Product review (5 stars): great washer
I must say I am surprised by the negative reviews this machine has here!  Perhaps some of the problems they had were with faulty installation.  One year ago I moved into a house with a supposedly high end front loader (kenmore He3).  I was never very impressed with it, and once it finally died I read horror stories online about how difficult and expensive they are to fix.  So I decided to look for an affordable top loader and after much reading and looking at the models in Lowes, decided on this Maytag Centennial.  I have been using it for three months, every day, often more than once a day (I have a huge family to wash for) and have only had problems a few times with the drain/ spin.  If the machine is overloaded it gets finicky about draining and spinning and you have to repeat it a couple times.  Granted, one of the times I was trying to wash a sofa cushion, which I probably should not have been doing.  Other than this it has worked beautifully and fits a huge amount of clothes.  The only thing I dislike is the locking lid.  While you can cancel the cycle and unlock it, the unlock feature does not seem to work while the machine is draining or spinning.  This is a safety issue re: pets.  I would be nervous about using this machine if I had lots of cats.  One hint, powdered detergent just does not dissolve in this machine so you have to use liquid.  I don't know if this is due to how it agitates or something else.  I use diluted liquid detergent and the clothes come out great.  I really love this machine and it was so affordable! I bought it from lowes with free delivery so I feel I made out like a bandit.