Sanitize or Allergene cycle for sheets and towels. Hot/boiling water works; I'll only consider washers with an onboard heater. Double and triple rinse; I won't buy a washer without multiple rinse options. Get a washer with super high spin speeds to extract as much soapy water as possible with each rinse. The drive toward energy savings, specifically less water and cold temps, has resulted in filthy laundry with detergent residue. If the detergent were really being rinsed out with just the standard cold wash, one rinse cycles, why would so many people need "Free and Clear" detergents? I actually read advice online that said when your towels start to smell bad, you know it's time to replace them. Huh? Send them through the sanitize cycle with a commercial laundry detergent instead. If washers have gotten so energy efficient that we're throwing out perfectly good towels, you have to wonder just how much eco-savings we've achieved.

One of my sisters washes everything in cold water for years. Her old-style (1984) Maytag toploader carried a smutzy odor. She was always loaded-up on dryer sheets and highly-scented detergents. I couldn't convince her to at least use warm because "our t-shirts will shrink" she said. They took the grandmother's machines when granny died, being some years newer. The bro-in-law connected them up and got the hot/cold hoses reversed ... so they were washing (and rinsing) in HOT for several weeks without realizing it. The washer would beep an error code every time they ran it for not getting cold water but they thought the beeping was normal behavior, until they brought it to my attention and I figured out/explained the problem. No mention that anything had shrunk in the interim ... Happenstance came along and now they have a frontloader, given to them by friends (after a catastrophic failure due to bad usage habits), and which I completely disassembled and repaired last February. I gave sister instructions to run hot and/or Sanitary cycles on a regular basis, and the machine's cleaning cycle (which heats to 130°F) monthly. She's not doing any of that. Last time I was there, the machine had slime and mold around the door seal and an odor, developed in 7 months after I had it refurbed to pristine condition. Go figure. Toploader, cold washing, smutz. Frontloader, cold washing, smutz.

The Kenmore had a bad bearing..about $400 but the store had it hauled off..bummer. I am getting another Speed Queen ...a model TR5000 with water levels you can set..They hadn't informed me of the auto setting with rinses being cold water. I have my water heater set pretty hi. I WILL get this washer to do what I want..not what it wants..Cancel the wash and reset so I can get it to agitate several times..some fiddling cancels the warranty..but since the machine is supposed to last 20 years..maybe a chance I will take. I can handle machines and can do major repairs though as I said I've done plenty this life time..I'm 68. It is pretty pathetic that machines are no longer made to suit our needs. And that our government has become like a helicopter parent..Some idiot blows it and the rest of us suffer. Front loaders are more dangerous than top loaders anyhow. Most of the accidents I found were do to parents not watching their kids. One was where a washer fell on a kid?? WTF how the hell does that happen? Or parents set a baby in a carrier on top of the washer and the kid fell off. And don't get me started on refrigerators ok then flat screen tv's..seems not much is made to last anymore..try finding towels or sheets that last 20 years anymore..just a crabby old woman complaining about how it used to be!! hahaha

Suseyb I am looking at something that fits my personal physical problems. The French doors are ridiculous. They look good but you need three hands unless you have the inside of the refrigerator memorized. I can’t just open a side-by-side and put a bowl in the refrigerator because they make no good side by side. Then the freezer on the bottom will cause me dizziness. If I lift something with my unusable righ hand arm, I can tear my torn rotator cuff. The Consumer Report Appliance issue disagrees with personal experiences on here. And store reports are made up. There is not one review of refrigerators on this vast, wonderful gardenweb that gives any of them high marks. Not one that has been used for two years. I know the problems in all of your appliances and whatever the real manufacturer never fixes them. Sad. The Washinton Post had an article saying just what we talk about here and all over the appliance board. Small appliance stores used to make a whole lot of money selling Maytag and whirlpool and GE profile but now they have lemons. And their high income buyers can't get a reliable product. Bosch, Sub Zero are just as bad though expensive. Tariffs are going to add another thousand onto our misery. I don't understand why they don’t fix their products. Why they don’t have quality control. I am so sorry to say this.