Believe it or not, i wash sleeping bags and comforters in my tiny Bosch Axxis. The front loaders can hold a lot more than you think. I did a demo when I bought the Bosch and they had 17 towels stitched together at the store. Me and my friend, who ended up buying the same machine, were shoving those towels in there and could not believe it. This was a while ago (5 years ago) and people didn't think the tiny 23" X 23"X 33" machine would hold more than a towel. It can wash comforters AND sleeping bags. Even a Northface polyfill one, which are notorious for not getting wet. Go to an appliance store and start shoving a sleeping bag or a comforter in the washers and see what fits. Seriously. It sounds crazy but I'm so happy I did. I was switching from a super capacity top loader, so I could wash anything in it. I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting stuck with a tiny little machine that could only wash hand towels. I think Snyder Diamond and other high end places even have things like the towel demo sometimes. It's good to know where you are going to dump some serious cash!!

OK, I have an issue that does not allow me to purchase without over researching a product. So I did consider a few brands. I really like Miele, and they do have a larger unit. Nothing like the size of these, but I don't think you need something as big as these Samsung units to wash a comforter. Although I keep going back to Miele, the issue of their warranty and the lack of local people to sell and service the units takes them out of the running. I did look into Asko, but the small size and the bad reviews (over many years) makes them just an interesting read. I had a hard time deciding between LG and Samsung. I chose Samsung because of their Diamond drum technology. Although I was unable to find out much about it, it was similar to the honeycomb drum idea of Miele. That really closed the deal for me. I really felt that more manufacturers should have put more into their drum designs and make that information available. Sadly, only two lines have taken drum technology seriously and serious enough to flaunt it to the public. I ended up with the largest Samsung units because of the steam and the internet connectivity. (And frankly the deal I got.) I was hoping that if there was a problem, Samsung could just hook into the machine and tell me what is wrong. I'm not sure they can do that, but they can certainly update the units over the wireless. I would say that I was also impressed with the anti vibration technology. I wish they had explained the difference between the regular antivibration and the upgraded antivibration of these units. I imagine it is some computer sensing thing. I was also impressed with the warranty on the motors and the 2 year warranty. Oh, I just registered my units and got an additional 3 months warranty for registering. Thanks Samsung. I would add an extra year on my own by purchasing with Amex and eliminating the purchase of extended warranty. I looked into Speed Queen because they are American. Solid units but lack the modern technology and efficiency I was looking for. Rough sturdy brutes was all I could imagine from what I could find out about these products. I think the companies do themselves a disservice by not putting out all the information they can on their products. This is one case and point. I went as far as looking into purchasing commercial units, but when all is said and done, I felt that the Samsung units were a better deal. Service and warranty work is much different for commercial than on consumer models. Here is a really cool washing machine I found that I really wanted to get. I have a friend in CA who used to own Laundry Mats. He said, "That's a commercial unit. What do you need a commercial unit for?" Well, it looks so cool and is so well engineered etc. It was too much of a machine for my needs, but I really would have loved to have one. The Crossover Washer. (http://www.laundrylux.com/crossover.html) The world's first small chassis washer engineered to commercial laundry standards for your business needs. I think for the person who wants to have what no one else has, these units would be an interesting choice. Here is some more information on the Crossover: 3 Engineered to be superior to all competitors 3 15,000 cycle machine life design 3 3 OPL liquid chemical injection ports and signals 3 3 compartment soap drawer 3 4 professional wash programs + 2 cycle options 3 Field adjustable water levels 3 Top quality SKF bearings in heavy duty assembly 3 3 seals with 5 lips 3 Professional grade 8-point suspension 3 Pump-drain standard 3 Solid steel counter-weights�no concrete 3 Energy Star compliant The costs were about 2,000 a piece or less from what I remember. Stunningly beautiful beasts these are. They are made I believe by LaundryLux. I also looked at Miele Little Giants. Just amazing little laundry units, but way out of my price range for what I want to spend. I think these are made for people with yachts. These are also stunningly beautiful. The bottom line is I spent months looking at units. For me, with the space that I had and the money I wanted to spend, I settled on the Samsung. I had to use my Samsung units again tonight as the baby had an "out of diaper" experience. Not something for the faint of heart. Loved I could go and select sanitize on the computer screen and choose extra rinses and steams and prewashes and super hots etc. If they had nuclear radiation I would have chosen that too, but as of now, it is not an option on my units. I got a 3 hour cycle and trust me that is exactly what the job called for. I think I'm very happy right now with what I purchased. Look, as long as the darn units stay working without needing service etc, anything you buy will be fine. Again, I'm not happy about having to stand on a stool to see the dryer screens, but it really is not a big problem. The anti vibration on these really works great and the noise level is very good. The calming music the machines play to signal the end of the cycle is still OK with me and I'm not ready to beat the machine to death if it plays that tune one more time. Just if anyone wants to see how these machines do on a soiled white one piece baby garment, here is how it just came out of the washer. I don't think I can believe how clean and white this is. You cannot see where the mess was. I have had experience in the past with my other machine where the white clothing was stained yellow after such an incident. All I used was about 1/4 of the recommended amount of ECOS plus natural liquid from Sam's and a tiny amount of delft liquid softener. No bleach. I did hit it with some Oxy prewash spray before putting it in. Look, I have a laundry upstairs that I am doing. I decided to make it a "sound proof" room because of my experience with my old front loader. It was loud! Probably had gotten worse over the years because the bearings were going. So I double sheet rocked with green glue and put heavy clay on the backs of the electrical boxes. I put in a sound proof floor which I am waiting to tile right now. Well, I did all this because of my fear of the noise I would get from the front load machines. I think had I placed these Samsung units upstairs, the sound proofing would have been overkill. I'm hoping the GE unit I have for upstairs will be as quiet. I bet most of the better machines will be quiet. I think that the other companies caught up with Meile and have incorporated many of the concepts and bring these machines at a value price. Will they last the 20 years Miele says theirs will? I don't know, but these machines have a longer warranty then Miele and they can be found everywhere. This means that your chance of getting service should be good.

We had decided on a FP top loader washer and dryer . . . then we dug our well and learned that we had much less water than we'd expected. Suddenly water usage became an issue. We'll be bringing in city water to supplement our well. So we checked on water usage of the Samsung FL and the FP we'd chosen, and were told that the Samsung uses 8 gallons of water per load, versus the FP which uses 20. That's still half of what a regular TL uses, but in our situation, way more than would be good. So we went with the Samsung FL. We're not moved in yet so I can't review its performance. However, we had a Maytag FL for the last 5 months in our last house and I practiced "safe laundry" -- aired the drum and the detergent drawer between sessions, used Charlie's Soap, didn't leave wet clothes standing in the washer, did the hot-with-Clorox load last, checked for standing water under the gasket -- never had even a hint of odor or mold. For us, the amount of water used was the deciding factor, but having used a FL for a while, I'm okay with the decision. And -- for your family of 6, I'd get the biggest one I could!! Arlene

rrbaltz - I am still very happy with this machine. The more I use it the more I like it. The electronic control front panel has worked flawless. Since I design electronics for a living I have designed many products that use the same membrane switch technology that Speed Queen is using in their front panel keyboard. These switches are good for millions of push button cycles and are very reliable. The equipment I have designed sees far more abuse than that of these washing machines including those used in a commercial environment and thus I know from actual experience how reliable these types of keyboards are. I have been amused at how folks seem to think this type of keyboard is somehow less reliable than the older mechanical rotary switches. The Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) data provided by the switch manufacturers clearly show the membrane switches to be more reliable. So go for it. You will not be disappointed.