Product review (3 stars): Good, very finicky, better than using the common
I've saved a lot of money using this rather than paying the apartment common wash fee. I would buy it again if nothing was better on the market, but there are a few cons that you should know about, and a few tips I'll share at the end of the review:

- You can't really leave the apartment while running it. The water outflow hose can come loose and water can dump into your bathroom. See tips.

- You can't run it at "high" water level. Leave it on "medium". My best guess is that the water sensor works like a "brita" filter -- it counts spins of a water-wheel to estimate the amount of water in the tub. This is not very accurate and on the "high" setting, the tank will overflow and dump water on the floor.

- It often requires intervention once during the wash cycle. It stops and reports an unbalanced load, which can start an endless fight to rebalance the wash. It's not an overfill issue -- it's a pure balance issue. This happens on 30% of my loads. See tips for trick to combat.

- Capacity is small. I went from doing 3 loads of commercial washer to 5-6 loads in this unit. (I am now a total hang-dry convert -- clothes last a lot longer than running in the drier, and saves money.)

- Haier support is poor -- I called because the inflow gasket leaked a bit, and they said it was easier to return the unit than to send me a new 50 cent gasket. Over time, the leak seems to have sealed itself.

Tips I can relay from using this washer for six months:

+ A lot of people install the bottom plate incorrectly. It is quiet if you install the bottom plate so that the bulge faces OUT toward the floor. This is non-intuitive and poorly documented, and the screw holes aren't perfect.

+ Trick to prevent endless unbalances: When the washer comes unbalanced in spin cycle (50% of my loads), there is a trick to avoiding the endless re-rinse, re-spin cycle that can follow. You should turn off the water, turn off the machine, re-balance the laundry, turn on the machine, and force the machine into SPIN-ONLY by pressing the program button four times. This will save you lots of time.

+ Buy a cheap water flood detector for peace of mind. There is cheap cute one called a LeakFrog. Put this on the floor. Now, I can run the wash without worrying about a flood. (This saved me once when outflow tube untied itself.)

+ Buy a "5 gallon paint strainer mesh" to collect lint and avoid drain clogs -- rubber band it to the outflow. (These are a couple bucks at the hardware store and are normally used to filter paint before going into a sprayer.) You will be amazed at the amount of lint that collects in these meshes. If you don't have one of these, you may clog your tub drain, requiring a service call. (This happened in my building.)

Sum-up: Not perfect, but I'd buy it again because of the money savings.