Product review (5 stars): Very quiet and efficient washer
The number of cycles, and options per cycle, are just staggering. At first, it's even confusing, since there are so many.

You select the cycles with the main central dial. From left to right, the cycles are: Favorites specialty, Deep clean sanitize, Heavy duty, Whitest white, Colors, Normal, Casual, Active wear, Fast wash, Delicate, Hand wash, Rinse & spin.

Then in the LCD window, you get the water temperature (7 levels), the spin speed (6 levels), the soil level (6 levels) and several other options that include: Add steam, Eco friendly, Allergen, Extended fresh, Shrink guard, Add more water, Stain pretreat, Fresh rinse, Extra spin, Pre wash, Warm rinse, Delay start.

But that is not all. When you select the Favorites specialty cycle, there are even more cycles available from the LCD window. There are two options displayed in the LCD window under the Favorites specialty cycle: My Favorites and Specialty cycles. Select the latter, and there you get more cycles by rotating the main dial: those are Jeans, Fast sanitize, Stuffed animals, Pet beds, Clean washer, Steam pretreat, Kids wear, Fast steam and Wool. Impressive, as would say Darth Vador!!

And then the fun begins, as you can combine all these options. But not always. For example, if you select the Deep clean sanitize cycle, you will obviously not be able to deselect the steam option.

You can wash almost anything in this appliance. The wash drum is big enough to easily wash a comforter.

The washer is very efficient on water consumption compared to a top-load appliance and the spin cycle removes a lot of water, so that the time in the dryer is well reduced. The clothes are very well cleaned, in a very soft manner that certainly helps protect them in the long term.

But the feature that impress me the most is the quietness of the appliance. The washer is in my bathroom, next to my home office. With my previous top-load washer, I had to close the door of the bathroom to be able to work. With this one, even with the bathroom door opened, I hear nothing. In the first few days, I even got up from my desk a couple of times to go see in the bathroom if the washer was still working. There, I couldn't believe that it was indeed washing!

The reason I give 4 stars rather than 5 is related to the Electrolux after-sales service. When I installed the washer, I made the mistake of placing the drain hose too deep inside the wall-pipe. That caused the washer to stop working on the very first wash I made with it, because it couldn't empties at the end of the cycle. An error message displayed in the LCD window said that the washer needed a service call, labelling the trouble Code 13, and displayed also a 1-800 number. It was on a saturday, so I called... Of course, nobody answered. The recorded voice message rather said that Electrolux office was closed and there was no option to leave a message... When I phoned back on Monday, the lady could only offer me to give a call to the store where I bought the washer... This is not an emergency phone number and it's totally useless...

Anyway, the appliance is just great and washes very quietly and so far, I am very pleased with it. As for the long term reliability, this is the only question I can't answer yet.

Yes, I would recommend it to a friend.

UPDATE 2014-01-12
I raise the rating from 4 to 5 stars for the following reason: I have a set of white satin bed sheets that had become yellowish with time, no matter how I washed them in my previous top-load washer. I have not count the number of times I washed this set in my new Electrolux washer, because I wasn't expecting such outcome, but after, I would say, 5 washes at the most in my new washer, they are white again.

It struck me the last time I took them out of the dryer: they were white again! I've never seen anything like that in my whole life, and I am over 50. I did not change the detergent or the fabric softener, I use the same popular brand of liquid detergent and liquid fabric softener. So it means the washer makes the difference. Very glad I purchased this set (washer and dryer), it has so far surpassed my expectations.