Looks pretty good. Weigh it! Subtract a pound for the basket. As I said before Staber takes 18 pounds of varied clothes with one gallon of triangular air space dry, 2 gallons without socks which are puffy so no the clothes are not jammed in. With that much clothes I find I need 4 ounces powder, or 2 liquid stead of one. I wait till the splashing drum is a bit muffled, this indicates suds. Powder must be melted first, at least with my junky detergent. I add it manuelly. Gotta get some Tide Cold, it was thee best in a recent CR shootout. Did some reading about FP this afternoon....."Fisher and Paykel was tops in energy efficiency of all the top loaders," (CR) I'm sure Smart Fill helped with that. Staber does 5 dollars a year gas. Staber also has "Auto Fill Sensing" however, and adds water depending on the size of the load, I see no use for this frivoulous feature however. Uh-oh....here comes Dross again... In case Angela is still wondering....According to CR "Do'nt overstuff the washer.... clothing needs enough room to move so it can be properly cleaned and rinsed, especially in a top loader. You can fill the tub of a front loader, but do'nt jam the clothes in." In addition to the 18 pound capacity, the Staber works really well for puffy items, pillows, comforters, and such. I can wash 3 full size bed pillows and a lite twin size comforter all at the same time. They are rendered clean and odorless, pillows are always puffier afterward. The machine spins out fine in that mode, and does so on MAX spin speed as the machine washes these items without my having to set it on delicate, so the wash is more aggressive also. Really wrings em dry. That's what I mean by EVEREST of gentle. CR 2005 observation "New survey data show that Fisher and Paykel has been among the most repair prone top-loaders" CR observes recently that stainless steel can stand up to higher spin speeds but "has no edge over plastic". Unfortunately, in my reasoning sneeky engineers can breathe on plastic formulas in the lab in such a way as to feed mold if they elect to as can be done with paints (which contain tasty vegetable oil for mold to feed on). Plastic just scares me. It can absorb odors also depending on the plastic. Especially after 5-10 years. Stainless steel is beyond just odor-neutral, it is an air freshener. Not only that, when an inner tub is stainless both sides of it are stainless, thus protected/ deoderized, plastic parts are often hollow and what if both sides are not glossed? Hollow parts increase surface/odor area as there are 2 sides to them. The finished glossy plastic is free of pores and stain resistant and in the same way, porcelain tubs are often finished on only one side. By pores I mean either literal or regarding retention as in odors. All this plastic jiberish is really just my own opinions/theorizing. But we have tupperware that definitly suffers from these problems, and even feel greasy and smells after hot wash or maybe because of it as these tuperwares soften with heat. On the Staber all 4 surfaces front and back of the inner and outer tubs are, well stainless, and have a natural permanent air freshening quality. One things for sure, the Staber always smells crispy fresh. Both tubs are thick as a butter knife, 18 gauge, and the frame base is stainless also on the 2404 model I went with. The outer tub can also be accesed and cleaned by hoemowner. Long story short a friend down the street has a speed queen porcelain top loader and while it does'nt smell horrible it sure does not smell crispy fresh like the S----r does.

Well, I do have to say that our Kenmore heavy duty W&D lasted 15 years without a repair. On the downside, they were a little rough on the clothes although that's only in comparison to our FP GWL11. I agree, we LOVE the water-sensor and the washer uses very little soap. The clothes are definitely washed more gently, yet they come out even cleaner than before. We are very happy with ours. On the downside, I'm one of the folks who've had trouble with the F&P top load dryer -- there are others here who have not had any trouble with theirs, so it just seems we weren't very lucky. All minor stuff covered under warranty, but extremely annoying when weeks go by without being able to use the dryer - we've had 6 service calls in two years. The F&P front opening dryer, I believe, is not made by F&P at all, but by GE, if I remember correctly.

Well I have neither,but my neighbor has the F&P and loves hers. She said it has a 2 year warranty plus she bought the extended warranty for 4 more years. It is very electronic with control boards and all that stuff. My sister has a Speed Queen and she has never bragged on a washer before until she got this one. She loves it cause it has a large tub and a 3 year warranty. It also is more like the older T/L since it doesn't have all the control boards to go out and cause those problems. You will just have to weigh the +'s and -'s that work/don't work for you and go from there. I think you would like either one. For me I would go with the Speed Queen for the simplicity. I have a front/load now and love it but I have had control board issues and they are costly if not covered with a warranty.

Hi Dadoes, please see my report back below: > With the machine's power off, press and hold Wash Temp > Down, then press Power at the same time. There should be > a couple beeps and the panel comes on. This worked :-) > Press Regular to turn on the pump. If you don't hear it > run, then the pump is bad (or the controller board) and > there's no use for further tests. Something came on, there was buzzing. I don't know if it was the pump or a partially working pump but it buzzed. > Press Regular again to turn the pump off (even if you > don't hear it running). If you do hear it run and there > is water in the tub, the machine should drain with the > pump running. No movement of water at all. > If there is no water in the tub, press Wash Temp Down to > fill it with enough cold water so you can see it. Press > Wash Temp Down again to turn off the water. If there is > water, skip this step ... unless you want to add more. Adding water worked. But the tub was already full. > With the pump off, press Delicate to activate the > diverter valve into recirculation mode. Wait a minute or > two for the valve to shift fully ... you won't see > anything happen. I guess this worked. > Then press Regular to turn the pump on again. Water > should shower out of the recirculation port at the upper > right/rear of the tub. If the machine drains instead or > both drains and recirculates, your diverter valve is bad, > or possibly clogged with some debris. Nothing happened. When I turned the pump on it buzzed again. > Assuming recirculation does occur, press Regular to shut > off the pump, and Delicate to deactivate the diverter. > Wait a couple/three minutes for the diverter to shift, > then press Regular to turn the pump on again. The machine > should drain. If not, then again the diverter may be bad > or clogged. No recirculation and no draining. But the pump buzzed every time I turned it on. I don't know how loud the pump would be if it was working. ie. if it's stuck/clogged and can't move, it will probably still make a buzzing sound. Your directions/instructions were dead on :-) I was impressed. Thanks!! But, what now? Could there be a clog of some kind in the diverter? Or pump? Thanks again!