I'm about 5 feet tall and have no pedestals, but hubs is 6 feet and its hard for him to get the clothes out. His 70 year old body doesn't bend like it used to. I have the LG brand, it has a pause button so you can open the door and throw in that sock you dropped. It also has a sanitize cycle which is a pre-wash in hot water only. It has several options for hot, warm, cold combos. The thing I don't like about it is that if I don't dry the inside of the washer and dry under the rubber sealing gasket it smells and mold forms.