By Kang Gahui and Lee Hana

In the midst of a safeguard investigation being conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) into washing machines made by Samsung and LG Electronics, aimed at determining whether or not these products hurt their U.S. rivals, local U.S. consumers have been praising Korean home appliances.

This month, a number of product review sites based in the U.S. announced that consumers have rated the latest washers made by Samsung and LG as some of the best products of the year.

The Sweethome, a product review website owned by The New York Times, published a "best of" list titled "The Best Washer and Dryer" on Oct. 9, and announced that LG's WM3770HWA was their pick for the "best front-loading washer for most people." Samsung's WF42H5000AW, "a cheaper front-loader," was selected as the "budget pick."

The Sweethome described the LG WM3770HWA as an "effective, versatile, efficient washing machine with a useful set of features and quiet-enough operation, from a brand with a great track record for reliability."

The Samsung WF42H5000AW was described as having "all the benefits of a front-loader, for hundreds less than our top picks."



Digital Trends, another U.S. product review website, chose the Samsung FlexWash and FlexDry Laundry System as the winner of its "home care" category, part of its Digital Trends 2017 Home Awards.

It described the Samsung appliance as "giving us the answer in the form of flexibility we need," as the washing machine has "simultaneously both large capacity and small capacity" with dual chambers for big and small loads.

The same washing machine was also listed as the product with the "Best Overall Versatility" on Digital Trends' list of "The best washing machines that make laundry day a little less of a chore," on Oct. 12.

Thanks to these favorable reviews, four Samsung and two LG washers now sit on Best Buy's "Best-selling Washing Machines" top-10 list. All of these products have received a score of 4.6 or more out of 5.0 from users.

Meanwhile, a group of Korean government officials attended an ITC hearing regarding the safeguard investigation on Oct. 19 in Washington, D.C. It protested the decision that foreign washing machines imported to the U.S. are damaging the industry.

Referring to the preliminary announcement made by the ITC on Oct. 5, which stated that U.S. washing machine manufacturers are being harmed by imports from Korea, the officials stressed that Korean products should, in fact, be exempt from such regulations.

Furthermore, they also emphasized that this kind of action, which would restrict the import of premium washers and related parts, will severely hurt the breadth of choice for U.S. consumers.

kgh89@korea.kr