Welcome to this forum, Michael.
Do you know if the vibration was caused by a faulty washer or if it was your floor not being sturdy enough for a FL?
It is very hard to predict if any kind of FL will work without problems on a non-concrete floor.

The Bosch Nexxt 800 is very similar to the 700 series it replaced. It has the additional eco-option, but that is just a software change. I don't think they changed too much else that would affect the dependability and performance. I have the 500 Plus Set and I am very pleased with it. It has a maximum spin speed of 1100 rpm and does not cause any excessive noise or vibration, but it is in my kitchen on a concrete foundation.

Most FLs in the price category of $1,000 or above (including the Whirlpool brands) did very well in the CR tests. The reliability of the newer brands and models is tough to predict.
I don't have any personal experience with Samsung or LG. Many people are very happy with theirs. You'll find bad reviews for any given brand, so don't be too scared by that. The Samsung is equipped with VRT, so it might have less vibration issues than the Duet.

I guess your best bet would be finding a store with a very liberal return policy. Choose the washer that best fits your needs in regards to features and cycles and give it a try. If another FL causes excessive vibration (after installing and leveling it correctly), you probably have a floor that is not sturdy enough to support a large capacity FL. You could try to have your floor reinforced, build a sturdy platform for the w/d or switch to an HE TL.

Good luck!

Welcome Michael,

I second what looser has posted... decide what features you are really in need of... do you want a heater that will heat on any cycle to the desired temperature and hold the temp there? Do you want steam? does color matter to you? What about stacking? do you want a cold fill for all washes, or cold and hot water lines? and on and on... and hten narrow your choices based on that...

Each brand out there has good and bad comments to be found on this site and other ones too. Find what you personally decide you want and need, then which machine(s) you like, and then see how well they are serviced in your area...

once you decide, babysit the installers... get to know the installation requirements ahead of the installers arriving (most manufacturers web sites will have installation instructions posted).... make sure the installers do their job properly.. have your own level handy... and make sure you know ahead of time that the store will take them back if there is a vibration problem, or any other serious problem....

Personally, I have the bosch 500 series set, installed tiling on the second floor, about dead center of my ~18 year old house... I'm happy with it... would I be just as hapy with another machine? who knows, but at this point it doesn't matter to me... what matters is I do NOT have buyers remorse over the choice I made...

Good luck and let us know what you decide....

"...know the installation requirements ahead of the installers arriving..."

Ditto that! And make proper installation part of the deal at the time of the sale. Make sure the salesperson knows you know. Careless installs are one of the most-frequent complaints and (IMHO) one of the reasons many machines get blamed for poor performance.

FWIW, I have Duet9400...2 1/2 trouble-free years. Bosch would have been second choice if the vendor wouldn't deal.

First, I'd like to say thanks to all who posted a response, I really appreciate it. Next, I'd like to answer some of the questions that a few of you asked. My house is brand new so the i-beams that support the floor along with the hefty sub-floor should be sufficient enough to handle a FL. As far as the other options that we are interested in. I'm not exactly sure about the water heater thing warming the water on each cycle and holding it there. I'm pretty sure my Whrlpl had the internal water heater becse it had the sanitary cycle. Not sure what the benefits are of having an internal water heater when we usually wash on cold anyway. Also, I noticed yesterday when we went to look at the Bosch series that they do not offer any colors at this point for the 800 series. Just plain white and then white w/platinum doors (mostly white, so not really a different color if you ask me). Originally I would have liked to have a stainless look for the entire machine but I think I need to go back to performance, reliability, and noise factor at this point. As far as stacking, not really an option for us. We did not have our previous Whrlpl machines stacked and if I did decide to stack them I would have to build some kind of cover or enclosed chamber for the dryer line or else you would see it coming down and over along the bottom of the wall to go outside since stacking was not thought of when building the house we had separate accommodations for each machine (also moving the electric for the dryer). I know that I should not be looking at just comments from different sites but it would be nice to find a set that had 100 posts from customers and rated 4.5 out of 5.0 or even 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. That would definitely make me feel better and give me the impression that I'm making the right decision going with that brand. We were kind of interested in the LG steam option, although I'm not real sure when exactly we would use it. We do not go to the dry-cleaners that often so not sure if it would be beneficial at this point. The sales guy last night stated that a new Whrlpl model is coming out very soon w/a steam option. But like I said, I'm not sure what if any benefit that would be for us.

I heard a few of you discuss "knowing the installation procedure". Well I'm not really an experience person at installing a washer/dryer set so I'm guessing someone could pull something over on me with little effort. Can anyone provide me with details on what exactly I can do and look for to be prepared when someone comes to install washer/dryer set?

By the way, the sale guy last night stated that Bosch Nexxt series were known for their quiet operation. Does anyone have anything they can add in reference to when it start spinning during the wash cycle. Is it quiet from beginning to end, does it start moving a bit and then as it gets balanced does it calm down, or is it comparable to every other FL that is out there when it spins (looks to me that they are out of control some of the time).

Thanks to everyone once again,
Michael

Michael,
I will try to address some of your additional concerns/questions.

First off, it is not recommended to wash everything on the cold cycle. There is a risk that your washer might develop a mildew problem and in addition to that it can cause a builup of detergent and softener residues on the outer drum. Besides, the cleaning performance will be better using the warmer cycles. The "warm/cotton" setting on my Nexxt 500 plus is just 90F, the vast majority of clothes can be washed on that cycle. I was surprised that even at that relatively cool temperature it does a great job at cleaning. Ocasionally, you should do a hot or sanitary wash to keep the washer clean. I use the 150°F or sanitary cycle for dish towels, dish rags and the like.

It is very unlikely that you'll find any machine that has 100% satisfied users. If you read all the bad reviews you'll find that a lot of the problems people report are caused by not following the instructions in the user manual. Many people just assume that they can use a FL the same way as they used a TL and that leads to overdosing detergents, not using HE detergent, and possibly not leaving the door open. Then you have the complaints about longer cycle times or not using enough water to get things clean...
A lot of the vibration problems are due to installation errors. Sometimes the installers don't even remove the shipping bolts that hold the drum in place. Of course the machine can't work properly like that. It is also important that the washer is leveled and the feet are equally weighted and locked in place. It is possible that you'll have to make some adjustments to the leveling every so often to prevent vibration issues. The installation guys are usually pretty lazy when it comes to leveling the washer. They are supposed to run a cycle, but of course they'll do that without any clothes in the washer. Most washers don't have vibration problems when they are empty...

My Nexxt washer is indeed very quiet. If the load is unbalanced you can hear a little knocking noise and it will try for quite a while to get the load balanced. It will start spinning, then realize that it is not balanced, slow down again and tumble a few times, then spin again and so on. So far, it occured just once when my SIL just stuffed her clothes into the drum. I normally load it one piece (or a few small pieces) at a time and it doesn't have any problems balancing the load then. Even with the unbalanced load the washer itself does not move. It vibrates a little bit when it shifts to the high spin speed. My daughter loves putting her hand against the washer when it spins. She says "It tickles". It really isn't more vibration than a tickle. You can hear the washer while it is spinning, but it is not that loud. My washer is located in my kitchen which is open to the dining and living room. You can watch TV without turning up the volume. I don't know how noisy it would be on a wooden floor though.

Like I said, I am not sure about the wooden floor. Other than that, I can wholeheartedly recommend a Bosch Nexxt washer.

I have seen the new Whirlpool steam machines you mentioned. They are very nice looking. I think they are priced around 1200 for the dryer and a bit more for the washer. So many choices!

I know you are not interested in repeating with Whirlpool and I don't know if you only want a frontloader, but I must tell you that I LOVE my Whirlpool Cabrio. It is a top loader but does not have an agitator. I did a lot of research before purchasing this because I thought I wanted a front loader but kept running into a lot of negatives, so this ended up being my choice. No complaints whatsoever.

Hello all, just wanted to post a follow-up on my new w/d set. Lowes replaced my Whirlpool Duet w/d just this past week. My wife and I picked out the Bosch 800 Nexxt Series. The unit themselves looks nice but once again we are not as pleased as I thought we would be with a new set. As you will see from my previous post, we had a problem with the washer shaking violently and moving all over the place knocking into the wall etc. So to deter that from happening this time, we put down a rubber rug mat first and then an area rug on top of that so that the washer would be less likely to walk when in the spin cycle. Well here are the facts, the washer and dryer are both level (I check with a level myself both side to side and front to back) and when it enters the spin cycle it seems like on low to medium spin it is just unbelievable the amount that it shakes. You can here the thing vibrating the floor and walls of the house from any room on the bottom floor. Although I must say when it finally reaches the highest point of the spin it settles out and just moves a very little. So my biggest issue is getting to the high rate of spin when it gets there it is just fine. I read a lot of other posts and people were talking about loading one piece of clothing at a time to balance out the load. Usually we just throw a handful of clothes in a time and don't worry about it. I certainly don't think you should have to take sock by sock, shirt by shirt, etc and load the machine but maybe you do. Then I thought the drum might not be balanced but not sure what the liklihood of that is since it's a new machine. As soon as we did our first load and noticed the erratic shaking on low to medium, my wife and I just looked at each other and said oh no not again. We are really seriously beginning to think that no front loader out there is going to be right for us because of the way they shake when spinning. I think if I had it to do all over instead of going with another front loading model we would have went back to top loading, I just can't take all the racket. Now we are thinking about making provisions to just do clothes when we don't have company or setting the delay and having it wash while we sleep. It's a shame you have to do that with such expensive equipment.

The only other issue that we had was with the new dryer. We kept getting the error of clean lint filter. After cleaning the lint filter 5 times during one dry cycle, I decided to contact Bosch to see if they had any suggestions. The lady advised me that my exhaust hose might be bunched up causing the machine to get warm thinking that lint is clogging up the filter. So I looked back behind the dryer and it was pretty warm back there and the hose might have been a little bound up but nothing to where I thought it should cause any issues. I wanted to leave a decent amount of length to the exhaust hose just because it makes it easier to pull out the dryer if you need to without disconnecting the hose because you have plenty of length. So as a work around or potential fix, my wife and I slid the dryer out a little from the wall to ensure that the exhaust hose was not being bound up or crunch up at all and I just completed a full load without any error messages claiming that the lint filter needs to be cleaned so I guess we are on the right track.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments about either situation/example, please let me know.

Thanks for all your help,
Michael

Hi M1chael,
After much research on new machines, I settled on the Fisher and Paykel Aquasmart washer WL26CW2 and matching dryer, the Aerosmart DE27CW1. They are TL HE machines, with a top spin of 1,000 RPM. They are not on the top of the list at Consumer Reports, but they are the best according to real-world reviews by real people at Consumer Reports. They don't seem to have the drawbacks of FL's, yet are HE machines that look to be very, very well designed. They may (or may not) be what you're needing. As always, good luck!
kcred

Michael...

First, the dryer... GET RID OF THAT FLEXIBLE HOSE, put in a rigid piece of piping that is in the right spot to just slide the machine in and out... Yes it will take a bit of time to get the pipe in the 'right' spot, and at least in my case a couple of small "wedges" of wood to hold that pipe in place... sort of permanent like...

On to the washer... I understand the rubber mat under the washer and know many have that, but what's with the throw rug under there too? Personally I'm thinking the two "soft" things under that heavy machine are giving the machine a non solid floor that flexes and helps it to vibrate... I think I would take them both out, put the machine on the floor itself and make sure it's level all around and see what happens then.

Personally I have the bosch 500 set, and mine are on a second floor with negligible vibration... tile floor in a bath closet...

good luck...
Jane

Michael,

I have the Bosch 500 Plus series W/D and have no vibration issues with them whatsoever. However, be forewarned that my Lowe's delivery team did a very very poor job of installation. They didn't use a level but only pulled on leg down, rocked the machine and said, "There ya go." That's the short short version, but they didn't level the machine nor engaged the lock washers on each foot, what a joke!!

I got out a level and the bubble was just not a little off, but the bubble didn't reach the center at all. Word of caution, do not use FL machines until you have personally inspected them with a level. I further suspect many people are using FL machines that have never been leveled properly and wear out the units or it causes damage.

I have had nothing but success from my Bosch units.

Keep us posted,
Matt
Spfld, IL.

I really like the Fisher and Paykel GW11 washer. The diverter valve recently went out. So that week I did my laundry at my next door neighbor's house, whom I'd given my old front loading set.

The F&P is far superior to the front loaders. I think it does an excellent job of cleaning and seems gentle to the clothes. The spin cycle is noisy, but not much more than any other machine I've ever owned. The spin cycle is superior, I think partly due to the drum design. I especially like that it is a top loader. The wash and dry time of a "normal" load of clothes in my F&P and unmatched gas dryer is much less than the matched front loaders.

If you're wanting a silent washer this isn't it. It makes interesting sounds so we keep the laundry door closed; my canaries sing up a storm if the door is open. It plays and makes beeping noises reminiscent of a harp glissando. I think the feature can be turned off. I personally like it a lot As a washer I highly recommend it.
-Hal

M1chael: "I will first advise you briefly about my experiences with my current set (Whrlpl Duet). Received first set back in Sept '06 and washer began vibrating like I have never seen before in my life. After calling, calling, and more calling, finally spoke with executive customer service person and exchanged for brand new washer in July '07 (dryer worked fine so now have a non-matching set)."

Michael, how did you get in contact with executive customer service? I'm having a suspension system problem with a Maytag Epic (Duet sister machine) that has been declared unrepairable, and they are putting me through he** to replace it.