Product review (5 stars): Large, Quiet and Good Price
Purchasing large house appliance is always a difficult decision. As for cloth washers, I have not seeny any brand, or any particular model that people were very happy with. But we live and we'll have to buy the appliance. I can't just take my clothes to the local coin laundry to wash.

Our 11-year old Kenmore front-loader just died. The drum poppped out of the socket, or may be the belt. I do not know and I do not care. It may cost at least $300 to $400 to fix it. And it is not worth to fix one that is that old. So time for a new one. Based on the online reviews and the price, I decided to buy this one.

I purchased this one from a local home improvement store. I never buy large electronics from online, mainly due to the possibility of return. I ordered yesterday evening and the washer arrived just before noon time. The delivery folks took away the old broken one and installed the new one in no time. This thing is large, about 3-4 deeper than the old Kenmore. The controls are on the front, not on the back like the old Kenmore. I think I prefer the control on the back, but I do not think they make that way any more.

The first batch run. The machine is quiet. The final spin was so loud before and the laundry floor was shaking. Not this one. The machine does not dance on the floor any more. The clothes come out very dry, and I've not had the problem with long spin cycle. The entire cycle finished in about 1 hour.

The clothes stayed in dryer in a much shorter time. Before I had to put the dryer setting to towel, but not this one. Normal setting should be fine. When I used the local coin laundry, I had to dry them twice in my dryer.

The only complaint I have is that, one or two of kids' socks got stuck in the rubber sealer near the front door. This may happen again, but it may be the way front loaders behave.

This model does not have the steam capability. I do not really care about it.

I paid $899 minus 5% store discount, plus 7% sales tax. To a total about $915. This inludes all free delivery and installation. This is much cheaper than the other better known brands in the store. I just need a basic machine that can wash my clothes. Hope it can be reliable.

Update 3/14/2013:
This is about 3 months after original purchase. No problem, has been happy with the purchase. The capacity is much larger than the old Kenmore that is smaller than the advertised 3.0CF capacity. We have to wait to get basket full for one wash.

We had the balancing issue maybe twice. That is caused by the single large towel. It is better to get all the towels together, to minimize the issue. The balancing/sensing goes away, after about extra 20 minutes....

I do not see the needs to spend extra for washing machine. You just need something that is reliable.