For anyone reading about this question--installation is key. I've had 2 Miele washers installed in my 1906 house on the 2nd floor, without any special setup. First had noticeable vibrations at the super high spin speeds that the washer can do. It was workable and we had it that way for about 12 years,doing a ton of laundry, but it did vibrate some @ high speeds. Second machine W3038 has VERY amazingly little vibration/noise even at its highest spins. Not really a difference in the machines, its that the second one was installed by Miele while the first one wasn't--I thought we'd adjusted the levelling well, but obviously not as well as the professional Miele installer. I was very pleasantly installed to find out how little it now vibrates or makes noise.

also if you have any small local community papers that come out every week look in there. we have something called Community Currier that comes in the mail every week which is a good source for classified adds. the adds are cheaper to buy than the daily papers so many people will place adds in those. IF you want a new set and want a front load washer the Frigidaire is not too expensive, not complicated to use and looks decent. mine has worked well for me. other than that buying a low end Whirlpool is a good bet for the the average home buyer in a started home or any area where young families are moving that are just starting out in a home of their own. They will be just pleased to have one there and not have to worry about buying one. Now if its an upscale neighborhood you may want to not be so cheap as to turn some picky buyers off.

We have had four different front loaders with matching dyers. We moved and left the first set behind in 2003, then we moved and left our second set behind in 2005, our third set the washer broke after just three and a half years, now on our fourth set. The first was a kenmore that is no longer made, the second was the small Bosch because we had a small space. The third was a regular size Bosch. And now we are back to the small Bosch because it fits the space. Over all I have been very happy with front loaders and have no regrets about going with a front loader for the fourth time. I have always left the door ajar and never had a smell issue. The gasket on the current one does need to be wiped down every couple of weeks. I have never used any special cleaning anything on or in the machines. I do either use HE laundry detergent or use less of the regular stuff. Right now I am using Charlie's soap, but I have successfully used a pretty wide variety of detergents. As a general matter front loaders have been common in Europe for a long time and have been the dominate technology in laundromats in the US for a very long time. So I find it to difficult to imagine that the general concept is fundamentally flawed. I feel like the FLers get our clothes cleaner with less wear than the TLers I have used. I have never used one of the new TLers without agitator though. I particularly appreciate the water savings as I do a lot of laundry with two kids and dust mite allergies. Plus we have a drought at the moment so I am trying to keep our water use down. I also really like how the laundry gets spun out so well. Shortens dryer time or air drying time quite a bit. As far as a specific recommendation, I have been very happy with the smaller Bosch set, but the bigger one broke down in a very expensive way after too short of a life span so I wouldn't be able to recommend it personally. My main piece of advice would be to avoid doing business with Sears. I had terrible service from them on two different coasts and when I complained about their service reminder calls waking me up at 5am the supervisor told me they would not stop calling at that hour and that she didn't care that they were waking me and my baby up.

Thought I'd offer a perspective since we have this . . . We didn't buy our house with the w/d in a bedroom - we renovated and did it then. The house had a w/d closet in the breakfast area of the kitchen. When we did a major kitchen renovation (including moving some walls) we turned the old w/d closet into a kitchen pantry and added a w/d closet in the guest bedroom. A couple of points: The guest bedroom still has a real closet. The w/d closet is wide enough for a regular washer and dryer, and has double solid wood panel doors so it can be effectively closed for guests. The bedroom's queen bed makes a good folding/sorting station. We thought it was a good solution for this house. Obviously we don't do laundry when we have guests. And we don't have guests so often that it's a problem. And it beats the heck out of having them in the basement!