By "fill" I was referring to filling with clothes - a traditional agitator-type top loader is rougher on clothes when the water level is set for a partial fill. The vanes usually are usually largest at the bottom and will just violently shred your clothes, especially at the faster agitation speed. The worst in my experience were late-'80s and '90s Whirlpool (and related brands) that had an agitator that couldn't twist very far in either direction, and tried to make up for it by agitating very fast (most of them would automatically slow down to the "gentle" speed partway through the cycle, even if the regular or heavy-duty cycle was selected, but by then the damage was done). It was particularly bad in their apartment-size 24" wide washers, which had a small tub that didn't leave much room for the clothes to tumble; large items like pants or bed linens were particularly at risk. Other manufacturers of that era, like Maytag and Speed Queen, had a 180 to 210 degree arc to the agitation that allowed it to twist back and forth more slowly and still move water through the clothes. Actually, the only top-load washer with an impeller plate (not sure if that's the right term) I've used, an 8 year old Haier, is substantially rougher on clothes when washed or rinsed with anything but a full water fill; but the plate spins faster than most recent HE top loaders and it doesn't have a recycling waterfall or a spinning drum to help with washing so the rotating plate is the only mechanism for moving water. I'm guessing the new large-tub top loaders are more gentle.

We bought a Frigidaire Affinity 6000 set in mid December for $999 for the pair (great deal I think, but even if not on sale the washer runs around $699 and the dryer around $599). We've only had them a couple of weeks, but so far I am loving this one. My laundry room is only a doorway away from the kitchen, and the washer is usually so quiet that I can be standing 6 feet away and barely hear it. At first, I would peek around the doorway because I thought it had quit running. Anyway, so far, so good, and I would recommend this pair to anyone I know. Please note however, that the washer needs to be perfectly level to be that quiet (but this is probably true for all front loaders).

Hello--I have had the same problems with HE2 washer made in 2004 -- with a dryer stacked on top of it, it has traveled just a little, not across the laundry room. But the vibrations have been very violent and scary so I got a repair person in to take a look, and then spoke with additional repair people to be sure I was hearing the right answer. Repair people told me the bearing (which holds the basket) is wearing out and the cost to repair this is more than a whole new washing machine. This is a problem with most front loaders--the vibrations that get so much water out also wear out the parts. I have just ordered a unitized laundry center with washer and dryer--I much prefer top load with agitator to the front loaders anyway. And I have to replace the dryer because the stacked units will only go with each other and I can't stack the dryer safely on another washer. FYI, repair people tell me that 8-10 years is unfortunately the expected life span of a front load washing machine, which seems awfully short given the cost of these. If you can keep your dryer, you are lucky; mine is working fine but as noted I can't keep it since no room to put the machines side by side.

Speaking of how much I like the front loader - one of the things I really like about it is that I can wash rugs in it - not the flimsy ones but the ones with stiff backing. They say professional rug cleaning but some of the ones I have are so inexpensive it's not worth the price of professional cleaning. So I tried washing one in the FL once - figured if it fell apart I'd throw it away. It turned out great. So today I washed two rugs I've had in my kitchen for a long time. They're brown oriental type rugs so they hide dirt but they were grungy so I thought I'd wash them. A really weird thing happened. These rugs were (I thought) exactly the same. At least they looked exactly the same before I washed them. One came out beautifully - looks like new. The other one looks entirely different - the colors and pattern are kind of muddy and muted - kind of yucky looking. It almost seems like one was synthetic and one might have been wool - the one that doesn't look very good. So I put the good looking one back in the kitchen and the yucky looking one is in my laundry room. It doesn't look so bad by itself but looks terrible next to the good one. Anyway, FL works great for washing the rugs but you take your chances on whether the rugs are really washable or not. By the way, my normal cycle is 45 mins but there are cycles as short as 30 mins. Drying is fast since the washer spins things so dry.