"Miele W1, Miele Little Giants or Miele Professional will all provide proper heating of the water to the temp selected. No need to set house common water heater to an unsafe temperature." Miele has temp options Cold tap, 85, 105, 120, 140, and sanitary 170. Very customizable, and heater wastes no time going to work. Most machines you have no idea what the temps are at all period. If a huge drum which most do not even utilize is not important to you, Miele is the bomb. It will hold as much as a full size top loader.

Every machine line has problems and/or lemons. I've had bad experiences with HE top loaders from GE ,Whirlpool and Maytag; they don't get the clothes clean. Yes, I have over 10 years experience with HE machines both top loaders and front loaders. The European machines will be too small to meet your needs for large loads. You are absolutely correct to avoid the GE RightHeight. Mine arrived broken and couldn't be fixed with the GE service available in my area. The machine became unbalanced with regular loads and could not remain in balance for more than 2 days after service. GE will fix, but not replace a machine as long as they consider it "repairable". Crappy customer service. Your experience may be better than mine. The Speed Queen top loader is a workhorse with old fashioned proven technology, but will not accommodate large loads; it's only 3.3 cu ft. The trade off is the cycle is much shorter than most of the normal front or top loaders so you can do more loads in the same amount of time. The top loader is not an HE machine. Nice washer, but it didn't meet my needs for capacity. Fisher Paykel has some loyal followers. The trick seems to be getting a machine that works consistently. I'm just not a fan of the HE toploaders with the water restrictions now in place for washers. I have an LG 5.2 cu ft front loader because I can get service in my area. I would have liked the Electrolux too. I would avoid Samsung like the plague. Good luck in your search.

Yes my Samsung front loaders do have a pause feature so you can stop it if you need to and there is so little water not like it will come gushing out. I have only use powder detergent well actually only the Sears, because of the info I have read several places that the liquids including softner tend to create a sticky sludge build up in areas that are hard to clean and that can cause some of the smell issues some people have. I personally have never had any kind of odor from mine at all. I do make it a habit to wipe my seal with a Mr.Clean wet wipe and then a dry towel when done for the day, I don't leave my door fully open I leave it cracked open so that it can dry out, I just lay a folded hand towel over the door so that it does not lock shut, I do leave the laundry soap drawer open however because it keeps a lot of water in there, I do hot and cold loads and occasionally one with bleach. I did buy some of the tablets to run through it but have not done that yet. I am just delighted with them, I can not tell they are running unless I go in there and look or touch them. Mine also have the steam feature which is really nice. The sanitize cycle does take a long time but I only use it for my sheets generally and it takes very little water. There are an abundance of cycles and settings to choose from so you can get exactly what you want. It also has the silver cycle where it uses silver ions to kill bacteria and germs. Sears just last week had the Samsung platforms for $99 each two weeks prior they had a big special and had them buy one get one free at $99 that was a great deal. They have other brands also of course for that price. I do not have the platforms mine are right on the floor which works perfectly for me in my chair, I had them place the dryer on the right and the washer on the left and the doors open properly that way perfect for me to sit and move clothes from one to the other. 3.9 cu. ft. Steam Washer 7.4 cu. ft. Steam Electric Dryer I have the platinum color.

Agmss, I have the small portable Haier HLP21N. It is a very simple machine, no detergent dispenser or softener dispenser. It is a surprisingly effective washer. I think it may be the smallest of the portable Haiers at 1 cubic foot. It can hold 6 mens large t shirts or a king size sheet plus 1 pillow slip or 3 towels or 2 pair of jeans I hook it up to the kitchen sink, fill it with whatever temperature water I like and let er rip. I have a choice of High(6gal) Med (4gal) and Low(2). The cycles are Heavy,Quick wash and Normal. I have a batch of washcloths and hand towels soaking in it right now. It turns the clothes over very well and gets thing quite clean. The spin cycle works well and leaves the clothes about as dry as any other top loader. It has the same footprint as a kitchen chair and will fit under a kitchen counter when not in use. You might look at the reviews on Amazon , they are pretty extensive. There is a 2.1 cubic foot that might be more practical if you want to use it for the majority of your laundry. If you have any questions feel free to ask.