In my opinion, the steam clean (not 'wash') feature is just to remove wrinkles on clean clothing. It's not to be used for traditional clothes laundering. It's a marketing gimmick more than anything. Think about it: how can you possibly remove dirt and particles by simply rotating clothes in a cloud of detergent-free hot water vapor?

I think it's a gimmick, personally. When you're washing clothes, they are sopping wet, so you'd need to blast them with an awfully high steam pressure to make any difference. The LG doesn't have much steam pressure -- it's probably no stronger than what you'd see on a humidifier.

As far as "freshening" your laundry, I don't understand that one either. Steam may release wrinkles, but you end up with wet clothes that then have to be dried again. Why not just throw your wrinkled clothes in the dryer with a wet towel? Works for me.

The TROMM has two steam functions. One adds steam to the normal wash cycle and the other just steams clothes, but does not wash them.

The Steam wash cycle is not steam only. The normal wash water is in there too. And, no, you will not see enough steam to pull the wallpaper off your walls. That said, however, it does assist in removing stains, and the clothes do come out very nice and clean.

The other cycle just does a short, maybe 10-15 minutes, steaming of the garments you have put in the washer. (You tell it how many garments you put in, and it figures out the time needed.) It does not use any water, just steam. The clothes come out slightly damp, and you hang them to dry. It is designed for that time in the morning where you find out that the shirt you want to wear is clean, but all wrinkled. You put it in the TROMM Steam for 10 minutes, and then hang it for 10 minutes to dry. They do not come out wet, just slightly damp. The entire process, start to finish, is maybe 20 minutes. So, you do this prior to your shower in the morning, and by the time you are done, the clothes are wearable, sans wrinkles. The fashion/Garment industry has been using steam for years to remove wrinkles. Why? Because it works.

Both of these cycles work. My wife just used the Steam de-wrinkler yesterday morning, and was pleased that she did not have to spend her time ironing the shirts. And it was all done while she was getting ready in the morning.

Not a gimmick, in my opinion. I am glad I spent the few dollars more for these additional conveniences. That's what the washer originally was anyway, a convenience, right? This is just one more tool. I give LG credit for coming up with something rather unique and useful.

When you use a household steam cleaner like a Ladybug you get amazed at how much just hot water vapor can do without any chemicals. You usually shoot the concentrated water vapor (higher temp than just boiling hot) through a towel and then blot or rub in a gentle way. The ick then transfers to the towel. Just shooting hot vapor at something doesn't do much in itself. Obviously this is *much* different than what the LG is providing to the clothing. It sounds like the wrinkle release feature of the LG has some value, but it's hard to imagine that using steam as a supplemental cleaning agent can do much beyond what the standard wash is doing anyways. Sounds like a good project for someone like Consumer Reports to check out if their marketing claims have any merit.

Rather than buy a washer with steam, my wife purchased the Whirlpool Fabric Freshener. It looks like a pop-up dressing room that you hang your clothes in while they are steamed and then dried. I'm a skeptic by nature but I have to say the thing works. No, it doesn't get out stains, wax your car, or perform any other miracles. What it does is remove odors such as cigarette smoke and remove wrinkles from clothes when they come out of the closet. This allows the DW to wear an item more than once before sending it to the dry cleaner.

So the concept behind steaming clothes to remove odors is valid. Just don't expect that expensive steam-washer to replace your dry cleaner.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fabric Freshener

You are right in that this should be a good project for Consumer Reports. (Although, I don't think CR is as unbiased and unagenda-driven as they once were in the seventies.) In a sense, we are the new Consumer Reports, here in this forum.

You are also right- Just shooting steam at something doesn't do much in itself. However, add to that a receiving medium (water) and friction (tumbling action) and you might have something. I find it odd that all who seem to poo poo the Steam-Wash function of the TROMM either don't own one, or have never used one. Practical experience beats theoretical any day.

In short, I own one, and I use one. A lot. Maybe it doesn't do much more than the wash itself, maybe it does. However, I have yet to be disappointed. That's meaningful to me and my household. I'm sorry to disagree, but what alse can I say? I can see the results.

The utility of hanging clothes in steam to remove wrinkles is very very old, and easy to verify at home - just hang your clothing in the lavatory while you take a shower.

I don't think anyone has said that it wouldn't be a nice feature on a machine; it is just clearly secondary to the basic functionality. There are many features that fall into this category. For example, sshrivastava's washing machine can wash at temperatures up to 200F; while there are very very few loads that really need such a hot wash, when it is useful nothing else will do. Whether this (or any other secondary feature) is more important than any other secondary feature depends on individual needs. - DR

sr712,

turn on soapbox-

I agree with you regarding CR. I'm not so sure they have agenda's per se, but they test and rank using a set of criteria that may be different from what others prefer. Almost universally I find myself questioning their judgment when it's an item where I am an enthusiast of that category. Overall they don't seem to rank "build quality" or "useful service life" as an important factor. Granted these are somewhat subjective, and difficult to measure. In some measure I'd rather they gave these factors higher weight, and we might find more items being built that lasted longer. Filling landfills with a washing machine every 5 to 8 years or a domestic hot water heater every 5 or 6 years seems very wasteful and environmentally unsound.

turn off soapbox-

Since you have one of these machines, why don't you do a CR style test and let us know how it turns out. Do something like get some fabric of different types and pre-stain them in a consistent way. Then wash a weight measured load with and without steam. It would be interesting to see the results. From an LG sales viewpoint, have they shown any compelling demos that highlight the advantages of steam being injected into a wash cycle?

We originally bought the LG TROMM washer & dryer because we hoped to save money on dry-cleaning by using the steam cleaning feature. Naturally we were disappointed to read in the manual that we shouldn't steam clean cottons, silks, etc. Exactly the things we wanted to clean!

After reading this thread, we tried steaming several all-cotton shirts, a cheap silk shirt, and a pair of blue jeans. Nothing was damaged, and since these things weren't particularly dirty (worn once in an office environment), they didn't need much cleaning. We are happy with the results, and expect to cut the dry-cleaning bill in half (at least!). In addition, we think our normal-wash clothes will last longer if the steaming will reduce the amount of time they spend tumbling in the washer and the dryer.

We also tried washing some stained white cotton T-shits with the "sanitary" cycle with steam. We also threw in a cup of Oxyclean. The results were great- everything came out looking like new.

The extra hot cycle uses more energy than the other settings, but it doesn't need to be used every time white cottons are washed.

The extra hot cycle uses more energy than the other settings

I wouldn't worry too much about this. The LG has a 1KW element; even if it ran at full blast for an hour when you do a sanitary load (which it doesn't), you are only using 1 kwh of electricity, which isn't very much (check your utility rates).

The way one actually uses an HE machine has very little effect on energy use compared to the impact of buying the machine in the first place. - DR

"The way one actually uses an HE machine has very little effect on energy use compared to the impact of buying the machine in the first place. - DR"

:-) Very true. Given the cost of this thing, we have to economize where possible. I'm still amazed at $15 t-shirts, so washers in excess of $1000 floor me! Aren't these products from Asia supposed to be savings us money?

I just upgraded to the 2487 (steam) in Cherry. The steam wash feature is magnificent! The clothes were brighter and to my surprise fluffier. It is funny that the folks that dont own these machines have the most to say especially negative. I can appreciate the good features on some of the other fl's, it's too bad others can't do the same.

ihalsema, I steam my cotton and it works just fine.