Product review (5 stars): The Maytag MHW6000XG washer rocks, and so does Gochnauer's!
I bought a Maytag Maxima MHF6000XG front-load washer. Everywhere I looked, it was $1199, sometimes on sale for $100 less. I found Gochnauer's on Amazon in a google search, and they listed it for $598, brand new. Since they were within 100 miles of my home, there was a $129 delivery fee. I rented a van and drove straight out to them, completely skeptical. I arrived, everyone was friendly and helpful, and they loaded a brand new washer into my van with a forklift (no extra charge). They then refunded the $129 delivery fee since I picked it up. How did they do this? I have no idea, but holy cow was it a great deal......brand new and half price. Thanks guys!

As to the washer itself, this is my first HE washer, first front-load, and first experience with digital controls, 'smart' washer technology, etc. However, our washer was damaged in a basement flood, and it took me almost three weeks to find this one, so by the time I had it installed, I immediately ran over 20 loads of wash throught it.

Overall I am very happy with it so far. Clothes get clean, are very dry right out of the washer, are not all wrinkled, and smell fresh. There is very little water used, and while it takes much longer than a standard top-load washer, the total time, due to reduced drying time, is not dramatically different. With no agitator, it's more gentle on clothing as well. It's pretty quiet, even when spinning at eleventy billion RPM. The stay-fresh thing is nice for when you can not get back to the washer to move clothes to the dryer when it's done.

The downsides I've noticed are that the opening in the rubber gasket that seals the door must be wiped out as it collects water and various objects that come out of pockets, and if you add liquid detergent/bleach/etc into the trays and then wait a while to start, the liquids will leak out onto the non-running dry laundry load. There is no option to spin-only, just a rinse/spin option which takes longer. And no light in the tub, only the next higher up model, the 7000, has a light (strangely though the matching 6000XG dryer has a light). Finally, the balance sensor can take a while to figure out when it's OK to spin at high speeds, adjusting how the laundry sits in the tub, which can add to total wash time.

I'd give it 4.5 stars overall, mostly because clothes are coming out cleaner and better smelling than my previous SpeedQueen washing machine, and the energy/water usage is much much lower. I remember even after two spin cycles in the SpeedQueen, with towels and jeans it would often take 75+ minutes to dry on high. The matching Maytag MED6000XG dryer has yet to take more than 35 minutes on low or medium heat no matter what I have attempted to dry, and that's because the laundry coming out of the washer is nearly dry to begin with due to the high-speed spin and lower water usage.

Bruce