"House has wood floors over basement, and laundry room is 5' off of main beam; floor does have some deflection."

It sounds that the laundry room is loacted on a weak floor, 5ft off main beam.

It also sounds you have tried two HE2 FL and one Calypso TL and they all give vibration problem on your weak floor.

Prior to these, did you have any success with any other washers in your present laundry room?
If no, then Harmony will not be a solution in your case.

You may have to relocate your laundry room or strenghten the weak floor.

Prior to high efficiency washers/dryers, never had a problem with vibration unless a large load became unbalanced.

Does the GE Harmony spin at high RPMs like the Calypso and FLs? From other posts on this site it sounds like the Harmony doesn't cause the same vibration problems.

Or else, how does one reinforce a floor from the unfinished basement below?

Call a contractor to strengthen the floor. A few extra cross members and a structural extension pole *might* clear it up for you.

If possible brace under your washer/laundry room. I would try placing 3/4 in plywood under screwed securily and a screw type jack(s) under and tightened snugly. This should take care of up and down movement. Is the basement finished? I had the same problem with 2 new Frigidare FL's and got an GE PROFILE TL which vibs minimally . The newer washers have a direct drive motor and the basket moves freely as opposed to older belt drive the basket is always centered. Amana TL didn't vib but extremely noisy. I kept the GE PROFILE TL.

As a Harmony owner, I would suggest giving it a try. I know that the floor where I have mine is a bit 'bouncy' - if I jump on the floor, I can can get rattling from items on counters, shelves, etc. It's on the second floor. I've had my machine for about a month, and have has absolutely no issues with vibration or noise. Right underneath the laundry room is our butler's pantry, with wall cabinets holding our china and crystal on glass shelves. No rattling, shaking, or any kind of vibration transmitted to the floor below.
I know that vibration is a case-by-case situation, but I would recommend the Harmony for any second floor or other joist-floor (i.e. not concrete) location.

I just returned the Duet 9400 washer and dryer because of excessive vibrations. It produced 9 new nail pops in my house after only three weeks that I now need to repair. I just got the Profile Harmony washer and dryer and love them. No vibrations at all.
Might I ask why someone would go through all the trouble to reinforce floors, by 80 pound mats, etc... for a washer?! It doesn't cook, clean and serve you dinner, it just washes your clothes! I hated the front loader and will never buy another one! I am a very busy mom who does about 15 loads of laundry per week, so it really is a help to have a larger washer like the front loaders, but I will gladly do one or two more loads a week to not have that terrible vibration like a helicopter landing on my house! Of course, with my Harmony washer, I don't have to worry about it!
Good Luck!!!

Congrats on the new Harmony. I've had mine almost a month, and am similarly very happy with it. I agree that anyone thinking about a second floor laundry should have the space engineered for it during construction - plain old floor joist system (at least the way they're built today) just can't handle it. Vibration is the 'dirty little secret' of FL's. As I've mentioned in other posts, I actually had a local salesperson refuse to sell me a FL for the second floor because of all of the returns he's had. I also paid a visit to our local Sears scratch & dent, and viewed the acres of returned Hetties/Duets, double-stacked, as well as other FL's. The salesperson there understood that many of them were returned due to vibration issues (not due to cosmetic damage or malfunctions), but didn't have information regarding second floor installations specifically. I wonder at what point the retailers and/or manufacturers are going to have to deal with the issue. I also suspect that they have to build in a much higher profit margin to accomodate the higher return rates, which would also explain why FL's are so much more expensive than TL's.

The Whirlpool Calypso machine is one of the worst washers made this decade. Not unusual for vibration problems in it.

Vibration is the 'dirty little secret' of FL's.

I disagree. Proper leveling is more important on a FL than on a TL, so for this reason alone we see more complaints. Moreover, some FLs seem to be simply bad with regard to vibrations. (For example, once here there was a spate of reports in a short time of vibration problems with Whirlpools/Kenmores, which suggests a batch of lopsided drums.) That is not necessarily an intrinsic with design - after all, many politicians are slimy miscreants, that doesn't mean the US should switch to a monarchy.
Many of us have rock-steady FLs, suggesting that serious vibration is not inevitable.
Interestingly, washer vibration seems to be more of a concern here in the US than it is in Europe, where FLs predominate. - DR

The 'dirty little secret' has to do with the unpredictable nature of harmonic frequencies generated by FL's. As you've read in the zillions of posts here, some folks have no problems, some have problems at low rpm, some at medium, some at high, some at all speeds. The floor joist system naturally has a harmonic frequency that will result in excessive vibrations to travel through the system. If you're unlucky enough for that frequency to be crossed by your FL, you're gonna have problems. Obviously, proper balance in required for FL's to behave optimally, but the frequency issue will occur even with a balanced machine.

I had very similar problems to what you are going through. We returned a low end Kenmore FL because of vibration issues. We could feel our bed shake on the second floor while the washer was spinning downstairs. We replaced it with a TL (Kenmore, but forgot the model) only to have the brand new Kenmore TL stop working completely after two weeks. My wonderful husband found great reviews about an innovative washer called the Whirlpool Calypso (2 1/2 years ago) so we decided to buy one (before I found this forum). Well, you know what happened next. The house still shakes and the Calypso squeaks when it spins. Unfortunately, we bought it from a small local appliance store that does not take returns. My advice to you is to return the Calypso as soon as you can. I wish I did. We had our floors reinforced in the basement by our builder - not really sure what he did - I think he braced the floor joists with 2 x 6s - it really didn't help much. I think that's just what you get with engineered floor joists. My entertainment unit shakes when my 5 year old jumps up and down next to it. I could write a book based on everything I've learned about construction and washing machines in the past two years. To someone who doesn't know anything about construction, "engineered floor joists" sounds much better than "stick built." Boy was I wrong.

I'm going to check out the Harmony for when my Calypso breaks down. Best of luck with your problem.

Hmm...I don't think that FL motion should a priori produce any more harmonics than TL motion, though of course the extra water in a TL during the wash cycles might provide some damping. Possibly as more TLs come on the market with spin speeds at or over 1000rpm, we'll hear more stories of vibration problems with those machines as well.
I think it likely that torque-induced precession is behind the most common complaints, as in a FL this can very much be influenced by both level and the exact form of the drum suspension system; that would probably explain why some models are more susceptible to wobbling than others (though shouldn't bear on vibration).
Meanwhile, what we should really all be asking is why we allow houses to be built so cheesily that a 250 pound appliance with a half-horsepower motor can shake them apart! - DR

Now returning 3rd washer/dryer set. Purchased GE Profile that had a rough spot on agitator bottom & ripped my towels. Everything smells like the HE Tide and comes out of the dryer hard and stiff, whether or not fabric softener was used.

I'm taking Varenovator's advice and returning this set for the Harmony . . . as soon as my floor is reinforced under the laundry room. I'm tired of this and need to move on.

To the people who think this is a "problem" with FL washers -- If your residence was built properly, you wouldn't be having these problems! I have FL washers at all of my residences, and NONE of them are on the lower floors, and I've made NO structural modifications to handle them. One condo has a FL FridGEmore sitting on the 3rd floor, solid poured-concrete structure, no vibration whatsoever. The other has a relatively cheaply-made Florida-builder special wood-frame building, with my Danby sitting on the 3rd floor. The Danby has a cheap suspension by all accounts (but it works) and I can feel a slight vibration on the floor immediately in front of the Danby, that's about it. Sure, I can hear the spin cycle vibrations, but it's not jarring anything, knocking pictures off walls, or causing the structure to fall apart.

My neighbors report that they can't hear my washers, although I do hear their TLs on both spin cycle AND regular wash cycles at the wood-frame place.

In short, don't blame the washers for shoddy construction & engineering.

/end rant.

Fill the lower floor with concrete.

Dross,

Overhere in Europe there are less problems with vibrations. Two reasons: One is that most houses, except for the older ones, have concrete floors, mostly on all levels. The second is that American wooden floors, especially in newer constructions, are much weaker than wooden floors in Europe. The first time I was in the US I visited somebody in a new house. I was flabbergasted by the poor quality of the construction.

Louis

Hello,
The quality of construction is not the problem. Most construction is tried and proven. After many years of similar construction, issues are solved. Washers in basements and ground floors. My washer and dryer are in a room at the rear of the house. The floor is pier and beam. There are 2 additional piers under the area. Since my house was built for a TL, I would not expect a high speed extract to not shake. If a slab is on a clay dirt, it will vibrate. Many contractors do not use sand to cushion concrete. This causes new problems.

I still stand by my earlier post -- shoddy construction and engineering leads to vibration issues. Not only with washers, but other mechanical devices as well. With one of my condos being 32 years old and the other 9 years old, I can guarantee that neither one of my places were built with FL washers in mind. Both came with TL washers and I've yet to experience vibration issues with my FL washers in these condos. I also don't have vibration issues with my HVAC equipment either, which is something I can't say for a few of the newer homes I've been in.

Some installations are very sensitive to vibration problems so you have to be very careful about the washer you put in.

If you have an such an installation, or you are concerned that you might have such an installation, then your best pick is one of the new hung suspension top loaders. Machines like this are the GE Harmony, the Oasis, the Cabrio, & all of Fisher & Paykel's washers.

Of these, the F&P, the Oasis, & the Cabrio all have water filled balancing chambers both on the top, and on the bottom of the drum.

They are the only washers on the market that have dual chambers lke this, so they are especialy suitable for sensitive installations, because most of the vibrating forces are cancelled out at the source by the chambers.

We bought our HE2 (and matching dryer) June '06. It vibrated violently during the spin cycle from the beginning. It's on a pedestal on a concrete slab. We've had repair men look at it 3 times with not much change in performance. The last time (a week ago)the recommendation was to operate it a low spin speed and to stop the cycle to redistribute the load. What a joke! We definitely would not buy another HE2. I can't believe that Sears would put a product like this on the market. Don't know what we will do next other than continue to complain at the place we bought it. At the time of purchase we went with Consumer Reports recommendation, another lesson learned.

FWIW, I have an HE2t washer and HE2 dryer and it doesn't vibrate at all except when ramping up to full spin (and even then, not enough to spill any water from a full cup on top of the machine, and it never transfers any vibration to the house itself). Our's is NOT on pedestals, and are on the second floor of a 100-year old wood frame house.

The cabinet of the Kenmore HE2T may have defective welds or the welds may have been damaged during shipping. That is what happened to mine. It vibrated terribly. Took a while for Sears to figure out the problem. The replacement was fine.

got the whirlpool cabrio set,no vibrations at all,had 2 FLs prior to this set,yes my house is new and constructed well,2500sq feet and my light bill is approx 150 a month,do you gat that in a 100 year old house in Europe,I think not.

Sorry, I have to go with Louis. American new construction stinks. Every time I go to replace something the salespeople just nod their heads and say "they always use the cheapest stuff". I'll take the 100 year old European house any day! Back to the message, I have the Harmony in the first floor laundry room and don't have any problems. It's the best set I've ever had!