I just received my new Maytag top loading washer and dryer. They are the Bravos 800 series. I could not be more pleased. The washer really washes well, my whites are cleaner than they have ever been. The dryer doesn't ever get the clothes too hot, and everything comes out wrinkle free. I do shake all the clothes out when I remove them from the washer and load in to the dryer, but I believe you should do this anyway. The only draw back to all these machines is that they take more time. Still, for now I am very pleased. I purchased them through Home Depot. Even though I planned on paying cash, I filled out a credit card application and received an instant 230.00 off. In addition, Maytag was offering a 100.00 rebate, HD had a rebate going for installation and removal of old machines, PG&E rebated 75.00, and lastly, Maytag gave coupons for 3 years worth of Tide HE, worth almost 250.00. Can't beat that!!!! Another point worth remembering, whatever machine you decide on, use less cleaning product, rather than more. After reading through many threads here, I have not used much more than a tablespoon per wash load. Everything is clean and fresh smelling. I am so happy!!!!!

I have a LG set I purchased in 2011. I have become very unhappy with this pair. I have taken all of the advice I have received here regarding my washer, and I do not like the machine at all. If a load of towels or similar type of laundry is not absolutely perfectly distributed, it will not spin. It typically adds 10 minutes or more to a cycle trying to balance the load during a spin. As far as rinsing goes, I have learned I have to frequently use the water plus option or add the extra rinse option to get well rinsed laundry. I do not use too much detergent...I figured out long ago that you must follow the directions carefully when using HE detergents or there will be issues. Like all FL machines, you use fabric softener at your own peril because mold will build up rather quickly in the dispenser area, and this LG is worse than my previous Kenmore was. Consequently I seldom use the Downey I used to love to use and when I do, I use a very small amount mixed with warm water. Luckily I always empty the dispenser at the end of my using the machine for a day so I have yet to develop a smell of mildew. I do regularly use a washer cleaner and always do at least one hot wash with bleach a week. When I first bought the pair I really liked the dryer, but I am finding now that it does not dry as well as it did when it was new. 4 years should not make that much of a difference. Maybe I am being overly judgmental towards the dryer because I dislike the washer so much but I definitely notice degradation in the drying process. If I were to choose a FL washer again, it would not be a LG model. I am intrigued by Speed Queen. I have about a year to go and will see what the market has available at the time. This LG has soured me completely on FL machines unless I find one that seems to offer me what I want a washer to be.

@ jwvideo - We had our new SQ delivered on Tuesday. No issue with the standpipe and the delivery went without a hitch despite 18 inches of snow on the ground and having had to dig a path for the expected delivery to the basement bulkhead the weekend before. A little sand applied on ice that had developed and we were good to go. We had to wait over a week for it and we had quite a pile of laundry waiting for it, so I've already put about 10 loads of laundry through it. [g]. I'm already happier with this machine than the old one. They had two models available and I ended up with the one that has the electronic buttons, only because the warranty was 5 years on it and the other machine that I believe had dials, had a 3 year warranty. Why I have no idea. You'd think it would be the other way around. One of the first questions I asked the delivery team was how to get the hottest water in the wash. He told me, just don't use the normal cycle. Evidently it doesn't allow for hot water, but mixes the hot and cold. On Permanent Press cycle or Heavy Duty, when you set it to hot, you get straight hot. Keeping this conversation in mind, about water coming into the tub, initially cold that lowers the eventual temp of the water, I asked him how I could overcome that, since I didn't have a sink nearby that I could run off the cold before filling the washer. And what we figured out, was that I could start the cycle, allow for water to begin to fill the tub, keep lifting the lid, to see when the hot water was coming out and cancel the load and spin out the small amount of cold water before starting the load. I did do that a couple of times, but once I got the water for the first load all set, subsequent loads had hot water entering the tub from the beginning. The water gets hot enough that even the exterior top of the lid is hot to the touch. lol. I love that. I can see that this machine is not the same as the old washer I had for 30+ years, and the biggest difference seems to be in the agitator action. That old top loader had quite a vigorous agitator motion, up and down and I think this Speed Queen has less agitation. I can't tell yet, because it doesn't continue washing when you lift the lid, as the old one would. I know you can put some cardboard somewhere to prevent the wash from stopping when you lift the lid, but, I haven't felt the need to do that. I felt my stress level lower after a few loads of laundry. :-). The clothes were coming out of the wash in much the same condition I remember having with my old top loader. Cleaner, more well rinsed, less wrinkled. I was able to run some of them in the dryer for 5 minutes and hang them to dry with much less wrinkles then the front loader. Ahhh! Hot water for towels has been great. Some of my old towels look so much better. So thank you all for the input and pointing me in a good direction! Now if anyone knows of a non toxic laundry detergent that really cleans, I could stop thinking about the laundry.

have known a few people who hae had awsher & dryer across from each other in laundry area.. One was where the utility room was also t he back entrance to the house from the driveway and garage. Fortunately anyone could see through the door window if I was in the utility room switching laundry between washer & dryer. It was between 3 & 4 feet distance between them. I got pretty good at throwing a bundle from where I was standing into the dryer without much hitting the floor.