The new washers that swish is the greatest for washing fabric. No raveling. I have a handwash cycle and I can wash precuts with no mishaping or raveling. If you wash oily, dirty, stained clothes I wouldn't recommend it. But for everyday laundry no agitating will keep your clothes looking new longer. Mine is a top loader, I wanted to be able to open the lid while washing to check if my quilting fabric was bleeding or not. It uses as much water as you set it too. From auto by weight or by volume. I use the detergent pods and just toss one in per load. I don't wash more then a small load. I don't like having a big load of laundry to deal with at one time. Just makes me go agggggg to see a big load of laundry to fold and put up. Life is too short to have agggggg in it.