My personal comments/observations...

First off, I have the Bosch 500 set, for just over one year now...

Loads are much larger than in my previous top load machine, probably close to double the size.

Yes, unless you are using the "quick wash", all loads will take 1+ hours to complete the cycle... a sanitary load can take over 3 IF you also select heavy duty and extra rinse, and bleach....

I always use the sani cycle for all towels and sheets, and white cotton under shirts, and my youngests (potty training) underwear. I have not noticed any shrikage problems for the sheets or towels.

For what you've indicated (2 or 3 bath sheets, 2 face towels, 6-10 washcloths, king sized sheets and pillowcases) assuming they are all comparably colored, this is easily 1 load. I typically will do 8-10 kitchen towels, 2-4 bath sheets, several wash cloths, 6 or so tshirts and a set of sheets together (all white!)

For the 5 of us, I typically do one load of sheets/white towels, one load of dark towels, one load of dark clothes, one load of light clothes, and then one small load of hand/delicate things... all done on Saturday afternoon, once I get home from a morning of work. Wrong order listed... I always do the sani washes last... figuring they "clean out" the machine at the same time!

Drying time is NOT a problem as it all comes out so well spun, drying takes way less than the next load takes to wash.

Good luck choosing a machine, you will find comments good and bad on all manufacturers here, I personally think it's a 'luck of the draw' with regard to each machine... make sure service is available for whatever brand you buy nearby... and babysit the installers to be sure it's leveled properly.

Oh yes...I recently visited a family member who had taken delivery days earlier of the new sears WE TL (without the agitator)... forget the name of the model... I did some laundry while there.... loads were pretty comparable in size, maybe slightly smaller, and timing was just about the same... so I'm not sure that "buys" you a time savings... at least that was for the 4 loads I did there...

buy two washers heh heh darfc

Hahaha! Thanks Jessy! LOL
Seriously folks...

Forgot to say thanks to Plumbly for your concise reply! Keep 'em coming folks!

Do some washing yourself instead of depending on the cleaning lady for all of it during the limited time-frame.

This is my experience with one of the smaller FL. First of all I am anal so I sort by color, fabric type, water temperature,and whether or not the clothes can take fabric softener or not, and I do not mix light and dark weight objects so sheets and towels do not go together. This practice can make smaller loads but it was the same practice I followed when using a TL.

My washer drains into the sink beside it and there is color transfer into the water in EVERY load except whites and some polyesters no matter what detergent is used, even if you cannot tell it in the clothes so this is the reason for my strict insistence on sorting by color. I never did this strict sorting until I had this set up and could then see the water on the way out of the machine. This also allows me to see how well the clothes are being rinsed.

I have sheets but the color of the sets varies so they may be divided into two loads. I have towels all are dark colors but the colors are not the same, but I have enough of these to only wash one color every other week, so there is one load of towels.

Polyester material doesn't seem to fade as much as cotton, but I don't have a lot of this so I may wash different colors of polyester together in warm water. Things come out OK. The majority of the clothes are cotton so must be separated.

Cotton shirts that are light yellow/tan go together. shirts that are light blue and green go together.

Dark browns and greens together. Black/dark blue together.

Silk, spandex gets their own load in cool water.

Items that cannot have fabric softener on them go together and if they are of different color ranges they must be washed separately.

I have some white cotton items that contain spandex(pillow covers) these get done in a load with other white items that can only take warm. The rest of the white items go in a load together and may get a temp of 120F to 140F depending on soil load.

I seem to have a ton of casual shirts that are made to fade which means they cannot be washed with lights. Most of these are in the blue/violet/black color range so these go into a load of darks including dark socks.

Dish towels - I don't like washing them in FS so they go into a load by themselves, but I hold them over from week to week until there is enough to do(maybe one big load a month). No they don't smell..once they are dry odor is not a problem.

I think all of this "sanitizing stuff" is silly, overblown and dangerous. If you need higher temp to clean soil then OK. I can see it if you have a person who is ill, or you work in a hospital, but other than that as soon as you remove it from the washer or dryer items are candidates for the germs that are all around us so the ones they went in with are the ones that jump back onto them on the way out.

My machine senses the load size in the beginning of the cycle, and if the load is small it will reduce the wash, rinse and spin duration times, so washing small loads doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. For the most part I use the default regular timed cycle which maxes at 45 minutes so for small loads this time gets reduced. If items are very dirty I use an extended cycle but even this will reduce the time for small loads.

I have a Bosch 3200 (Pre 500) for a year & have had no problems adjusting to the wash times. Do mostly warm loads & they take about 1 hr. to 1 hr. & 15 minutes depending on size. I have my water heater set at 120. I can get 4-5 loads done of warm on Saturday from say 8-1 or faster if I actually have the first one ready to dry when I get up, by using the timer. The sanitary loads take about 2 hrs. I only do dish towels, bath towels & whites in that normally and sometimes sheets. I do notice that bath towels & dish towels do not get that "musty smell" when they don't dry fast enough after using them when they are done at 150. Also my whites are clean without bleach. My FL does more than my old TL Maytag, but I don't think quite twice as much. Everything dries faster, even on the line. I do dark towels, colored clothes, white underwear, dish towels & sheets all in separate loads. We are a family of 4, so most loads are large. It does get done slightly faster with smaller loads.

I also have the smaller 5K/11 lb European FLs. There are many much larger machines available these days.

A typical full load of mine is: pair of queen sized sheets, pair of double sized sheets, six pillow cases, 1 heavy weight bath towel, one terry bath mat, half a dozen or more men's T-shirts. In that load I have room for something additional about the bulk of a bath mat, but rarely have something else which fits in this hot wash temp (150F), long wash period, high spin speed cycle. It takes about 1 hr and 25 minute to complete the washing portion for a load. (I have shorter cycles, but rarely use them as they are intended for smaller loads.) Some of my machines do have delay timers so I can load at night before I go to bed and awake to freshly finished wash cycle that's ready for hanging out, and to prepare another before I leave for the day if I plan to be away.

If you are not going to be running the machine yourself, and your cleaning person is not good at following instructiuons about new procedures, perhaps FLs which do take some adjustment to learn to use successfully, are not appropriate. OTOH, perhaps this person is already used to FLs as they are very popular, even ubiquitous in many non-US/North American parts of the world.

HTH,

Molly~