Looks pretty good. Weigh it! Subtract a pound for the basket. As I said before Staber takes 18 pounds of varied clothes with one gallon of triangular air space dry, 2 gallons without socks which are puffy so no the clothes are not jammed in. With that much clothes I find I need 4 ounces powder, or 2 liquid stead of one. I wait till the splashing drum is a bit muffled, this indicates suds. Powder must be melted first, at least with my junky detergent. I add it manuelly. Gotta get some Tide Cold, it was thee best in a recent CR shootout. Did some reading about FP this afternoon....."Fisher and Paykel was tops in energy efficiency of all the top loaders," (CR) I'm sure Smart Fill helped with that. Staber does 5 dollars a year gas. Staber also has "Auto Fill Sensing" however, and adds water depending on the size of the load, I see no use for this frivoulous feature however. Uh-oh....here comes Dross again... In case Angela is still wondering....According to CR "Do'nt overstuff the washer.... clothing needs enough room to move so it can be properly cleaned and rinsed, especially in a top loader. You can fill the tub of a front loader, but do'nt jam the clothes in." In addition to the 18 pound capacity, the Staber works really well for puffy items, pillows, comforters, and such. I can wash 3 full size bed pillows and a lite twin size comforter all at the same time. They are rendered clean and odorless, pillows are always puffier afterward. The machine spins out fine in that mode, and does so on MAX spin speed as the machine washes these items without my having to set it on delicate, so the wash is more aggressive also. Really wrings em dry. That's what I mean by EVEREST of gentle. CR 2005 observation "New survey data show that Fisher and Paykel has been among the most repair prone top-loaders" CR observes recently that stainless steel can stand up to higher spin speeds but "has no edge over plastic". Unfortunately, in my reasoning sneeky engineers can breathe on plastic formulas in the lab in such a way as to feed mold if they elect to as can be done with paints (which contain tasty vegetable oil for mold to feed on). Plastic just scares me. It can absorb odors also depending on the plastic. Especially after 5-10 years. Stainless steel is beyond just odor-neutral, it is an air freshener. Not only that, when an inner tub is stainless both sides of it are stainless, thus protected/ deoderized, plastic parts are often hollow and what if both sides are not glossed? Hollow parts increase surface/odor area as there are 2 sides to them. The finished glossy plastic is free of pores and stain resistant and in the same way, porcelain tubs are often finished on only one side. By pores I mean either literal or regarding retention as in odors. All this plastic jiberish is really just my own opinions/theorizing. But we have tupperware that definitly suffers from these problems, and even feel greasy and smells after hot wash or maybe because of it as these tuperwares soften with heat. On the Staber all 4 surfaces front and back of the inner and outer tubs are, well stainless, and have a natural permanent air freshening quality. One things for sure, the Staber always smells crispy fresh. Both tubs are thick as a butter knife, 18 gauge, and the frame base is stainless also on the 2404 model I went with. The outer tub can also be accesed and cleaned by hoemowner. Long story short a friend down the street has a speed queen porcelain top loader and while it does'nt smell horrible it sure does not smell crispy fresh like the S----r does.

roorezzi, Let me precede a specific piece of information with a question and a (related) bit of advice. The question: do you take your friends and neighbors for a tour of your laundry room? No? Then why do you need to replace a perfectly functioniong dryer when you replace a failing washer? Alternatively, if you ae determined to buy both a washer and a dryer at the same time, what is the reason (if there is a reason) that they must "match"? You can purchase a Whirlpool brand or similar Sears Kenmore brand (made by Whirlpool) large capacity hamper door dryer for a fraction (~half) the price you would pay for a dryer that "matches" whatever the "washer that I really want" would cost you. There are some pretty big differences among washers; but dryers, a mature technology, pretty much all perform the same. Do not be dazzled by the so-called styling if you are looking at a budget. The one biggest dryer feature for many of us (perhaps not you) is whether the door is hinged on the side or hinged on the bottom ("hamper door"). A good case can be made that the hamper door is superior, but the hamper door Whirlpool (as reliable an appliance as you can find, and in production, with minor improvements, for half a century) is unlikely to "match" the "styling" on the washer that you want. Can you live with that? As to the washer -- the more important -- side, we are among those who have joined the Samsung washer owners' club in the past few years, and we like ours very much. That comes with a caveat (below), but I tell you this as a veteran of four (only) front-loader washing machines (starting with my mother) stretching back to the late 1930s. Our front-loading washing machines have lasted an average of a quarter century each, each as the only washing machine in the house, so you know that we choose our washers wisely. The caveat: we have read of some Samsung failures. Most of those failures were in the electronic control boards, so we have taken the precaution of putting a cheap surge/spike protector (a Tripp-Lite "SpikeCube," less than $7) between our electrical outlet and the plug of the Samsung washing machine to protect the electronics from dirty power. So far, so good. The feature of the Samsung that impelled us to purchase that brand is the "Diamond Drum," a dimpled pattern that reduces the tendency of the high speed spin part of the wash cycle to push tufts of clothing through the water drainage holes of the drum. This reduces wear on the clothing. That design (a different version of which Miele features as its "Honeycomb Drum") is a feature that you cannot add to another washing machine that lacks it.

Thanks CYNIC for the feedback. I thing the analogy of a weight of a shelf is very good, and very understandable. I lived in an apt. years ago with a 2nd floor. First and last time. I was in my 30's and fell once and that was it! I finally found an older photo showing what I USED to have. My old stackable KENMORE W&D. When you see the difference, the new units are HUGE to me. That base cabinet next to the W&D is being cut down and LEVELED for me. And will be attached. Yay! I am VERY careful with the detergent. I'm a bargain shopper (have to be) so I was getting powdered Sun detergent at Walmart in a large container. I gave it to my neighbors. The prices of HE detergent wowed me. But I found some on sale and then found some more at BIG LOTS. It has a lot more perfume which I don't really care for, but I'm getting used to it. It could be I'm just not used to the smell yet. And no, it's not Gain. I think that is very perfumed. Right now I'm using HE TIDE, and I found some HE ALL. I never see suds and only go by what is recommended. Less is more so to speak. I'm still getting used to doing larger loads, now that I can. The units perform very well. I love the SENSOR DRY feature. Clothes get dry without much wrinkling and don't get twisted up among each other, since there is much more room. The electronics of it amazes me, since I'm converting from a background of mechanical and physical switches. Old tech washer to new tech washer just like from a keypunch machine to a laptop! (And oh yes, I worked on those keypunch units many eons ago. Selectric typewriters also, luckily rarely). And it amazes me that the washer turns in different directions so the items stay free. The spin options are another perk of the washer. I also AIR out the washer, leave the door open for awhile, so moisture will dissipate. You are right. They are my new 'partners'. My new partners in CLEAN and leak-free. June Lynn

To me, there's nothing wrong with mixing "high end" and lower cost, functional good-quality kitchen components. More important to me is to avoid the waste implied in buying things that will not last or that will certainly become unfashionable. I live in a working class neighborhood, mostly little 1950s houses with lots of retirees, including myself. Although our lot is on a lake, this property will NEVER command top dollar because of the settlement pattern of the community. The recession has really hurt home values here; I thought our house was $275,000 to $300,000 because of previous improvements, but I believe that it's now $220,000 and that was before we launched a major addition, geothermal, and new siding, etc. No matter what we sink into the house, it's for us, not for resale or peer pressure. We have decided to retain the 30 inch refrigerator we bought last year (an emergency purchase) but to put it in a position where a larger unit could some day fit. No wooden housing around it. We are keeping our old electric range, but are adding a portable induction burner that can be set out on the countertop to increase functionality. There is room for another oven on a wall outside our new G shaped kitchen, but I don't think I will be the one to buy it (unless my grown children move back to live nearby); a portable roaster oven will suffice to augment the baking and roasting for large gatherings. We use our outdoor gas grill in all seasons for grilling. My husband enjoys the ritual of being the griller and he shovels the access space before dinner parties. The broiler in the old range suffices if he doesn't want to venture outdoors. We are retaining our existing dishwasher. Our big innovation is to add a second sink to the kitchen. All sinks and appliances are white. My muse is the idea of a "workshop kitchen." I am not trying to reproduce any particular theme, unless it is a farm kitchen that processes a lot of food in season. I do hope to make the kitchen work as a functional, welcoming space for myself and husband now that we're empty nesters and for events when we have visitors, whether large or small groups. Laminate for countertops is sufficient and my ego does not require anything more dazzling on the countertops, although there will be slabs of butcherblock on either side of the stove. Hubby decided to go with hardwood floor and install it and finish it himself, although I was ready to order the vinyl. We have found a local cabinetmaker who said he would meet the price of a sample plan of readymade cabinets from the Big Box home stores. Now, we're adding custom touches to the cabinetry plans, not in decorative features but real utility features, such as tapping the space that was wasted in "spacers" between boxes. All materials are American made, or American harvested. Except for the old siding and walls and flooring, very little is going to the landfill. Furnace went to the scrap metal guy. My own eccentricities will add all the "pop" and pizzaz that this kitchen will need. Fabric, color, laminate choice, color of stain, art, displays of collections-- a creative outlet without a high end price tag. We have splurged on a bank of windows and a few light fixtures (No, we're not putting in "cans" because the ceiling feeds to an attic where we're fighting heat loss.) We are working very hard to live within our means, following the requirements of good sense and ignoring consumer manias. When I get myself too fired up about making a more upscale purchase, I remind myself that the photos, the ad copy, the home shows and the open houses, are all there to facilitate SELLING, not living. Here in Minnesota, where granite is quarried, I know that some of the rock countertops are fairly reasonable, but as I have declared elsewhere on this forum, I refuse to purchase anything that is sold with a "how to care for it" bottle of something and some warnings about how to protect the finish. In many ways, by definition, I am free from the pressures that other posters feel in order to keep up with the neighborhood, to make a kitchen that defines a house value, or to prepare for the brutal house market. I don't envy the young and broke. But I was there once and I not only survived but thrived on it. The original kitchen in this house was painted baby blue without concern for the cathair? gobs in the paint and the kitchen 'table' had a hinge so we could access the refrigerator. My hubby and my carpenter father and a different local cabinetmaker came up with a sufficient re-do that we have appreciated since right before the Bicentennial. I raised two sensible daughters in that modest kitchen. This doesn't mean I'm not agonizing over choices today, though. "Leave me alone, I'm thinking!" is a common mantra right now. Today's musing: Do I want to order fancier cupboard doors? It's always something. Enjoy your day. Florantha