I'll comment only on the heater and energy issue...

If we assume that the Affinity won't extend the wash time while heating the water, then it could run the heater for the scheduled duration of the wash, at most. That's 15 minutes for the Normal cycle, and 20 minutes for Heavy Duty, assuming the default soil level. I'm guessing the heater is 1000 watts? Then 15 minutes would be 0.25 KWH, costing 4 cents at a price of $0.16/KWH. But for a warm wash (78F according to the online manual) the heater will probably be active only a fraction of that time, if at all, unless the incoming water is very cold, the wash load starts out very cold, or the washer is in a very cold room. For a hot wash (120F) the heater might be on for a bigger fraction of the wash duration, again depending on the same factors. In summary, the heater isn't very costly to run, and I think it provides value for the money (better washing, just as you pay money for detergent etc.)

An extra cold rinse isn't a big deal energy-wise. No energy to heat the water, and the washer motor doesn't work as hard as in an agitator top-loader, which continuously churns the water.

Thanks for the info. I do know that the affinity uses the heater for sure during the sanitary cycle, which runs almost 2 hours and heats the water up to 152 degrees. The guy at Lowes told me it will run longer if the incoming water is less than 120 and it has to work longer to get the water that hot). Our water heater is set around 120 but is located some distance from the laundry room so the odds of starting out with 120 degree water are slim.

I'm not clear (and none of my web research has clarified) whether the affinity uses the heater to boost or maintain temps in other cycles. They give specific temps in the manual for hot, warm, and ATC cold, but I'm not sure whether it uses the heater to get them or whether it just mixes the incoming water. If it mixes the incoming water, I'm going to have a problem again, not only because of the distance from my hw heater, but also because I have well water, which comes out really really cold most of the year. And if it used the heater, I'd probably have issues because the cycles would take forever, right? To raise my incoming well temp water (at say, 40 degrees) to the 65 degrees required for an ATC cold wash is bound to take an hour or so - I think I read that the 1000 watt heaters can raise the temp 1 degree every 5 minutes, right?

Ack - when did buying a washing machine get so darn confusing anyhow!?!

I have Affinity 7000, which is basically the same machine as the 8000 and love it. I have well water, and it is cold. The laundry room is on the other side of the house from the hot water tank. I usually run the hot water at the sink in the laundry before I turn on the washer. The ATC function mixes water to get the correct temp for the cycle selected. I can hear it filling with hot, then changing to cold, and repeating this while the washer fills. It will do this for an ATC cold fill as our well water is colder than the ATC cold temp. The ATC function fills the tub at the correct temperature. The internal heater is used during all cycles to maintain the selected temp. I would go for the Affinty with the heater, it does help the performance of the washer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Affinity 8000 brochure pdf file

The sanitary cycle isn't an everyday thing for most people, so I wasn't considering it when I posted about the operating cost of the heater.

Now that you're saying you need a heater, how can you consider a low-end model without one?

A 1000-watt heater isn't nearly as slow as you heard. See the last two posts, by me and "joe in philly", in the thread below.

Here's how the heater works in my Miele: Without the "extended" option, the wash part of a regular cycle is approx. 30 minutes. The heater switches on right after the fill, and the wash proceeds normally. If the water isn't heated by approx. 12 minutes before the end of the wash, then the machine stops counting down, and keeps heating and tumbling until the temperature is reached, at which time the countdown resumes. With the "extended" option, those times are around 60 minutes and 32 minutes respectively.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg0913510231883.html

Probably too late now and it's just my humble opinion anyway, but for the record, on this question, given these two choices, to me it's a no-brainer. Affinity with the heater. $70 difference? Bargain. I'm not totally sold on a heater being mandatory, but it's a useful option for occasional use. Amortize that out over even a 10 year life is $7/year. Plus the higher spin speed, again not being used all the time, but it could extract enough extra to shorten drying time to help offset the cost difference. If you do a lot of towels, and have an electric dryer with average rates, I'd venture a guess it'd pay for the difference in savings. Nothing to support this, just a wild guess.

I personally think the Affinity is one of the best buys out there in a washer, especially in a frontload. From what I've seen and heard, it's highly underrated and too often overlooked as a viable option to the bigger names.

Thanks cynic - you posted this as I was formulating a bunch of questions in a new thread (I couldn't find this one to resurrect it). Anyway, I am leaning toward the affinity and will definitely buy one or the other tomorrow. If you know the answers to any of the questions I posted in the other thread, I'd love to hear them. Thanks so much!