Whirlpool 5.0 cu. ft. Smart Front Load Washer with Load & Go™ XL Plus Dispenser

I just don’t understand why they removed the ability to turn on the drum light during the cycle. I didn’t realize. I’d purchased and then returned when I figured it out. That’s one of my favorite features of a front loader is the ability to turn on the inside light during the wash cycle. They had it before and removed it on the top end model? I’ve loved my previous Whirlpools but I’m very disappointed about this. Cutting costs? Come on Whirlpool!

After my Frigidaire Gallery Series washer went kaput after 14 years, I started looking for a replacement. I wanted something a little "smarter" than what I had. My house is a split level and the laundry room is downstairs. It was hard to know when the washer was finished without setting a timer and even then it wasn't always finished when the timer went off. Wasted trips downstairs when the timer was at 1 minute but it was still doing it''s spin for 10 more minutes. Now to this unit. Overall it is nice. Lots of room. Once the installers from the appliance shop got it connected, I set out to configure the smart features. I was unable to get the washer to link with the app by scanning the QR code on the door. I had to manually setup WiFi. My WiFi password has letters and numbers in it. The keyboard has 3 levels to it, alpha, numeric and special characters (in that order). You have to switch through all of the keyboards to get back to the one you want. This was very frustrating to do. It would be nice to be able to directly select a keyboard without having to go through all of them. I eventually got it connected and started looking through the app.It seemed pretty straight forward. Next I filled the Load & Go containers, larger one with Tide detergent and the smaller one with fabric softener. This feature is nice if you are always going to do your laundry with Whatever is in L&G 1 and L&G 2. I only use fabric softener on towels and sheets (and only towels for human use). To change this you have to go into a utility menu and you have the option of disabling L&G for a container, disabling for one load or enabling. This is needed if you want to use the single load drawer, otherwise it will use both the L&G containers and what you put in the single use drawer. The smart features of the app let you setup favorites for your custom wash cycles. These wash cycles do not have settings for L&G. So when you use a custom cycle, you also have to remember to disable a L&G container (in a separate menu) if you want to use a different detergent or no fabric softener. I find this rather troubling. I use a different detergent for colors than for other things. It would be nice if I could say for a cycle for colors that L&G 1 would be disabled. Alternatively, I could put the color detergent into the smaller L&G container and just put fabric softener in there manually. This presents the problem that there is no way to tie L&G 2 to the color cycle, again you have to remember to go into a separate menu to disable a L&G container. Whirlpool, please fix this and give us the means to assign/disable L&G for our custom cycles. In general the machine is pretty quiet and does seem to do a good job of cleaning. The appearance is pleasing with a sleek look that is devoid of physical buttons or knobs on the front. Load times do seem a bit longer than my previous washer.

This is a great unit. The load and go is a great feature. It does a nice job of the clothes. The custom programs for different fabrics is also a nice feature. The only downside was not being able to connect it to our wifi network - it can’t find our network.

Wow I love this feature no need to ad cleanning product

My favorite feature is the detergent & softener dispenser....until having this I didn't know how much I wasted!