Hi everyone! Well, I finally got my new w/d set from Sears on 12/10 (Maytag Epic 9600). I purchased in Aug. but was waiting for my new place to be ready (didn't want to move them too much). Well, we set them up immediately and while doing so realized that the shipping bolts were not in the washer like they should've been, they were actually duct taped together inside the dryer of all places. *I'm going to call Sears & inform them of this.* Anyway, I did the routine set up stuff & ran an empty load to clean the machine like the manual says... They are stacked, so I annoyed my fiance until they were perfectly level & all seems to be OK. But, I still have some ?'s:

First, how big of a load is actually OK to do in these machines? I did a load today & the drum was pretty much packed, but everything seemed to come out very good. The only 2 things that bothered me were 1) a pair of my lounge pants came out w/ a ripped place in them by the ankle. I can't swear that this wasn't there when I put them in the wash, but I'm 99% sure it wasn't; & 2) a pair of my jeans came out of the dryer w/ a dark greasy looking stain on the backs of both legs, again, 99% sure that wasn't there before. We aren't actually living in the house w/ the new w/d so I brought the stained jeans home & rewashed them in my old TL and it came out, but what was that?

The only thing I can think of w/ the stained jeans is that maybe the FS I used (don't yell @ me for using FS, I'm only going to use it on certain loads & will make sure the dispenser is clean) made the stain, I know it will sometimes make an oily looking stain if put directly on clothes. But, the ripped pants! What happened there? I definitly don't want a machine that's going to ruin my clothes!!!

Are these things my fualt? Did I overload the machine? It seemed to spin out fine w/ only slight vibrations at spin start up.

Also, I watched the machine for the first few minutes & when it was running water in, clumps of detergent were coming out & not dissolving (Sears det. w/ Oxy Clean, warm wash) I assume it finally dissolved w/ the tumbling. Has anyone else noticed this?

OK, now on to the dryer. I think I know what my problem here was, but what's your opinion? I had a load w/ 3 or 4 pr. of jeans, several sweatshirts (5-7), a few pr. of lounge pants (3-5) & some undies (these were my clothes, I'm 5'5" & approx. 115 lbs. so my clothes aren't huge) and I threw them all in the dryer together... I think that was my first mistake b/c jeans take so much longer to dry. But anyway, I went to see how much time was left & it was considerable for how long the dryer had already been running, so I felt the dryer & it was HOT! I felt the vent & it was also HOT! The dryer was actually so hot that I couldn't have held my hand there for more than 15 or 20 secs. This freaked me out, so I stopped the dryer & felt around & some of the clothes were dry, like the undies and some of the sweatshirts so I took out all the dry stuff & left the jeans. I restarted the dryer & it dryed the jeans perfectly & didn't get as hot this time. Did I overload the dryer or was it just the mix of clothes I had in it? OR, is my NEW dryer a fire hazard?! I'm really worried about this now & hope that it was just my mistake that I won't make again... What do you all think?

Sorry to ramble, but here's more *especially for Epic 9600 owners & comparable machines: My jeans were VERY wrinkled when they came out of the dryer. I've read to use the lower heat settings, but my machine won't let me! I was drying them on one of the preprogrammed settings so maybe that's why, but is this normal that on the "normal" setting I can't change it to low heat? Also, my washer won't let me select Extra High Speed on the spin on any cycle (I actually didn't try the "drain/spin" options)... Are these just features that I lost when buying the 9600 instead of the 9700?

I've read here that you have to "re-learn" to do laundry after getting a FL, so maybe that's all it is, but I want to learn the right way, so if anyone has any suggestions plz let me know. Thanks!