curiousshopper, the W4840's max temp of 158F is well short of anybody's idea of a "boil wash". I use temps of 122F and higher mainly for linens, towels, and underwear. Yes, I do wash housecleaning rags at 158F. Stands to reason that housecleaning will be more effective if you start out with clean rags. On occasion I have washed badly stained or soiled regular clothes, and printed T-shirts, at 140F or 158F. They might not stand repeated washing like that, but a one-time treatment can yield amazing results. Like, my college-age son handled me a T-shirt he had worn for bicycling and for high-school wrestling. It was, umm, pretty gross. A long hot wash with detergent and oxygen bleach restored it to respectable condition, far better than you'd get from any amount of soaking in a sink or an agitator TL. When using hot temperatures you do have to be careful about colorfastness. Made the mistake of washing white and green all-cotton bathmats together at 158F. They came out quite clean, but the white one wasn't white anymore. I was able to whiten it again with chlorine bleach; if it happened now, I would try oxygen bleach instead.

I gave up on candles - too much soot damages the walls. I only melt tarts now, and I buy them from online etailers so I know they are made in the US. But, sorry to say, I can't get too tweaked about something not being made in the US. The world is too small, and the economy is too global to be so exclusive. We've done it to ourselves. We want cheap, and cheap isn't always made in the USA. Can you imagine the Chinese boycotting made in the USA? We all depend upon each other. Like Dances said, the only concern I have is safety. And that isn't necessarily linked to any one nation. Look at the E Coli epidemics we've had here in our own country with our own food supplies.

@gates1: The reason, unfortunately, is that a lot of "green" detergent manufacturers are afraid to include enzymes. Enzymes are absolutely essential for cleaning certain fat-based and protein-based stains. Only two "green" detergents that contain a healthy amount of enzymes, that I know of, are BI-O-KLEEN Premium Powder and EcoVantage. These are also the only eco-friendly detergents I've used that compete with Tide and Persil on cleaning. Other detergents which I've tried that can't hold a candle to Bi-O-Kleen, EcoVantage or Tide/Persil: Country Save, Charlie's Soap, Ecover, Le Blanc, All Small & Mighty, Wisk Dual Action and Method Squeaky Clean. It's interesting to note that EcoVantage claims to be "environmentally friendly" and a "sensitive formula" yet it also contains enzymes, washer protection agents, fabric brightener and color protection ingredients - most of which are absent from other "nautral", "green" or "environmentally friendly" products. Could EcoVantage represent the perfect balance between eco-friendly and cleaning ability?

Couldn’t they just provide an adapter for the washer & dryer to share the singular dryer outlet—like they did in the past? I imagine the modern heat-pump dryer would use much less energy than a traditional condenser. And, really they are not likely to invest in the condenser models any more—old tech now, it will be HP, from here on out. This minimizes production lines. Therefore, the washer could have a stronger heating element (closer in wattage to the pro models)—this could result in faster wash times. Though the washer & dryer ratio of power usage would shift more towards the washer and become proprietary relative to standard 240V washers or dryers using all 30Amps, as long as the adapter was used, it’d be fine. Also, plugging either of them in to a dryer plug would be fine too as neither would use more than 240V/30A, so there would be no problem of over loading. Finally, most construction that provisions for a washer/dryer area have a 240V/30A outlet. In fact, this will only increase as we move toward more electrification, agnostic of generation. My city wants to outlaw gas installation in new homes—to reduce CO2 emissions. I only see this moving in this direction, not the opposite, for sure. Most people buy in pairs—especially at this price. Also, this would more align with Miele’s global operations—which are mainly 240V (so sad we aren’t). They can easily swap-out heater coils (just commodity parts) for different markets instead of redesigning their entire machines for NA. So, in conclusion, it would make perfect sense to bring over only 240V washers.