I recently bought an Affinity 6000 washer and dryer pair and unfortunately have had nothing but trouble with the washer. Every time the washer starts to speed up to spin the load, the control panel blinks off immediately and the power recycles, stopping the spin. Other times, the washer will simply shut off in mid wash and will not power back on for a half hour or more. I've already had sevice out to replace the control board (which foolishly is located in the BACK of the washer making it necessary to pull the entire unit out if you have it stacked in a closet as I do). I ran a load of laundry right after the service guy left and SURPRISE! Still having the same exact problem. Has anyone else experienced this problem or heard anything about it? I'm waiting to hear what the service people are going to try next... Based on this experience, I'd be a little leary of going with this model (I have an older model in another house that's been working like a charm for 2 years).

HI Sapphire, I did not look at the Speed Queen Frontloader. I am no expert on the differences between the Wave-Touch and the IQ-Touch. Electrolux has one Wave (the 70) and three IQ (models 50, 55, 60). You can see differences on their website by clicking on the four machines in white, and comparing them. I believe that you can also see the manuals for each by clicking on the individual model. The list price increases by $100 for each of the IQ models and then by $150 for the Wave. These links (from people much more astute than I am) each offer something different to consider, and are helpful; most are from GW Laundry Forum. The list is not exhaustive, but a good place to start. I don't know if or how you can post more than one link, so I have put them here (roughly in reverse date order) with the initial title and the dates the threads were active. If you find any others, please let me know! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwCGQjITeVE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnC9s7t3HOA A You Tube explanation from a store sales rep, and his amendment from Jan and Feb 2012. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg0801511930778.html existing owners of elux washer/dryer iq touch and wave touch... (from Aug 2011 - June 2012) http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg071430459001.html?7 Any new opinions about Electrolux Wave washer/ dryer? (July - Aug 2011). See a list of the differences posted by jmith on 8/14/1 and note the recommendation of silvercanadian on 8/14 to "download the user guides for both the Wave-Touch and the IQ-Touch and read the sections on the different cycles/options." http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg0109280211657.html Electrolux Wave Touch or IQ? (Jan 2010 - Feb. 2011) http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg0716252415778.html Electrolux IQ Touch pair first impressions (July 2010). There was also something intersting on eHow on 'How to Self-Clean an Electrolux Washer Basin.' http://www.ehow.com/how_7897655_selfclean-electrolux-washer-basin.html Finally, a worthwhile reminder from Richard last month on something I never thought about: using a surge protector: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg0419444124107.html?2. I saw four more threads on that topic when I searched for 'Surge Protectors and GW Laundry Forum. I haven't had a chance to read these yet. Hope that this is helpful. This post was edited by wannaknow1 on Fri, May 3, 13 at 10:56

Heater will NOT engage in normal no matter what. I often use wrinkle free for clothes, husband's dress shirts, sometimes towels. This will not allow a max spin though. I use extra white for white sheets/towels/socks. Usually with extra warm or hot temp and sometimes extended and/or prewash. I have used custom for kids' clothes warm with a max spin speed. I have used express for bathing suits/towels after a day of swimming. A little Vaska on express and everything is fresh for the next day. These items don't really need to be washed daily so express is great (30 minutes). I have used delicates/hand wash for ... well delicate items. This setting works great. More soaking less tumbling. I have used woolens for wool sweaters also great. I LOVE the comforter setting. It will "vent" the item(s) first - wet them thoroughly before it adds the detergent. Very smart. I almost always use the sensitive setting which uses a higher spin speed between wash and rinse and uses an extra rinse. I don't like too much residual detergent smell (if possible). I've used clean machine. I used table linens a few times for table cloths - not really sure what makes that setting good for them. They turned out just fine. The only program I was not thrilled with was the dress shirts one. It only does a medium spin and left the shirts quite wet. I prefer wrinkle free for them (but that's me). I have used prewash and extended. If items are noticeably dirty I use a prewash. I have used extended if I think they need a little longer tumbling. The more agitation the better the wash. Shorter cycles are not the answer for clean items. Gosh ... have fun and keep us posted on how it's going.

My washer will do 2 rinses as default, or 3 if you select Water Plus. I've noticed that with some detergents you can get away with using just the 2 rinses and not have any soapy residue, but with the majority of other detergents you have to use 3 rinses otherwise laundry feels soapy and scratchy afterwards. BTW, I've found that using just the water plus function without the extra rinse - i.e. 2 high level rinses (the button can be programmed to add an extra rinse, do high level rinses, or both), that rinsing is improved on towel loads over 2 rinses at the standard level - however 3 is still the optimum. As the saying goes, three is the magic number :-). I have used 4 and 5 rinses before mainly in my older machines (my AEG could allow you to select up to 5, but it wouldn't spin until after the 2nd rinse), but have noticed no marked difference between 4 and 3 rinses no matter the load or detergent, whereas with some loads/detergents you can always notice the difference between 2 and 3 rinses. Some here argue that the standard rinse cycles on their machines rinse perfectly well, which I don't doubt. However in my opinion and through my experience rinse cycles do actually need water, and I've always noticed a considerable difference in performance between low and medium/high level rinses in terms of dog hair & lint removal. As well as the correct water level, another major factor in rinse cycles is how fast and how long the laundry is spun for. My particular machine spins laundry for 4 minutes at 1000rpm after the wash, and 2 minutes at 1000rpm after the rinses and the spins help no end too with the performance of rinsing. These high speed interim spins are important in today's front loaders, which only do a double rinse as standard versus triple or quadruple of yesteryear, and at a lower level. Jon