buy anything from Samsung again, unless this issue can be resolved to my satisfaction. In today's world where people from across countries and continents can communicate their dissatisfaction with products in an instant over the internet, it seems prudent to me for corporations to ensure that they are selling reliable products truthfully.