The LG WM3500CW is a Consumer Reports Best Buy. It's control panel does appear similar to that of my LG compact dryer. It's an overstatement to say that one needs a flashlight to operate it, but the room should be reasonably well lit. You can't operate it in the dark.

The Maytag MHW8200FW was also very well rated but discontinued. CR estimates the current Maytag MHW5500FW would perform similarly.

Maytag's line is being updated. the MHW 8200 is being rerplaced with the 8630; the 5500 is being replaced with the MHW 6630 and the 3505 with the MHW5560.

Schneemaid, glad to hear that. I will be getting white in whatever I buy.

Lawrence: good to know that good lighting will take care of the issue.

Boba1: I saw that the 8200 is now the 8630. Is it the exact machine and just changed model numbers or have they changed the machine?

The 8630 isn't the exact machine. (1) It's a little bit bigger. There is no longer an Allergen cycle. The PowerWash cycle is now called Extra Power (which is an option for many cycle. This now does a cold soak period and then begins the wash cycle and begins heating up the water. The old version was a cycle unto itself and filled with warm wat4er and gradually heated the water and also did a series of various tumble patterns of various intensity The 8630 is now wifi connect and will allow downloading of additional cycles. Those are the bigger differences.

I have the Maytag 5500 series and LOVE it. If I had to choose between what your looking at I would pick Maytag hands down. My Maytag replaced a 15 year old Electrolux. I will say if the sears hometown store that was going out of business and had an Electrolux 527 or 627 machine I would have got that. I am not disappointed in our Maytag purchase though. I did get an extended warranty directly from Maytag for under 200.00 (for both the washer and dryer) to extend the current one year warranty to four years.

I have this model LG WM3997HWA, washer and dryer two in one. looove it!

it´s a little bit noisy , but I like the idea to press the button and return home to clean and dry clothes.

I have the LG front loader. It cleans good, lots of different settings, but it takes a looonnnngggg time for a lot of these settings (like the sanitary which I use for my gym clothes takes an hour and 20 minutes) and it’s definitely noisy during spin cycle. My husband says it sounds like a airplane taking off lol.

We have the LG WM4370HKA washer and DLEX4370K Dryer; no problem reading anything due to the clear lit up panels. DW loves them.

LG WM3770 and DLEX3700 dryer here, which is only available in the metallic dark gray color (very snappy looking), and I have zero issue reading the dials. They are well back-lit and clear, and I don't even have the pedestals (and my laundry room is not terribly well lit).

Truly excellent machine. With Turbowash the cycles are not much worse time-wise than my old F&P top loader, although they can get lengthy if you turn all the options to max (which heats the water to almost 160F, runs four rinses, etc.)

I think if the washer had a drum light I'd rate the machine "perfect," as that's about all I am wanting for on it. (The dryer does have a drum light).