Whirlpool WTW7120HC Top-loading Washing Machine Review

At first glance, the Whirlpool WTW7120HC is a pretty standard-looking washer with a few flourishes. It has its controls along its back panel, a top-load design with a see-through lid, and a door that opens into a typical drum with a three-paddled impeller at the bottom for agitation.

Where the WTW7120HC diverges from other washers is in its control scheme. Instead of a traditional cycle-selection dial, it asks that you select an option in two categories: “What to wash” and “How to wash.” Each category has six different options, yielding 36 total cycles.

About the Whirlpool WTW7120HC washing machine

Dimensions: 43.5” x 27.25” x 27.88” (H x W x D) Capacity: 5.3 cubic feet Finishes: White, chrome shadow ($100 extra) Cycles: “What to wash” options—Regular, Delicates, Bulky Items, White, Colors, Towels; “How to wash” options—Normal, Wrinkle Control, Heavy Duty, Sanitize, Cold Wash, Quick Cycle options: Remote Start, Deep Water, Spin Speed, Temperature, Soil Level, Delay Start, Pre-soak, Extra Rinse, Drain & Spin, Rinse & Spin, Self-clean, Favorite Matching dryer: Whirlpool WED7120HW User manual: Whirlpool WTW7120HC manual

What we like

Its cleaning performance doesn't disappoint the average user

While it’s not breaking any records in stain-busting, the Whirlpool WTW7120HC does a decent job cleaning clothes. On every cycle we tested the WTW7120HC’s results were on par with the average washing machine.

It did the best job getting rid of stains like oils and blood, though it did struggle a little bit with red wine and cocoa. Be extra careful when making s'mores.

The pretreat station streamlines stain-fighting

The WTW7120HC has a built-in, dual-temperature faucet and pretreat brush, which you can use to put a dent in tough stains before you run a cycle.

While the integrated faucet has been making its way onto more and more washers recently (like the Samsung WA50R5400AV), the included brush is a neat addition we haven't seen before. You can fill up the brush with soap so it's always ready to go whenever you need to put a little elbow grease into a tough stain.

While this is not going to be a feature you use constantly, having the faucet and brush right there will certainly help make the process easier (and maybe even remind you to do it).

Pretreating is important, because you really want to get stains out before you toss your laundry in the dryer—at that point, the stains get more or less baked in and become a lot harder to remove.

It wrings out water so your dryer won't have to work so hard

Again, this is an area of performance where the WTW7120HC performs more or less to expectation. It was able to wring out an average amount of water from clothes across all cycles we tested, falling within 2% of the average washer’s performance.

This means you won't end a cycle with overly-soggy laundry. While some washers can spin out even more water, the WTW7120HC still does a reasonable job here.

You want your clothes to be as dry as possible coming out of your washer because it takes your dryer significantly more energy to do the same work. The WTW7120HC’s performance here ensures that the job of drying is more evenly distributed between your washer and dryer, increasing the longevity of both appliances.

What we don’t like

The smart features eventually require a subscription

This one has us scratching our heads.

For the first six months you own the WTW7120HC, Whirlpool offers you its app and WiFi features for free, but after this time, you need to pay a $1 per month fee, which isn't much, but can add up over the lifespan of the machine.

As far as we can tell, Whirlpool is the only major appliance company charging for an its smart features, and we are not fans.

While we do like some of the app-enabled features, like remote start and the ability to receive notifications when a cycle completes, we’re not sure it’s worth paying extra.

The delicates cycle … isn’t delicate

Washers can be hard on your clothes, depending on their design. The more clothes twist and tug during a cycle, the more the threads get pulled, which weakens the fabric over time.

We measure this wear and tear by using mechanical action strips during our test cycles. These strips let us examine how many threads are getting pulled loose by the washer’s agitation.

While we found this washer’s normal cycle equivalent—Regular + Normal—to have average gentleness, its delicates cycle—Delicates + Normal—was much more harsh than we would have expected. Based on the number of threads pulled on the mechanical action strips, the delicates cycle was 72% less gentle on clothes than the average delicates cycle. In fact, this is actually 10% rougher on clothes than the regular cycle.

What owners are saying

Owners are generally happy with their Whirlpool WTW7120HC, awarding it an average of 4.2 out of 5 stars across major retailers.

Owners cite the machine’s effective cleaning most frequently, but most positive reviews tend to be vague in their praise.

Negative reviews are largely from people who have received lemons and those who find the controls to be unintuitive.

Warranty

Whirlpool offers a standard one-year warranty for parts and labor. This is the basic industry warranty, and should cover any lemons. This being said, other manufacturers, like Maytag, will guarantee certain key components for up to a decade.

Should you buy the Whirlpool WTW7120HC?

Maybe.

The WTW7120HC has the performance results to make it a good pick, but at its current price it isn’t necessarily the best value. If you like this washer and its features, it’s not a bad buy—especially if it’s on sale—but you can just find washers with better performance at this price point.

For example, for about $200 more you can get the Electrolux EFLS627UTT , the best washing machine we’ve reviewed to date. For around the same price, you can get the LG WM3700HWA, which doesn’t have the WTW7120HC’s pretreat faucet, but does have much better cleaning capabilities.

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.