I have a GE front loader - cannot give good reviews. It takes soooo long to do a load - an hour and 10 minutes on the 'timer' and the last 10 minutes on the timer take 30 minutes. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Have the issue with the washer getting smelly too - had the service fella in to check that and who knew - there is a 'filter' that you're supposed to empty periodically. Here's how you do that with mine - unscrew the three screws holding on the lower panel on the front of the machine. Take that panel off. Open the drawer on the riser that the machine sits on, making sure there is nothing in the drawer below the filter. Stick a pail under the filter. Unscrew the filter cover, get your hands covered with gunky water as it pours out over your hands into the pail (if you're lucky, it all goes in the pail). Take the water away, put the plug back in the filter. Put the panel back on, put the screws back in (if you can still find them). I have no idea what a person is to do if you don't get the riser - I just don't see how you would get anything under the filter - it would be right at the floor. What were the designers thinking!

I honesty prefer the the older machines. Good used Maytags and Whirlpools. I have bought new machines only to have them break down, and too costly to fix. The last one I bought cost me $150.oo and it is still going. It is now still being used by myself and my 2 neighbors, as my landlord purchased it from me to replace the washer he bought BRAND NEW just a year ago. It started walking across the floor no matter what was in it including just a thong of my neighbors. Seems the newer machines and the way it was made , it tore up the bottom of the machine in spin cycles. He paid over $1200 for that set. He is happy now and so are we with my washer. And the neighbors husband is washing his Truck Mats when he is home from the road. Probably what destroyed the other machine. But this older Maytag it keeps going and going. I always wash out the machine with some bleach and a little soap after he has used it. His Mats are God Awful dirty !!

We have a 16yr old Amana top load, extra large tub and we love it. A friend who owned an appliance retail store said to expect 6 years from a new washing machine.