We’ve been talking for a while about upgrading to an energy-efficient, front-loading washer and dryer when a great deal showed up — and it happened sooner than expected. We discovered our new pair yesterday.
While walking through Lowe’s on Saturday, we saw a sign advertising 10% off all appliances. It wasn’t a huge discount, but it was enough to lead us into the appliance section to browse. There we found an energy-efficient Whirlpool Duet washer and matching dryer marked as an in-store special for $898 for the pair (reduced from $1,198). Not earth-shattering, but attractive — and they were beautiful machines.
We already liked Whirlpool Duet front loaders — we’d used them for over three years in our previous home — and these were stackable, so they would fit perfectly in our new laundry room. We asked a salesperson whether the 10% off sign could be applied to the $898 pair, but because the sticker read “in-store special,” no additional discounts could be added. We left the store and thought that was that.
The next morning, John received an email: Energy Star washer and dryer sets over $397 each were 20% off for a limited time. Because we’d signed up for Lowe’s mailing list after moving, we got the promo. We called the store to ask whether the 20% email coupon would apply to the $898 in-store set, assuming the answer would be no — and at first, it was.
Then we checked lowes.com and noticed the very same set listed online for $399 each ($798 for the pair). It looked like John’s 20% email offer would stack with the online sale price, bringing the price down significantly. We preferred to buy in-store rather than online, so we called back and asked if the store would honor the online price plus the 20% discount for a total of $638 — and after speaking with a supervisor, they agreed.
Why the sudden willingness to match the online deal? Retail stores often have daily sales goals for each location, and they generally prefer customers to complete the purchase through the store rather than online. That helps the store’s numbers, and many stores are authorized to honor online promotions if you show the offer — especially if you’re willing to buy right away. In our case, a short call with a supervisor got us the go-ahead.
In short, we effectively bought one and got one free, saving nearly 50% on a Whirlpool Duet front-loading washer and dryer set. We’ll stack them in our laundry room to replace our older, less efficient units, which should reduce water and electricity usage significantly. Front-loading washers also offer more internal space and better functionality for the loads we do now, including cloth diapers.
According to the Energy Star label, the new set will cost about $15 per year to operate based on typical usage estimates. Because the label assumes eight loads per week and we usually do four to five loads (including Clara’s diapers), our actual annual cost will likely be closer to $9. We’re big fans of Energy Star appliances — they’re far more efficient than the older, energy- and water-hungry machines we inherited with the house.
Since our existing stackable washer and dryer are still in working condition, we don’t plan to send them to a landfill. We’ll try selling them on Craigslist while we wait for the new dryer to arrive. If nobody buys them, we’ll donate the set to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which even offers pickup service. We’ll share photos of the new machines once they arrive — possibly with Clara helping model them.
Have you scored any post-holiday appliance deals or had success getting a store to honor an online promotion? We’d love to hear your experiences.
Update: Thanks to a helpful commenter, we learned about a possible $75 rebate for purchasing an Energy Star appliance through a VA program, which would reduce our final cost further. Always worth checking for local or federal incentives when buying energy-efficient appliances!