My thought is that percentages can sometimes be deceiving. Say you have two refrigerators made essentially by the same company under different brand names. One is a little plainer than the other but the one with additional features costs more money. Overall sales will favor the lower priced unit. Ok, say you have a similar part failure whether it be a door that simply disintegrated around the hinges (Kenmore Elite a few years back and was replaced with a brand new higher grade frige for no charge) or an electrical or cooling part. If you have one failure for every 100 units sold your failure rate is 1%. If you have one failure for every 25 produced your repair rate is what, 4% (no math genius here but you get the point). I've noticed that high end appliances always have a higher repair rate. They also seem to have a lot more features. The more features you have on them or the more an appliance can do, the more that will probably go wrong with them. Coupled with the higher costs and lower production runs, the repair rate should also be higher. This is particularly true with ovens and electronics. Heat and electronics are not a good match. There will be many more failures with a sophisticated electronically powered oven/appliance than one with has simple rheostat controlled dials for the heating elements. Sometimes I think that is still the way to go. We got along without the fancy stuff for a very long time. Just my observations. On the brands, I had Kenmore products and liked them. Quiet and reliable. When we had a new house built, we went pretty high end appliances (Dacor, Bosch, DCS). Refrig is a GE Profile Arctica because of the sizing and the Precise Fill feature. My convection microwave is by Sharp. They manufacture that same unit for Dacor and others and you won't pay the higher premium price for somebody else's name on it. Have some trouble with oven but that is being handled with the service folks.

I have had the Miele W & D 4000 series for the last year. Before that I had a Maytag Neptune W & D set which worked just fine for 10 years before the washer suddenly gave up. After looking at machines for a couple of weekends (reading lots of threads) I decided on the Miele because it seemed like the sturdiest machine-not many sales people know much about these machines. When I was shopping (and yes I did use this website also)-in a hurry since the supply of clothes was near the end and I was babying the washer, I forgot to remember what I really liked about my Neptune-the fact that I could turn a dial and choose the combination of functions and the extra rinse cycle giving me 4 rinses-very important. The Miele is all buttons-if you want an extra third rinse you have to go back at the end of the cycle and run the rinse cycle-I really hate this because I can't just set it and walk away. My other gripe is that the machine for some reason tangles up pajama arms and legs-and I mean twists them into knots. I have tried different settings and it is still the same. If you have good pjs forget it. I would definitely consider other machines because of these two problems. On the good side the machine is very quiet and doesn't vibrate. I haven't had a problem with it. And the rubber around the door is great. I don't have any mildew or smell. Just remember whatever new machine you buy to use much less soap and it will take awhile to get the old soap out of your clothes. I am now using Forever New-expensive but you need very little soap. I also had to get used to the low water level. On to the dryer-very loud and I mean loud. Would love to return it but Expo went out of business. Again-huge complaint here-you only can use the button preprogrammed settings-so if your clothes are damp there is no way to turn it back on for an extra 5 or 10 minutes. You have to choose the 45 minute setting and set your own timer and that setting is hot. Or maybe try the Extra Dry setting but and see if it will last long enough to dry the clothes. Huge pain in the butt. And the settings are preset-can't change them. I would not buy this dryer again-knew it was noisey but wanted my machines to match. Love Miele pedastals-drawers are great. So as always now that I am wiser about the new machines I would choose a washer and dryer with some human choices. All clothes are different and all families are different. And people still have a brain and can choose settings with a knob or miscellaneous buttons like the LGs have. Good luck

Dragonfly, the heater is necessary for the sanitary cycle, but it is also effective on the warm and hot cycles to assure that you have a constant warm/hot temperature. It'll give you better cleaning results, but some people report that they get very good results without the heater as well. It is a personal decision if you want to spend some extra money. By the way, it is correct that FLs have longer wash cycles than TLs. Most of the energy is needed to heat up the water for warm or hot cycles. FLs use A LOT less water so you save a lot of energy (electricity or gas) by heating up smaller amounts. The rotation of the drum does not take much electricity at all. Thebearsfamily, I haven't read the statement about the sanitary cycle that you quote. It is, however, just partially true. The main reason for having the sanitary cycle is to wash and sanitize things like towels, sheets, dish rags and so on. Not all fabrics can be washed that hot, so you have to be a little careful about using that cycle. If you hardly ever do a (real) hot wash, the sanitary cycle can be used to keep the washer free of detergent residue and mold. Some washers have a cycle specifically designated for this purpose. It is not really necessary though. It is important to leave the door of a FL open after using it and possibly wiping off the door gasket if water collects in there. Also make sure not to use too much detergent. If you keep doing this you shouldn't have a problem even with a washer without a heater.

Hi Griz, and welcome. STPP= Sodium TriPolyPhosphates....this is the phosphates that was once used in Tide and other detergents years ago but was banned in the US. It was also in Cascade and other dishwasher detergents until 2010-2011 when it was also banned, ever since people think their dishwashers have broken. I highly recommend STPP, expecially for people with hard water or people that deal with tragically dirty laundry. Ariel is Made by P&G its the Mexican version of Tide. Walmart sells a non phosphated version of Ariel, its Tide..although its an excellent detergent its way to sudsy for FL'ers. You can still find the Mexican version of Ariel laden in delicious phosphates at Mexican grocery stores, it is a excellent product, but careful dosing is important in a FL, but can be doable. Many of us here have way too many detergents, yet still seek more lol. I think you may need to be more specific on that question lol. Some of us are brand/product loyal and some of us like to try them all. Like our beloved Larsi, he loves and at present only uses the older discontinued original scent Tide, and will go to great lengths to find this product that is quickly disappearing. I personally like to try everything, and soon will have to build a little cabin for hubs to live in, so I can have his room for detergent storage, haha. Now please tell us what brand of washer you have, what detergents and other products you use, what water temp you wash with and are you having any issues with clothes not getting clean, or having odors? This is a wonderful laundry forum, and the folks here have a wealth of knowledage. Prepare to enter a whole new world, where laundry products eat at your budget, and your whites will require sunglasses.