"High Efficiency". Note that this claim is based on water consumption per load, rather than quantity of dirt removed per load or any other pertinent measure.

Water is the Universal Solvent. Think of what the Colorado River, after making the Grand Canyon, could do for the skidmarks in your underpants. Basic high school chemistry teaches that a washing machine operates using water to clean clothing; agitation, heat and detergent merely enhance the process.

I am, based on an engineering degree paid for by repairing major appliances, an outspoken critic of "water efficient" front-load washing machines. See one of my previous responses:

No matter what the marketing department may have told you, washing machines DO NOT remove dirt by agitation, they DO NOT remove dirt by soap, and they DO NOT remove dirt by cute little silver tablets. They remove dirt by water, the Universal Solvent. Think of what the Colorado River could do to the skidmarks in your underpants.

Now, if a certain pollutant (the oil from perspiration, for example) has accumulated in your laundry to the point where it exceeds the solubility product (known as Ksp in chemistry circles) of the quantity of water in the washing machine, no more dirt will dissolve. Just like putting too much sugar in a cup of coffee, it won't drain away when you guzzle the cup… or when the washer does its drain cycle.

A basic recollection of high school chemistry should adequately refute any suggestion that these things work as well as top-loaders.

Want to prove it? Take your smelly laundry to a laundromat with top-loaders, wash it, and see if it smells better. I'll put money on it.

Sure, front-loaders have been popular in Europe for an eternity, but think about the other electromechanical things popular in Europe: flickering TV sets, Peugeot cars, line voltage with a double chance of electrocution, tankless water heaters to ensure lukewarm showers, etc. Front-load washers are marketing hot air, sold to consumers as an "environmentally friendly" way to push higher-margin machines.

Other silly things about front-loaders:
-Which do you trust to contain the water and thus prevent a flood, gravity or a cute little rubber seal? Especially when that rubber seal gets worn down every time you drag the rivets in a pair of wet Levis across it? (Wanna try it and simulate ten years of use in ten seconds? Cut up an old pair of Levis, sew them together as a belt for your belt sander. Go to town. If there's no damage to the seal, I'll believe that long-term use won't damage a very labor-intensive, many-$$$-to-replace rubber seal. Now call your local appliance repairman and ask him the price to have that cute little rubber seal replaced.)
-It's bad enough I have to stoop to load/unload my dryer (which HAS to be front load for the clothes to tumble); do I really want to stoop to load/unload the washer as well?
-Front load washers have to be mechanically or electronically sophisticated in order to reverse the drum every 20 seconds or so. That extra sophistication means more parts, making more potential points of failure. Realistically, few consumers call the appliance repairman when the thing breaks down – they just buy a new one. Most top-loaders seem to last about 20 years, most front loaders seem to last about 10.
Therefore, which one has the greatest environmental impact – more water to wash, or more coal to smelt the scrap metal twice as frequently?
-Front loaders take forever to wash clothes. No matter how long you stir that coffee cup with too much sugar in it, you will never get all the sugar to dissolve.

My advice: call a large Maytag dealer. Buy a used Maytag top-loader from before 1995, or buy a new Maytag top-loading laundromat machine, since this is a new washer which uses exactly the same parts as Maytag consumer washers did from 1950-1995. Their old consumer machines were known to last 30+ years in typical residential use, 10+ years in typical laundromat use. Sure, you might have to change a belt (and use a real Maytag belt!) every few years, but that's all. Their new consumer stuff is nowhere like that, top-load or front load.

If you're concerned about water savings, do what I did (with the 1954 Maytag washer I inherited from my grandparents, bought when they moved to Canada): use the washing machine water to refill your toilet:

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