I have had my Duet Sport HT set for over a year now and am very happy. I don't use the heater very often but when I do it gets very hot. I was suprised how hot it got. I don't think we need to cook our clothes to get them clean but it is nice to have if you ever need it. I always run the hot water in the sink to get it as hot as I can even when doing a warm wash, otherwise it would always be lukewarm water going into the wash cycle. I don't know much about FP except what I have read here. Some love it, some hate it, but in some areas service can be an issue. I bought the 8500 set because of a good price, a size that would fit the space and the availability of service. If you want to see some reviews that are suprisingly good for a FL check the Best Buy site and the Sears site. At Sears the equivalent machine is the Kenmore H2T. Good luck in your search.

I've spent a lot of time on the phone this week, and I finally spoke to someone at whirlpool who was EXCELLENT. You see, I've been having trouble locating the GH9400 washer/dryers, that are a set and the same color! (who knew it was going to be that hard!). So I call Lowes and the man asks me why I'm so interested in the 9400. Then he tells me that in a week, they are going to be getting in the FWF 9200 series. I look online and see there is a WFW9200 and an WFW 9400 series. So I call whirlpool to ask what they are "replacing" and supposedly, they are renumbering thier new washers to make it easier to find the set. new colors, etc. anyways, then he goes to tell me that lowes and sears are thier best costumers. they have direct lines and basically, if I can see it on the whirlpool website, they have this line where they can order it. So I ask, how can they give me a price if they don't even have it in inventory yet, and the whirlpool guy tells me that they have a costumer service (sort of like a front desk?) where they can call and get that info, and they can order it for me. So I go back to lowes and talk to my guy. He calls both whirlpool and this lowes number, and gets the item numbers for me. Gives me a quote. The 9200 is w/1098 and d/898; the 9400 series is w/1349 and d/994. he added 4 yr extended warrenty info ($14o for 2 appliances), power cord, etc. to my estimate. and those are for the white applicances, i am sure the other colors are another $100 more or so. but the biggest problem is that while the 9200 is expected at the beginning of march, the 9400 is 4-6 weeks. i'm worried that if i order the 9400, it'll take longer than 6 weeks... it looks like there are a few more cycles in teh 9400. i'm not sure i need them enough to have to wait 6+ weeks. but then again, i like having my options! ROFL! it sounds like the 9200 will be carried in the store. the lowes person ordered both washers and dryers. the 9400 seemed to be a special order. then i went to sears b/c they are having a 15% off and they price match. they couldn't find the 9200 at all, and basically got the 9400 item number, but had NO way of telling when they could even ORDER it. she wasn't very helpful at all, IMO. HTH!

Monica, I use the recommended amount of detergent, using my best judgment, and I haven't had any problems at all. If my washer is full of really dirty clothes (like jeans and work clothes), I use the top line in the cap. I seldom have a medium load, but when I do, I fill to the 2 line. (I haven't had any small loads yet.) I do only fill to 2 when the washer is full of sheets, as they don't get very dirty and there are not nearly as many of them as items of clothing in a full load - ditto for comforters. I also only fill to the 2nd line if I'm washing a full load of lightly-soiled casual (office, church) clothes. From what I've read here and elsewhere, it's the frontloaders that seem not to rinse well. I don't recall seeing any posts about that problem with toploading HE washers. Your KA washer may have been better than my Kenmore TL. It had always cleaned my clothes well, but then again I soaked almost all our clothes. With the Bravos, I only soak the really grungy white t-shirts, socks, and underwear worn by my guys who work in HVAC. My towels come out softer and fluffier than they did in my old w/d, and I usually fill to the 3 level because I always have a full load, and usually have some really dirty ones (from our three dogs' baths). I just thought of something: I wonder if the baking soda I use to double the bleach's whitening power also softens the towels? I know the water in the kitchen sink feels soft and silky when I add baking soda to it. Do you pretreat stains? I use Shout when I put stained items in hampers. There do seem to be more negative Cabrio and Oasis reviews online than Bravos. I'm not sure why that is true, but that was one of the reasons I bought the Bravos. However, if you aren't afraid to use more detergent, you may find your Cabrio does an excellent job.

I bought my washer from Lowes in Boilingbrook IL. They were fabulous. I started with a Bosch 700 that was defective. They replaced it with a 500 in less than 48 hours of my calling my salesman. 700s are special order at my store and I did not want to wait 2 to 4 weeks without a washer. After the 500 was installed and leveled, and re-leveled, and re-leveled a couple more times, I realized the problem with vibration and walking was my floor, not that the washer was not level. This was confirmed by a friend of mine who is in construction, my floor is apparently too flexible. So, I called my salesman at Lowes. This was about 2 weeks after the purchase. He said to come on in and they would help me pick a machine that would work better for my situation. His suggestions were the Whirlpool Duet or the Whirlpool Cabrio. He said the Duet has a better suspension system than the Bosch, so it often works better when vibration is a problem. The Cabrio does not have the vibration issues FLers do since it is an HE TLer. I went with the Cabrio. I was assured that if I wanted to try the Duet, if it caused too much vibration they would exchange that for the Cabrio. I decided to go right to the Cabrio. As nice as their delivery people were, I was getting tired of seeing them! The Cabrio has been a great choice for me. I love it, it works great, and it does not vibrate at all, even at top speed (1,000 rpm I believe). So if you think vibration could be a problem, you might want the Duet. And if you go with Lowes, get the extended warranty. It is a small amount for your piece of mind knowing that if you do have a problem you just call the 800 number. Oh yes, Between my initial purchase of the 700 to my ending up with the Cabrio, Lowes lost about $500. They were pleasant, easy to work with, and did everything in their power to make me happy. My salesman still stops to talk with me any time I am in the store and I see him. Don't expect too much from any installer in the way of leveling, they usually just eyeball it and make sure the machine does not rock. Lowes did offer to send out a repair guy to level mine when it became a problem, I just had a friend who knew what to do help me. When you go to the store, make sure they will back the machine, and see how long you have to exchange if you are unhappy with your purchase (as opposed to there being a problem with the machine). My salesman at Lowes said you have 1 month at Lowes, although sometimes the will give you a hard time after a couple weeks. He suggested just putting up a fuss if there was a problem, I did not have to do that.