CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
With water bills skyrocketing and much of the country facing a drought, lots of people are looking for ways to cut down on their everyday use of water.
One way is to switch to a front-loading washing machine. But there are also widespread complaints about those front-loading machines, from users like Connie Janus of Mequon, Wisconsin.
As a mother of three children, Janus said she's constantly doing laundry. A year and a half ago, she bought a front-loading washing machine. It required less water, less energy, and fit nicely in her remodeled laundry room.
"I thought it was a perfect fit, to tell you the truth," Janus said. "It was going to be what I needed."
But now, when the wash is done, she's often stuck, as she puts it, "washing her washing machine."
"There is just no way to get this mold out of this machine," Janus says, looking at the rubber seal around the front area. Her clean clothes, she says, often smell like mildew.
Janus' washing machine was made by Bosch, but attorney Julie Miller says the problem occurs in all front-loading washers. Miller is with the Complex Litigation Group of Highland Park, Ill.
"Because it's a high efficiency, the water level is low, so it doesn't ever get high enough to clean itself," Miller said. She also says front-loaders need to be tightly-sealed, and that encourages mold too.
Miller now represents thousands of front-loading owners in a class action lawsuit against the Whirlpool Corporation. Janus and her machine aren't part of that lawsuit.
In May, a federal appeals court decided the lawsuit could proceed.
"Not many people would say, I have a moldy washer, I'm going to sue somebody," Miller said. "But nothing's going to get done if we don't do something to help them."
Whirlpool denies there's a serious problem.
A spokesperson declined to go on camera, but did tell us that you can reduce the buildup and odors by leaving the washer's door open between uses, removing wet items promptly, using just the recommended amount of detergent, and following a monthly maintenance cycle.
"Less than one percent of all owners of our front load washers complain about this issue," Whirlpool said. "The Whirlpool front load washers have been and continue to be widely recognized as some of the finest washers in the industry."
The plaintiffs' lawyer says that's a lot of, well-hogwash.
"The manufacturers know that this is a problem, and they haven't told consumers on the front end before they buy these washing machines," Miller said.
The lawyers point to the recent appellate court opinion.
"To avoid alarming consumers with words like ‘mold,' ‘mildew,' ‘fungi' and ‘bacteria,' Whirlpool adopted the term ‘biofilm' in it's public statements about mold complaints," Judge Jane Stranch wrote.
"I don't know what the definition of ‘biofilm' is," Janus said. "But I can tell you, that's mold, and mold grows."
The Bosch company did not respond to our repeated inquiries about it's front-load washers.
Whirlpool added that it will continue to defend itself against these allegations, by whom they called, "contingent fee lawyers."
