HE Front End Washer vibrations on wood floors: any tried-and-true solutions?

Question

We recently purchased a new washer and dryer set. It's a High Efficiency front loader washer with the high speed spin cycles.

It's causing us grief. It vibrates like crazy. To the point where it's walking across the floor and you can feel it throughout much of the first floor.

I've 'tuned' the feet to make sure it's perfectly level, and it helps, but is not a cure-all.

There seems to be a lot of chatter online and theories, though I have yet to find anything definitive (maybe I'm adding to the chatter...)

Questions:

• is it true these really should only be purchased if used on concrete slabs? Seems that's a common statement about these HE washers.
• is there a tried-and-true way to beef up the floor? Seems that one solution is to rip out the hardwood and then glue-and-screw two layers of high quality sub-floor products together. Then add lots of cross-bracing to the joists underneath. However, I still read that this doesn't fix all situations. And given how much work that'd be, I'd like to be a bit more confident in the solution before beginning.
• we have a plastic 'leak pan' underneath that the feet sit on. Should I omit this? This is obviously an easy thing to try so will probably give it a go--though we do end up losing the (albeit small) benefit of having the leak pan.
• or should I just give up and see if Home Depot will allow a return and swap it out for a lower efficiency top-loader?

Note I have researched the rubber pads. However, my own experience with them previously (on a top loader) and feedback from plenty of people online is that they really don't do much, if anything.

Answer 1

After spending several hours researching, there still appears to be little consensus on this topic. But here is a summary of potential solutions.

The Problem

But first, the problem: the issue with High Efficiency Front loaders is that the vibrations are vertical. The drum spins horizontally so the vibration is all in an up-and-down motion. It's also incredibly high speed. The problem is that wood framed houses aren't designed to withstand the vertical vibrations of these newer washers that well. a HE top loader, while also fast, transfers the vibrations horizontally, which the floor framing of a house is better suited to handle.

The List of Possible Remedies

Get a top-loader instead.

A traditional top loader (agitator) spins, but not nearly at the same speed as a front loader. It also does it horizontally so doesn't transfer nearly the vibrations that a HE FL will.

The catch is that these are harder to find and more and more top loaders are now HE top loaders. Instead of an agitator, it uses jets of water. Reviews of HE top loaders seem to be mixed. However, there seems to be consensus that they don't clean quite as well as front loaders (a con) but that they also don't vibrate as violently as a front loader (a pro if vibration is an issue in your house).

Only put HE Front Loader washers on top of concrete slabs.

10 years ago, this was supposedly the only option. Apparently technology has improved to allow these to be installed on wood framing--however many professionals still do not recommend installing it on a second floor (as second floors tend to not be built to handle the same loads as the first floor).

Make sure the washer's feet are all level.

This is the easiest/first thing to check. I thought mine were but on careful examination I was able to improve things further by adjusting the feet. The easiest way to check this is to reach to the back of each rear corner and try shaking it towards the opposite front corner. You're are testing the diagonals to figure out if one of the corners needs to be raised. I had one ever-so-slightly out and adjusting it helped quite a bit (I suggest grabbing the rear corner is that is likely sheet metal and rigid rather than the front, which is often plastic and hard to 'feel' for wobble).

Move the appliance towards a wall/corner

The closer to a corner, the more rigid the structure may be (might be closer to a support beam, walls may add lateral rigity, etc.) I moved ours closer to the corner of the laundry closet and it seems to have helped.

Use rubber vibration feet/pads/matts

There are dozens upon dozens of companies selling anti-vibration feet. A majority of people claim that these help, but a strong majority claim it makes things worse. My (non-physics-expert-mind's) opinion is that when they do work, though you may reduce the transfer of vibration to the structure, you are likely increasing the total amount of vibration the appliance, itself, now has to absorb (reducing its lifespan).

Use pool noodles on the sides

A common youtube/facebook suggestion is to take the pool noodle foam floaties and cram one between each side of the washer. This will only work, of course, if your washer sits close enough to the wall on one side and the dryer on the other. I haven't tried this yet. My (again, non-physics-expert-mind's) theory is that this spreads the vibration load out to more planes/points of contact.

Reinforce the floor

I see many suggestions of this, but not necessarily any first-hand reports as to how succesful it is. I'm guessing it's just because it's likely a pain to deal with. The suggestions are to tear out the floor and then glue-and-screw two layers of subfloor together with a tight screw schedule. The subfloor being plywood or dedicated subfloor products.

In addition, add blocking to the joists underneath and, in extreme cases, ass a support beam/post directly under the laundry area.

My conclusion

As previously mentioned, double checking the level of the feet has helped considerably. And while I'm happy with the improvements, it still vibrates hard enough on its final spin cycle that you physically feel uncomfortable standing in front of it.

I'm now narrowing it down to two options:

1. Try a HE Top Loader. The problem is that I really do like the front loader's performance. It uses less water and cleans better that the top loaders apparently due. And because of the extreme spin cycle, we save a lot of energy with the dryer. As such, I think I'm going to...

2. ...reinforce the floor. Right now the sub floor is chipboard with hardwood flooring. Neither is all that sturdy. I'm going to take out the hardwood (bonus is that we can use this to patch parts of the kitchen later) and possibly the existing subfloor if it's not too difficult. I'm then going to glue-and-screw down one or two layers of 3/4" plywood (I may use maple ply for the top one and apply poly on top to make it a 'finished' surface). I'm also going to add blocking between the joists.

What we ultimately ended up doing

I bought a 4x6 and created a beam in the crawlspace under the washer/dryer area with two lolly columns. Alas, that still didn't seem to remedy the situation.

So, we gave up. I hired an electrician to wire up a space in the garage and I plumbed a new drain line and vent stack and we moved the entire thing into the garage onto concrete.

And things are good now. I do believe that these HE front loaders are truly only really designed for placing on concrete slabs.

The plus side is now we don't have to try and do laundry in a hallway closet.

Answer 2

Here's a simpler solution: Many HE washers have a special 'tuning' setting, where you can input the floor type. The base level assumes a very hard and non-resiliant floor, but (at least on mine), you can change it to a hardwood floor setting.

Answer 3

I live in a condo situation where relocating the laundry machines is impractical. Leveling and distributing laundry mass in the machine did not help enough.

There are 30 pound (~13.6 kg) rubber mats (now ~$105) that are advertised to address walking and vibration that work reasonably well. Mine has a handle and beveled edge, but it's basically a massive rubber mat.

I have personally tried:

1. rubber pucks only: I would not recommend. This was my starting point from the prior occupants.
2. rubber mat + plywood + rubber pucks: This is the solution suggested in reviews for the rubber mats. It does a good job of reducing vibration, but I had trouble with the pucks walking across the plywood.
3. rubber mat + plywood + rubber mat: I think this is an acceptable solution. There is still a low frequency vibration from the washer that transfers to the building when the washer drum (de)accelerates quickly. This lasts for a few seconds and happens ~6? times per load. High frequency vibration is greatly reduced relative to the pucks only, but not totally eliminated.

Sliding mats or plywood under the washer is a strong-two-person job, so I did not bother trying the rubber mat by itself based on its reviews and the marginal additional cost of plywood and the inconvenience of getting a strong friend to help.

These solutions do not address vibration of the washing machine itself, only transfer of that vibration into the building.

Starting from scratch, I would avoid a front end washer on upper wood frame floors, but if you have this situation, I recommend the rubber mat.