I just had to replace my 15 yr old washer because I burned up the motor trying to wash something to big for the machine. The only washers out there are now HE's and I had to buy one. But thank goodness I still have the old one because I really do not like the new one at all. I've only had it 2 weeks. My biggest complaint is the noise, it sound like an helicopter waiting for takeoff. My old machine was extremely quite, very rarely knew it was on unless you were in the same area. I haven't really noticed any difference in the cleaning ability but it sure takes a lot longer to wash the clothes. Which to me uses more energy not less. I'm sure after a while of using this new machine the cleanliness of the clothes will show more. The reason I feel this way is there is NO WAY you can wash out really dirty clothes without more water so that would mean you have to run them through again or maybe even 3 times to get them clean. Simple logic here, you need water to wash away the filth, it's like trying to wash your hair with half the water, doesn't work.
So I'm in the process of trying to rebuild my old machine just so I can toss this new one out on it's butt. It sure was a waist of money, think of all the fabric I could have bought with that money. Can make a grown person cry.