If you are looking for a top loading washing machine, I suggest spending the extra $ and getting Speed Queen. It won't be 'just like' the top loaders of yesteryear, but it will be as close as you can get now. It's good and sturdy, which are your desires. I have one, on year 4, no problems, but my model is out of production, sadly.

Not a whirlpool clothes washer owner, but I am a whirlpool dishwasher and range owner. Both are not my idea of "good" or "sturdy". My (recently kicked to the curb at just under year five) whirlpool dw needed 4 or 5 repairs in it's last year, in addition to a repair within it's first year. It did wash the dishes very well when it was not out of service, which made all of this inconvenience all the more disappointing. It's last year in my house, it was out of service as much as it was in service. It was one failure after another. Not a glowing report.

My 2 year old whirlpool range is a pos. Simple truth. Pos. Oven can not be cleaned. Can not bake anything correctly. I've done all the trouble shooting technical fidgeting and plain and simple, this is a pos appliance. The stovetop works well and as designed, but it will not clean well and looks like it lives outside in the woods.

Sorry to be a downer on this topic, but I wish I had been warned prior to making substantial debt inducing purchases of what used to be called durable goods.

Yes to Speed Queen. Mine is approx. 8 YO, the bottom of the line & now discontinued AWN412. Zero mechanical problems. (I have broken a couple of knobs--largely my fault for twisting too hard--but they could be sturdier.)

I have an old Whirlpool top loader (TL) which my clothes-washer tech said was the best and to keep hoping it never stops working. He said the newer ones are as cheaply made as the rest of them. He highly recommended Speed Queen, just as SEA SEA said above, not because they are great, but because they are better than anything else.

Pat put it succinctly. ^^^ Thanks Pat. "He highly recommended Speed Queen, just as SEA SEA said above, not because they are great, but because they are better than anything else"

What Pat said. I would only add to her sentence, "in these modern times".

It's not that my SQ washes any better than my old Whirlpools, Maytags or Kenmores from eons ago. It doesn't. I didn't even own brand new washers back then. I had hand-me-downs and bought a second hand w/d once. It just washes better than current top loaders and is built better. I view it as my full sized Tonka truck of a washing machine. That I am glad I have as I've done the present day washing machine merry-go-round already.