Originally Posted by
Tartan
I hope they still make top loading ones when I need to replace mine. I like being able to wash a quilt in mine with lots of water. The drawbacks I have heard for front loaders are: small things get sucked into the pumps, mold can grow at the doors and there have been reports of children crawling into them.
We bought a top loading HE Maytag washer in 2010 and we like it. It allows you to stop and add a garment if you want. It takes a little getting used to the smaller amount of water it uses but it does clean things fine. It also was a learning curve getting used to their definitions of the types of loads - very different from the 22-yr old washer we replaced.
I have a "hand washing" cycle that worked beautifully with wool socks and sweaters. No shrinkage. There is a "bulky" cycle that would be fine for quilts, mattress pads, etc. Oh, and my washer is much larger than my old one so no worry about big quilts either.