I have had 2 friends retun those pretty HE front loaders on stands becasue of the noise. They attemped to rebalance them but never could get it to where they weren't loud or trying to hop across the floor.

I had the same problem with a Fler. I now have the Cabrio HE TLer which I love. I paired it with the Duet dryer because I did not like the design of the Cabrio dryer (top lint filter? No thank you!). They work great together. My Cabrio is the 6600 and it is the best washer I have ever owned. It washes great and rinses wonderfully, no detergent residue. And it is huge! It holds almost twice as much as my old TLer, which means I can do laundry only once a week if I want! You don't need to worry about leaving the door open and someone closing it as they pass through, although I do leave the lid open, it's a habit , I have done this for years. No vibration issues with the HE TLers unlike the FLers. The Cabrio goes for about $1,000 at Lowes and the Duet dryer for about the same. Good luck! If you do get an HE machine, Get the extended warranty for piece of mind. I personally reccomend Lowes, their service is great, don't go to Sears, their service has really gone down hill in recent years. This is actually the first time I bought a washer or dryer that was not a Kenmore.

Joanne

Hi there,

The Whirlpool Steam pair is probably your best bet (for the daycare reason alone), with the Cabrio running a very close 2nd place.

We service what we sell (in our store), and Whirlpool products have always been very reliable products for us.

Can they have problems? Sure....Any brand will.

However, they seem to be the best of the bunch.

As far as the "smell" issue is concerned, leave the door open a bit, for a little while, and then close it later (IF you think you need to). This is NOT as big of an issue as it once was. Many companies have fixed, or made the appropriate corrections on their machines to reduce this problem.

Hi!

I'll second the recommendation for the Cabrio. I bought my grandmother a Maytag Bravos HE TL (same machine as Cabrio) and it is a wonderful machine!! The Bravos is extremely quiet and my grandmother has no issues with vibration from it. It holds a TON, washes and rinses clothes wonderfully, and uses just the right amount of water to do it!

Other HE TL's that are worth a look based on the positive reviews from this forum are the GE Harmony (I've heard many wonderful things about this machine!) and the Fisher and Paykel machines.

However, I also followed the same protocol that Joanne discusses above and bought the extended warranty, just to be safe. Joanne is also correct in stating that Lowe's is an awesome store. I bought a small Frigidaire refrigerator that works great! Their service is wonderful!

As for FL's I think if noise and vibration are a concern for you than the Samsung VRT is worth a look. People here on this forum seem to be raving about them. Although based on your OP, depth seems to be an issue for you. I'm not sure of exact measurements but based on what I've eyeballed when I see the Samsungs at stores they look like they could be pretty deep machines and may be a tight squeeze in your laundry room. Perhaps owners of Samsung VRT's could chime in on this topic for they would know better than I.

Also worth considering is what you have already seemed to consider based on your OP which is the Whirpool Duet, Kenmore HE5t and Maytag Epic, steam or no steam. I believe the Duet/HE5t/Epic suspension system is improved from previous models therefore reducing the risk of vibration while on full speed spin. Others here seem to be happy with these machines as well, however the same exact depth issues that I stated for the Samsung VRT also go for these machines as well.

Here is a link to the opening page of the Maytag website. The Bravos is plasterd all over it. It also has info on the Bravos' matching steam dryer since it seems you are interested in the steam option. The Bravos was the #1 TL in Consumer Reports, I believe, not that that really means much nowadays since Consumer Reports and their recommendations seem to suck, but just thought I'd mention it since I myself feel it it a good machine (maybe CR actually got it right this time). Just my 2 cents!

Good luck! Let us know what you finally decide to purchase! :o)

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: Maytag website

I got the 6700 HE Cabrio installed today. It is the lastest model that uses maximum 20 gallons with a full load. I have a FL HE3T Elite sitting in the garage smelling it up lol. I ran the affresh 1 tab and have been leaving the door open. Im in Redding, Calif and it's low humidity 10-30%. The FL vibrated way too much for us. IF YOU HAVE A CONCRETE SLAB I would recommend a FL and learn to keep the smell out. I Wonder how we put up with it for almost 4 years, but the laundry room was well insulated and a solid core door. Any way my friend just got the new LG's FL and he says it's common wall to his kitchen and it will vibrate the kitchen cabinet doors. (he's on a raised wood floor as well)

We used the cabrio for it's 1st load this night and i could not hear it outside the room and my wife would go in and watch it and said at the spin it did not move. Clothes look fine, i think it does not handle lint as well as a FL, but i'm on a septic system and rather would have to remove it from the dryer lint catcher than go down the drain as it did in the FL and into my leech field.

The 6600 cabrio was number one in Consumer Reports but that model, although HE it is not an efficient water user. The 6700 does make it as a water saver.
I bought washer only and it was $800. I think it's typically 100 more but if you talk to them or catch a sale you can get it for $800.

Good Luck!

I have the GE Harmony, which is an HE TL without the traditional agitator so it has lots of room. I'm not a fan of FL's so I was really happy to find the Harmony. We have six people in our family so I spend ALOT of time doing laundry. It holds quite a bit and I'm very pleased with it's performance. I'd buy another one in a sec.

With a font loader, you don't need to leave the door all the way open, just don't snap it completely closed. I also live in Idaho, and have had no problems with any odor in my front loader. I purchased the Bosh Nexxt 500 pair because they were large and had the sanitary cycle to disinfect the really dirty laundry, something to consider with a daycare. Also, as you know, Idaho water temperature is quite cold and Bosch is the only one that I know uses its internal heater to ensure you get the water temperature you want in ALL cycles. An internal heater is pretty important on new machines that use less water than older models.

Look, get a Fisher-Paykel for $500 to $700. Get a Whirlpook dryer with the moisture sensor to dry with.

Then take the $2,000 you save and put it in an education account for your children or grand-children, or toward your retirement.

The above pair will do everything you need.

I'm curious to as what you went with, our dryer is on the way out and I need a new pair too, I'm leaning towards the bosch 500 washer but was concerned when I saw somewhere that your not supposed to use bleach, is this true? The 300 series had the bleach checked off but the 500 and 800 didn't, can someone who has one clue me in on this.
Thanks in advance.

My Bosch 500 has a bleach dispenser and a bleach button that adds more time to the first rinse if you are using bleach.

In response to rmol64, and anyone else who may be interested, we ended up purchasing the Whirlpool 9600 Steam Washer and Dryer pair.

Here was the thought process:
1. After shopping around, and talking with a few friends, I decided to stick go with the FL Washer. The benefits seem great, and will definately be heads-and-shoulders better than our 20-year-old-Kenmores. I think the "smell" issue can be dealt with effectively by keeping the door open, and cleaning as directed by all the mfgrs. Also, I convinced myself that the FL washers would fit fine in our "pass through" laundry room.

2. Based upon recommendations from friends, on-line reviews, and opinions on this forum and others, I narrowed the choice down to Whirlpool, LG, and Bosch. I was disappointed that there was no clear "leader" in the quality/reliability perspective department. There are plenty of people who have these brands and love them, and there are plenty of horror stories from owners and service people for these brands too.

3. We ended up choosing the Whirlpool 9600's over the others for a couple of reasons... The Bosch units had less capacity. Both salesman we spoke to said that the LGs are somewhat less stable in some homes, particularly on the 2nd floor (or higher), which is a concern to me, since I don't think our house construction is super great. I was able to see a live demo of Whirlpool, and they were very quite and stable. Supposedly, the Whirlpool suspension is better than the LG, from what the salespeople told us. Lastly, I know that Whirlpool has good support in our area, and I'm not sure about LG. I've heard so much about problems with LG's service and support, I didn't want to have to worry about it, since service calls seem to be a way of life anymore with these sorts of appliances.

4. Even though we like the storage and positioning aspects of the pedistals, we decided to not get them. This was because several people were in agreement that the pedistals can tend to make the units a bit more unstable, noisy, and virbrate the house. I'd hate to spend the extra $$$ only to find out that our laundry room floor acts like a drum tuned to just the right resonnant frequency of the washer/dryer and have dancing appliances in my house! That would just be my luck!

We did decide to get the extended warranty, which is something I almost never get. It just seems that washer/drier problems will crop up, so what the heck.

So that's the story of what we decided. We havn't received the units yet, because our laundry room needs to be repaired before the appliances can get installed. :-)

I'm pretty sure we are going to go with the Bosch 300 or 500 series, I don't understand why you are saying that the Bosch has less capacity, they are the same, 4.0. I'm leary of the steam, and can't justify the extra money. For 799 and 999 on the Bosch I don't think I will be unhappy, also with talking to others and sales people it's hard to justify the extra money on the dryers there are plenty out there for $450 and the dryers really haven't changed much. I'm also going to go with the warranty, Lowes has a great deal $150 for an additional 4 years, so the Bosch unit will have a 6 year warranty.

I'm sure we will both be happy with our purchase, there is really so many different ones out there I'm really glad there are places like this forum that can help with some of the decision making!