Product review (1 stars): Great, when it worked, though not for long.
We bought this washer and the companion front-loading dryer in December 2011 and loved it, it worked great.  Easy to use, did a wonderful job, no complaints whatsoever.  Around August 2012 I started noticing that the spin cycle sounded louder than normal though there wasn't any obvious "broken" noise to it so I thought maybe I was imagining things.  Since then it's gotten progressively worse and now has started making a sad asynchronous thunking noise when it spins along with a roar that sounds like a train is passing through our living room.  It's gotten so loud that we can't even be in the same part of the house without having to shout at one another to be heard.  "IS THIS NORMAL?" I asked my husband and he answered, "I DON'T KNOW, WASN'T IT ALWAYS LOUD BEFORE?"  This week a couple of loads have been left sopping wet so something was surely amiss.  A friend was over and heard the washer in full swing and said, "Whoa, what is up with that thing?  That is not normal!"

I searched online for "Maytag 4000" and found a number of reported issues online about this very washer.  I realize, now, that we had become so desensitized to the noise of this thing over a year's worth of time that we didn't notice just how bad it had gotten.  It's pretty bad.  Search for a YouTube video "Daily Greg Maytag 4000" - this cinched it for us as it sounds *exactly* like our washer so we're calling Home Depot in the morning to hopefully get some sort of resolution.  Thankfully we have a 4-year extended warranty.  I'm a little worried as I've read multiple reports about the washer being repaired and having the same issue recur after a few months.  I really hope we're able to get it fixed for good because it wasn't cheap.

Now before anyone starts saying I'm a moron who can't read manuals please be assure I did read the manual and we had the machine leveled when it was delivered and we only use Charlie's Soap HE detergent - 1 tbs (sometimes less) per load.  We don't stuff the crap out of the thing or otherwise abuse it.  Now it scares the daylights out of the cats and wakes the neighbors.  To say I am disappointed in what was a pretty large household investment for us is an understatement.

Update 06/18/2013: Right after writing my review we had a repairman in and he had to replace the main rotor and the entire wash basket.  The works had gotten so unbalanced that all the parts were shot.  After replacing the guts, tracking tons of dirt and gross sooty crap all over my hallway, and leveling the machine, it works fine again.  I'm very glad we got the 4-year service plan for this machine as I expect we'll be calling them back in another eight months or so.  The invoice for the repair was more than we paid for the machine brand new - thank goodness for service plans!