Hi all, The last appliances I have to order are my new washer and dryer. I find so much more conflicting information on laundry vs kitchen appliances. I am definately going to get the Whirlpool 9600 steam dryer but debating between the Whirlpool 9550 steam washer vs the 9450 non-steam washer. I just want a good washer that cleans well. I am only switching my current old stuff because I need to stack them. I like the idea of a quick steam dry to refresh work shirts/sweaters etc, and wouldn't mind the steam washer, but the feedback on the steam washer is mixed and I really want a headache-free machine. Sometimes I find it mind-blowing that you can spend 1000 bucks on a machine and not be sure if it will work well...anyway, if you can weigh in on the steam washer, would really appreciate it. Thanks :)

If you are talking about the SteamFresh Cycle... When you start the Display says 20:00 remaining, For the next 4 minutes you will hear what sounds like water boiling in a teakettle, only quietly, Then, between 4-6 minutes, the inside of the drum will become steamy, and you will not be able to see well inside the drum, as the window gets steamed up. You do not see steam shooting all over the place, like a wallpaper steamer. From the manual: Steam goes into trhe drum under its own power. It is not pumped in. I also read that it might take a couple of steam cycles to get the steam pump primed with water. The steam then only lasts a couple of minutes. The rest of the time is for the clothes to cool and tumble so no new wrinkles set in. The inside of the drum will only be warm and steamy for those short minutes between about 4-10 minutes into the cycle.

My thoughts? First - what do you want and need in a washing machine besides a strong assurance of low vibration? Do you need any special cycles? Do you often like to do hot washes? Etc, etc... A machine that may not do the wash cycles you desire, but has low vibration is just a different set of trade-offs from accepting some vibration but doing the wash as you desire. Getting the wash done to your requirements should be the primary requirement and then look for the lowest vibration. You have a second floor laundry room. With this type of setup the big questions for a HE machine are: 1) How quickly can you get hot water to the machine? 2) How hot is the water from your DHW source? Since the Samsung will only use it's internal heater when doing a sanitary cycle, the answers to the above two questions will really determine what the machine can do temperature wise. Our 2nd floor laundry room has a dedicated, insulated PEX hot feed directly from the DHW tank. I checked the other day and the hose fittings felt hot within 10 seconds of the start of flow so it's getting the hot water very quickly. With our DHW set at 131F, a hot fill at the machine was still only about 110F. The SS drum and clothing suck up a lot of energy. In a machine whose internal heater only operates in sanitary, that would be the best we could do for a hot wash. With less optimal piping, it wouldn't even be this good. If we set our DHW source to 140F, I'd guess we could get a ~115F fill. Some people don't care about, or never do hot washes. If that's the case, the Samsung or any machine with no/limited internal heater would work fine. Anyways, just a consideration thats very important to me. FYI - Whirlpool and many LG's (certainly their top of the line) will use their internal heater in a number of cycles (but not all) besides sanitary. Samsung's answer to this would be their silver care stuff. Believing in this vs. actual hotter temperatures is a leap of faith. Also have to consider the environmental and unknown nano health issues of the "Ag" approach.

If you can only afford the steam feature in one appliance, I would recommend the washer as the steam really gets stains out. Insofar as getting wrinkles out with steam in the dryerforget about it unless you have only two or three garments in the machine. IÂve used the steam feature on my dryer and all I can say is the iron companies have nothing to worry about. I thought the steam feature on the washer was a gimmick for stainsÂnot so, it really works. However, be careful to check for colorfastness; I had a set of towels I purchased from MacyÂs that I used the steam feature on and it took out the color with the stains! I can't use bleach because of a allergies and a skin condition; the steam really got my white things white again. BTW, my clothes are not as wrinkled with my FL large capacity as there were with my large capacity top loader. In fact, my husband could wear his causal clothes right out of the dryer if I werenÂt an obsessive compulsive who ironed everything before I put it away. I have the Samsung 338Âs and I LOVE them! Not only are they super quiet in my 2nd floor laundry room, but the wash features galore give this super picky obsessive compulsive housekeeper all the wash options she could possibly want. There are only 2 of us in the house; still I do about 6 loads a week, plus I wash the 3 large bathroom mats from my master bathroom once a week. IÂve used just about every combination of wash options and dry options on my machines and they performed excellently. IÂve even used the delay start time when I wanted to have a load ready to put in the dryer one morning at 6 am. If you decide to buy pedestals, it is absolutely essential that you do not allow the installers to turn your washer upside down to install the pedestals. I told them not to flip my washer and dryer at the time of purchase and they said they would not do it. Yet when they came to deliver, they flipped my dryer, and I refused delivery on it (my husband took the serial number off it to make sure they didnÂt try to send the same machine to us). The installer told me they flip the washers and dryers all the time and that as long as the shipping bolts were in it was okay to flip them. I told him it was never okay to flip a machineÂwith or without shipping bolts. When I spoke to the delivery department at LoweÂs they told me SamsungÂs rep had just paid them a visit and told them to stop flipping the washers because it throws the drum off balance and does other damage, but that it was okay to flip the dryers. I told the guy when he pays for my dryer, then he can flipÂuntil then, he ainÂt flipping nothing IÂm paying for. I then called the Operations Manager and made it clear that anything I pay for will be delivered as I specifyÂhe agreed and a new dryer was delivered. IÂve only had my machines since weÂve moved into our new home at the end of March, but so far no problems. I dry the door, rubber seal, and the soap dispenser after the final load, then leave the door ajar and the soap dispenser open to air dry. I donÂt want mold to developÂit only takes a couple of minutes of my time and I have my husband trained to do the same already so itÂs no big deal. But then again, when you suffer from OCD, not much is a big deal when it comes to housework.