For the small cost, I would suggest getting an on line subscription to Consumer Reports. They have a lot of information on washing machines and how they compare. For an upstairs location near bedrooms I would choose a model that rates well and in particular for noise and vibration. CR tests for both. In general top load washers have less vibration than front load. There are dozens of each type rated by CR. Most of the top loads are rated excellent for vibration. A few of these, like LG and Samsung are rated very good for noise. None are rated excellent. Of the front loads, only Samsung is rated excellent for vibration. Many are rated VG for noise, but none excellent. LG and Samsung have the best ratings for frequency of repair. If it were me I would select one of these two brands that rates well and fits the budget. Probably the Samsung if it must be a front load, and the LG if a top load. No Miele washers are rated by CR. No idea why, but guessing in the past CR has rated Miele products poorly -- expensive, break often, and expensive to repair. Perhaps they have gotten tired of lawsuits from Miele and just stopped rating them?? Don't know.

Both the Samsung with VRT and the Electrolux wave touch washer are virtually silent, even when Max spinning at about 1350 RPM. I however, do not like Samsung products at all. I had bad experiences with a Samsung VRT washer and dryer, a Samsung cell phone and a Samsung computer monitor. They are into everything, and I think they have spread themselves too thin. They provide horrible customer service (both my Mom and I experienced this first hand). Electrolux has very friendly and usually helpful customer service. I think the only problem with Electrolux is their inferior build materials (a lot of parts and plastics feel thin, fragile and cheap)...but the washing machine is SO quiet, balanced and works quite well!!! For sure do not get a Miele W48xx series. There is nothing on the market built so well, and the cleaning and care for the clothing is, IMO, unmatched! But....Miele does not use any anti-vibration technology, so the machine is whisper quiet while washing and usually while rinsing, but the spin cycles can be VIOLENT!!!

In our first house we had one level, and W/D near the garage entry. Next and current house is 2-story with laundry room on 2nd floor, and I love it. But, it just depends on how you live and how you actually "do" your laundry. For us, by that time, our girls were school-aged. So I was not tending a baby and folding lots of little baby things. The upstairs is just great since the laundry is in the middle of the hall, with baths and BR's on either end, so all linens and clothes just go there. You can dash and get something from the dryer to put on, or a warm towel. I don't think it's as simple as "where you spend your time" with the exception of watching small children, but maybe more about how you attack the clean clothes, and whether you have bedrooms on 2 floors or all upstairs. Or maybe as pointed out, if you do 10 loads of laundry in one day, you then are having a real laundry project, like a cooking project, and tending it most of the day. So those habits and preferences will affect what works best. I spread my laundry loads throughout the week, and so tending 1 or 2 loads in a given evening overlaps with other trips up or down stairs to do other things. With the upstairs laundry, I bring a hamper to my room and fold clothes and towels and put them directly in the closets/drawers. I may use the bed to make piles of folded stuff. I listen to radio or talk with my husband or just, you know, think deep thoughts. (Girls (esp in past years) take hampers to room and who knows what they do then? Not my problem). There is room in the laundry to fold there, so I might do some towels there, but otherwise I don't, since I would then have to just stack stuff in hamper and bring back and dig out again. So, I prefer my current system to an off-the kitchen system in which I'd haul stuff upstairs or fold stuff on the sofa. I don't have a mudroom and wish I did. I think that definitely influences laundry gameplans, since then you have other advantages of the mudroom and how your organize the flow of clothes and stuff. If one or more family members have to deal with dirty work clothes/uniforms, or maybe just active kids and sports stuff, that can be an advantage if you are organizing the clothes and shoes off upon entry. I guess you have to put on a robe or something to come trouping through the living room after stripping? But for those who have less frequent "toxic" clothes, you could just have a drop-off hamper at the entry point. I think it's less universal than kitchen design, which while still very personal, has the somewhat universal issues of work triangles and door-openings and things for the basic layout, and then moves on to more preference-based issues for how and where you eat, do homework, watch TV.

SQ Home "soft mount" front loaders should never be confused with SQ hard mount commercial laundry equipment. They are two completely different equipment types with different mounting requirements. The new SQ home soft-mount has twin liquid balance rings with balancing weights moving around in those liquid rings. When the weights move around in the rings, they counteract some of the out of balance load that may be in your clothes load before those forces then pass through the shock absorbers, and ultimately to your floor. The result is the energy that would normally be produced as a load into the floor is internally offset, resulting in lower loads applied to the floor and overall smoother vibration. Remember, a soft-mount washer has shock absorbers, that when properly tuned, absorb about 85-90% of the load that would normally otherwise be transferred into the floor. So, to illustrate what ends up hitting your floor, let's assume that the SQ soft-mount FLW had 20 lbs of clothes in it, had a 20% off-balance, ran at 400G, and that the shocks could counter 90% of the vibration. And with no knowledge of what the SQ liquid rings can counteract, let's guess half of the off balance, or 10% and that machine capacity. Doing the math, 20 lb x 0.10 x 400 G = 800 lb before shocks; 80 lbs after shocks would actually hit your floor. Since the machine probably weighs 250 lbs, the oscillating load into the floor is not enough to lift the feet to move around in your laundry room. A SQ hard mount on the other hand has no internal suspension and therefore any produced out of balance loads are directed through a heavy gauge frame into the concrete floor it is bolted to. How big are these forces? Let's say you had a 20 lb model with that same 20% off balance load in the wash. The SQ hard mount units are rated to spin out to 200G extract force, the math (20 lb x 0.2 x 200 G) would say 800 lbs would be directed into the floor. Big difference between the two loads into the floor, and the SQ home soft mount spins out with twice the G force on top of that. Remember, the above examples are hypothetical to illustrate the differences between a hard mount and soft mount suspensions and the forces into the floor. The new SQ front load, with the combination of twin liquid balance rings and shock absorbers should give a good experience for the homeowner. These show up in laundromats and apartment buildings with high usage, way more cycles per day than a homeowner would ever put on one. Laundryvet