I can't speak to the quality of the individual appliances you're considering, but I will mention that, if you care about how you spend your money and what your money says about you, there are better choices than GE. GE just recently "decided" to keep its appliance division after years of shopping it around (no takers). I've been around long enough to know that no one makes big investments in something they plan/hope to sell. Maybe GE broke that rule, but based on what else I've learned about them, I have my doubts. GE has a documented history of being a bit -- um, disrespectful -- to customers and employees. In the mid-80s GE sold a series of refrigerators on which the compressors failed prematurely; GE did not step up to the plate to address the issue. Many customers with GE dishwashers dating back even just ten years or so found that, if the DWs started leaking, the most likely culprit was a small part that could only be replaced as part of a larger $250 assembly. GE also had/has a corporate staffing policy in which 10-20% of their employees were to be appraised annually as barely capable of doing their jobs and, with that rating, were encouraged to leave the company. I work at a company that was run by a GE alumnus and that rule lasted about a year before it was abandoned. GE's behavior, sadly, is not atypical. I'm sure there are other companies that do some of those things and I'm sure Whirlpool has made its share of questionable decisions. But I decided I didn't want to reward with my money any company that does that.

Agree with rmtdoug..... "Buy an FL for other reasons." Get one with a heater......Gentle, thorough washing; ability to manage actual temperature in-use; same dependable performance regardless of load size. For me, 7+ trouble-free years with Duet FL after decades with conventional TL's. (I do 2-6 loads a week.) Can't imagine going back to TL after this experience. My water's cheap anyway but have saved a little in volume and heating. Bigger savings in detergent and other products used. There are savings that way, but not enough to govern the decision, IMHO. The machine just works better than any other ever owned. Still use conventional TL at another location (mom's) but MUCH prefer the FL.

Shawn1972ut: "Front loader complaints of smell, long cycle times, inefficient rinses, poor electronic components, and failure rates at less than 5 yrs concerns me. " It is necessary to separate issues of front loader vs. top loader from issues of generations -- both generations of people and generations of manufacturing. The numbers would be difficult to aggregate, but, with a fair degree of certainty, it can be said that a majority of the automatic washing machines ever made have been front loaders. Front loading automatics have been around since the 1930s, but top-loading machines did not lose their mangles (those wringer arms that you see atop older top-loading washing machines) -- that is, they did not become automatic, until after World War II. Like tail fins on automobiles, top loading automatic washing machines became all the fad in the United States in the 1950s, but never caught on elsewhere in the world. In the United States, though, some consumers mistakenly think of top-loaders as "traditional." There is a high correlation between those who refer to top loaders as "traditional" and those who simply do not know what they are talking about. A couple of generations of housewives (that is not sexist, just the way society was organized), brought up on the post-WWII top loading machines, were educated to think that you need at least 40 gallons of water to wash a load of laundry. And that much water required at least a cup of laundry detergent; and if one cup is good, aren't two cups even better? When those consumers encountered later generation water-conserving front-loading washers, they continued to use their two cups of detergent per load, and that detergent overload is the source of a lot of the negative comments you see about front loading machines. Now, getting to your question, there are two kinds of "features" in washing machines. One kind of feature is choice of materials and construction techniques. Speed Queen washing machines are rightly often praised for construction quality largely because of choice of metal bearings in place of nylon bearings, heavier gauge steel where it counts, etc. The other kind of features are multiple selectable cycles, programability, LED screens, etc. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Personal opinion: one of the better "features" is a dimpled stainless steel drum. When a washing machine's drum spins for water extraction, fibers of the laundry inside the drum are drawn through the water drainage holes in the drum, and that accelerates fabric wear. Miele pioneered the "honeycomb" drum, with the drainage holes positioned in small domes in the drum surface to minimize the fabric pull-through. Samsung rather blatantly copied that feature in its "diamond" drum. So far as I am aware, no other maker has followed Miele and Samsung down that road. Our family, starting with my mother, has owned only four washing machines in over 75 years; they all have been front-loading washing machines. The first three lasted, on average, over 20 years each in moderately hard use. We purchased the fourth machine a few years back, and the deciding factor in our purchase was the dimpled drum design; we selected a Samsung over a Miele for price considerations. HTH.

None of the top loading HE washers does a particularly good job of cleaning clothes. If you must have a top loader, the Speed Queen has the best reputation and warranty for the old style agitator machines. All HE machines use very little water and need only about half of the detergent recommended on the HE detergent bottle. Be sure you understand that the "laundry load" in the machine manual may not be comparable to your laundry. That said, the LG is probably a better risk in terms of reliability. There will be owners of all machines that are perfectly satisfied with them, as well as lemons in every machine line. I would be sure you have service locally available. It's not a bargain if you have to wait for weeks for parts or the machine cannot be fixed. Have you looked at reviewed.com for their take on various machines? Neither the whirlpool nor the LG toploaders did very well. There is something to be said for a properly leveled machine installation. Use of new hoses may help to prevent leaks. Be sure your installers do a full cycle to check for leaks before they leave. If you're worried about balance, put a full load of towels in that cycle and run it on high. None of these machines will last the 15-20 years of the old Maytags and Whirlpools. If you get a machine with lots of electronics, put in surge protector where it plugs in. That suggestion from another member saved by machine when we had repeated power outages. My daughter has an LG he toploader she is happy with, but she doesn't wash a lot of pillows, blankets, and pet laundry. I didn't like the rinse or the spin on her machine for a load of beach towels. I have a Kenmore frontloader built by LG that does the heavy duty laundry very well. Good luck in your search.