Deborah, Not sure if you are asking for a recommendation or not from your post. I have a 3 year old Speed Queen top loader. Very happy with it. Out of warranty 3 months now...fingers crossed all stays in a state of bliss for years to come. Be forewarned though, Speed Queen has two model lines of TL washers now. You would want what is being referred to as the "classic" line. The other model line swishes the clothes a little bit (my salads see more agitation than clothes in those washers), unlike a classic style SQ washer which gives a rather intense agitation through the cycle. A little too much agitation for our needs to be honest, but ranch apparel needs a beating like that. So far, my washer is built like a tank and has not had an issue to date with anything I've put in it. I do take pillows to the laundromat, but that is because pillows want to float at the top of a TL and I put them through the triple load sized Speed Queen front loaders so they get a better wash (IMO). For note, SQ does make a fine front loading washing machine if you were interested in that. I can't speak to whether it could handle your soils, but something tells me it could based on a few videos I've seen of it in action.

I'm facing the same issue. I recently bought a used Miele W1926 front-load washer that I obtained at a bargain price (see this thread for more on my new acquisition), but alas it's too big to fit where my old Haier mini top-loader (only holds 4.9 lbs., or 2.2kg) now resides. So I'm instead placing it in the kitchen area, the only other part of the apartment with plumbing. So I am grappling with how to best fill and drain the washer from and to the kitchen sink. For the old Haier in the bathroom, I've been using the sink-faucet adapter it was shipped with. These are inconvenient - they must be attached each time they are used, they don't allow use of the faucet when you're washing clothes, and it must be detached afterward. And they tend to leak a bit (albeit relatively harmlessly into the sink and down the drain, but still a waste of some water). I've seen similar adapters that ship with countertop dishwashers that have a red button you press to allow using the water tap when it's connected to the appliance, which would be more convenient. With the old Haier, there was only one water intake and you determined the wash/rinse temperature by where you set the sink faucet lever or knobs. It was best to set them to provide warm-to-hot water during the initial fill, then back off on the hot water and provide cool water for subsequent rinses - another inconvenience I could never get my flatmates to bother with. The Miele, however, thanks to its 240v power feed, is blessed with a powerful 2000W (2500W?) internal water heater, so you can safely set the faucet to full cold and the washer will quickly heat the water to the selected temperature. Miele doesn't allow capping off the hot water intake, but they do specifically allow attaching the washer to cold water exclusively if you provide a Y-adapter hose that feeds both cold and hot intakes with the cold water from the faucet. Thanks to the powerful 240v internal heater, this only slightly increases wash times, and it reduces the chances of certain stains setting by not dousing them with hot water immediately. So the first question is (a) should we use a faucet adapter and connect it when using the washer - easy to set up, but unattractive in use and requiring frequent attachment and removal of the intake hose, or (b) install a tee device under the sink and provide a semi-permanent hookup. Right now it has the common (in the U.S. anyway) hard copper tubing leading to a shutoff valve (which, amazingly, works) from which a flexible braided hose leads to the cold water knob of the sink faucet, similar to the one in this picture: I've never seen an all-in-one device like the one Hidroman pictured above, but I've certainly seen separate hammer arrestors and two-outlet tees, the former which would be placed before either the sink-faucet or washer outlet (and has been really necessary even with just the faucet - turning the knob off too fast causes hammering). The washer may be close enough to reach with the supplied hose; if not, I'll replace it with a longer burst-resistant braided one. The other half of the equation is draining the water. This was easy with the old Haier in the bathroom - just run the discharge hose into the shower. This would work with the Miele too, but it's no longer near the shower. It specifically supports discharge into a sink, but the typical U-shaped hose ends aren't large or stable enough to hold in place over a kitchen sink rather than the laundry tub they're made for (and bad as the occasional bathroom flooding was, I can't afford any flooding in the kitchen. I could probably modify the end of the discharge hose or cobble up something that would fit better, but it would be ugly and intrusive passing by a pantry door and up the base cabinets and always hugging the sink, helped only somewhat if I try to disguise it with a cabinet-panel raceway. Plus we'd always have to keep the kitchen sink clean. Right now, there isn't a food-waste disposer, and as it turns out I already own a working one I pulled out of a recent kitchen renovation job. It already has the "dishwasher" plug removed, but we don't have a dishwasher, and it seems I could discharge the clothes washer there in the same manner (kits to do so in the same location without a disposer are sold here) so the concept seems viable. And since the Miele has a coin/button trap and a lint filter, there shouldn't be anything unseemly clogging up the sink drainage plumbing. This approach would of course be almost invisible and imperceptible in normal use, and allow the sink, disposer, and washer to be used simultaneously if need be. The only issues here are (1) I need to install a disposer, (2) I need to run an electric line and switch to it, and (3) when I move to a new home I'll want to take the Miele with me, and can I safely plug up the "dishwasher" hole in the disposer so water doesn't leak out of the disposer into the cabinet, or must I remove the disposer altogether and either replace with a cheap new disposer without the plug removed yet, or remove the disposer and switch altogether and revert to not having a disposer? Thanks for anyone who's followed along!

angelic_one2002, although around here suggesting a TL is better than a FL can be fightin' words for a few forumers, one use is hardly a fair test, upon which it's fair to condemn an entire design of a system, don't you agree? One thing of which I'm convinced: Changing from a TL to a FL requires a learning curve to know how to use them properly. Frankly, that's one of the hesitations I have about switching to a FL. I don't do that many loads and by the time I really give it a fair test, learn how to use it correctly and get the experience and most importantly, get the dosing down for my water, I wouldn't be able to return it if it were bad. Hey, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT out to get me! :) I think there's other reasons to not like or want to consider a FL, for me a big negative is the low front opening. Physically, for me, that will be a challenge. I'd need a pedestal and that increases the cost substantially. I don't really understand the spray rinses on the F&P machines and the low water rinses on the FL, but I do accept that it's an old basic design that works for many. But I'm not going to condemn what I don't understand and haven't learned to use. No offense intended, so don't take this wrong, but your credibility is called into question when you say something like this, just like the other end of the pendulum seen so often where people claim that TL users are walking around in stinky, filthy clothes. I like to think that I'm fairly impartial. I own a TL but am seriously considering a FL when (and if!) replacement time comes. There's advantages and yes, disadvantages to each type too. You need to weigh your priorities to get the best machine for your needs and that requires reason and rational thinking. No lecture intended.

I have had the Samsungs with the VRT now for 2 1/2 months and love them. Mine are on the first floor, but the only time I hear it is when if fills with cold water (for some reason I don't hear the hot water going in). Even on the highest spin speed I NEVER hear it spinning. I think these were designed specifically for 2nd floor laundry rooms. I had Maytag Neptunes before these and it thumped loudly when it was trying to balance itself. Oh, and my Samsungs are on pedestals which usually makes the vibration worse, but as I said these are way quieter than my Maytags which were not on pedestals. If I was concerned about the vibration I would have ceramic tile put in the laundry room which would limit the vibration. My sister has her laundry on the 2nd floor with ceramic tile which slopes toward a drain in case her machine would flood. Very smart idea by whoever built that house. PS - mine are the 328 Samsung models. Do a search on the laundry forum and you will get lots of responses!