I'm sure there will be others more informed than I am but here's what I heard today while appliance shopping. I asked the salesperson about the differences btw the steam wash and steam dry. As you indicate, they advertise the wash as being stain removal and the dry as being wrinkle removal. The sales person said that the cycles are pretty much the same thing. He noted that the LG dryer uses a water dish for the steam while the washer takes water from the water supply going to the washer. One other brand (I forget which - someone will know) has a water supply from the washer to the dryer. I am hoping to get wrinkle removal but I only need the washer. Frankly, it seems like the dryer would be better at wrinkle removal. I already have a spare dryer at home. The salesperson said the washer would work to refresh clothes and remove wrinkles. Incidently, I have a HUGE problem with wrinkles using my Whirlpool FL. However, I just learned that it's mostly caused by the small drum size of the particular washer/dryer pair we own (2.3, I think) We purchased this set because we had a small area for appliances in our old house. Now that we've moved, we have two hook-ups and DH hooked up our old dryer, which has a large drum and the wrinkle problem is much, much less.

HaHa. The machine runs fine with just a few items. This salesman has probably taken the concept that the washing action is produced by clothing rolling around against each other, to an absurd extreme. You can overload it. I have never gotten an error from the machine, but I have packed it so full that even when wet, the clothes had little room to slosh around and "clean". Didn't hurt the machine, but didn't do a good job of cleaning, either. Some items, like comforters don't get much smaller when wet, so they are more difficult to wash. Same concept applies. I load it to about 4/5 full of loose dry clothing, which when wet, takes up about 1/2 of the tub. I'm sure this is rather universal with Front Loaders. Rigbybrowndog: You will have to try the settings out to see what situations to use them. The LG uses little water in a normal wash. I like to use the "water plus" option often. I like the results. I don't mind spending the $$ for a little more water. A little more sloshing action. Its better than not having any control over that at all. You will need to find these things out for yourself. The manual gives general guidelines. Practically, you may find you like certain combinations of wash/steam/stain/waterlevel/clotheslevel. I tend to believe that the SteamWash function was an afterthought. I think they wanted to have a SteamFresh clothing steamer, so they built in a steamer assembly, and then they thought, well, we might as well activate it during a wash cycle, too. PS. I got a lot more info out of the Service Manual than I did anywhere else.

Thank you for replies, they're highly appreciated. Our apartment is on the first floor. I've been to hhgregg yesterday to see LG and Duet in person. I liked both but still not 100% sure, they looked like plastic toy, especially LG's display and pedestal seem made of flimsy plastic. HE5tv vs. Duet, which one is better and why? (if I'm not mistaken, they're both manufactured by Whirlpool?) Does anyone own them, how do they work? Did you have to take to the repair? How often did it broke? How long have you owned them? Sorry for too many questions, I just want to rely on consumer reviews not a product description.

live_wire_oak, The LG washers like all other non-commercial large capacity washers in the USA operate off a 120V 15 amp circuit. With this design you cannot get more than about 1500 to 1600 watts of power out of the circuit. The motor/electronics used to operate everything else in the washer might take up to 500 watts or so of peak power (motors need a surge of power to get going and then use less to keep going) and maybe up to 250 watts of steady state power to operate. The power budget only allows about 1000 watts for the heater. When the LG machine is making steam it's not heating the water so the net additional energy being added to the tub is the same. re: "But then, about half of all Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. Science just isn't our forté, but hype certainly is." live_wire_oak, this was well said!!!! But then this is a subject for a whole different forum. luvmylg, We have been using FLers for the past 14 years. The first 13 of these years was serviced by an Asko. A truely wonderful machine in most respects (far from perfect, but still very very good) that churned through 10 to 15 loads a week without complaint until the end. Until the end it's only fault was a broken impeller where one of our kids play items got stuck and broke the impeller. This was half our fault for not checking his pockets and half Asko's fault for not having a good screen which would keep stuff away from the impeller. When the machine broke (electronics board failure) it was right at a time when we really needed a bigger machine but also didn't want to give up some of the nice cleaning aspects we got from the Asko. Bigger Miele machines were also being heavily rumored so we decided to get a serviceable, but temporary machine until Miele announced their product. At the time Home Depot was selling out their stock of Danby's at $300 (plus a $50 energy star rebate). I must say for $250 the Danby has been one great machine. It doesn't have anywhere near the quality and design of the Asko, but it has still been a very good performer. It has an internal water heater which will heat to 200F (very long cycle) and has controls which are simple and direct enough that you can get it to do pretty much anything you want. Now that the Miele W4840 is out, we will most likely get one of these once I finish reconfiguring our laundry room (moving the dryer to improve venting, and moving the washer location so a big machine will fit). So far most of the W4840 feedback on this forum has been good, but I'm also considering the Bosch Nexxt as well if some current info on this forum regarding how the Miele uses it's internal heater turn out to be true. Who knows, might also consider LG machines as well if Miele drops off the list. I like the solid heft of the Miele compared with other machines out there. I hope it's determined that Miele uses the internal heater in all cycles.