selm

I also have top loading HE washer and I think it cleans the clothes fine.
You can control the water level somewhat as you can add a rinse to some load settings that don't have it. The washer uses water based on the weight of the clothes somehow. So less water is not necessarily a bad thing, it just takes getting used to it. My instruction book describes loads differently to the old washer terminology. If you want more water use a load type that uses more water(an example for my washer: I could use a "bulky" setting instead of "normal" or "whites" to get more water used). Of course, doing this circumvents the purpose of a High Efficiency washer. My booklet explains what each cycle does in terms of agitation, spin speed and temp of water but I can override each of those settings too. If you feel the clothes aren't clean experiment with the amount of detergent don't skimp but try not to overdo either. If I use too much detergent I notice it in the lint from the dryer(seems damper, slicker) Always use HE detergent .