Product review (1 stars): What a waste of money
I purchased this washer in Sept 2009.  It stopped working 15 months later.  Repairman said "defective wash basket balance ring" and "had never seen this before".  Also, he doubted he could get parts since the Whirlpool website says these parts are discontinued.  Also "the tub bearings are starting to fail".  His recommendation was to buy a new washer - it would cost about $700 to fix.  This washer was never abused and only 3 people in the family so there was not that much laundry.  I purchased a Whirlpool product and found out thru the repairman that this was not made by Whirlpool but by another company and after 1 year, Whirlpool canceled their contract with them.  Lucky me.  No where in the warranty or service manual did it state the this washer was made by someone other than Whirlpool.  Also, the Whirlpool representative told me "I should have bought the extended warranty".  Thanks for that bit of advice.  My money literally went down the drain.  If I could give it "NO STARS" I would.