[aberaussie]

Consumer Reports will no longer rate top loading washing machines because with the current energy and water standards they no longer work period.

Can you elaborate on this? I need to buy a washer soon and really don't want a front loader.

[Second Amendment First]

It might not have been the most stylish, but for decades the top-loading laundry machine was the most affordable and dependable. Now it's ruined—and Americans have politics to thank.

In 1996, top-loaders were pretty much the only type of washer around, and they were uniformly high quality. When Consumer Reports tested 18 models, 13 were "excellent" and five were "very good." By 2007, though, not one was excellent and seven out of 21 were "fair" or "poor." This month came the death knell: Consumer Reports simply dismissed all conventional top-loaders as "often mediocre or worse."

How's that for progress?

The culprit is the federal government's obsession with energy efficiency. Efficiency standards for washing machines aren't as well-known as those for light bulbs, which will effectively prohibit 100-watt incandescent bulbs next year. Nor are they the butt of jokes as low-flow toilets are. But in their quiet destruction of a highly affordable, perfectly satisfactory appliance, washer standards demonstrate the harmfulness of the ever-growing body of efficiency mandates.

The federal government first issued energy standards for washers in the early 1990s. When the Department of Energy ratcheted them up a decade later, it was the beginning of the end for top-loaders. Their costlier and harder-to-use rivals—front-loading washing machines—were poised to dominate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704662604576202212717670514.html?KEYWORDS=washing+machines

[ladyjane]

The front loaders are a pain in the neck. They don’t get the clothes clean and I think they are very hard on the fabric. If you forget to put in one item you can’t open the door to throw it in. Worst of all it seems it doesn’t get the soap out. Even in the final rinse there are soap bubbles. I’d rather have an old wringer type from 80 years ago!

[Rapunzel]

Here is my experience with a new top loader washer. About six months ago my old machine just up and died. I went to Lowe's and purchased a Whirlpool top loader.

All the machines now have energy efficient and water conserving features. I use the heavy cycle and the comforter cycles to get the most water out of the machine. I also will open the lid a couple of times to fake it out that I am adding items.(Can't do that with a front loader).

I remember the front loaders from the 60's and the rubber fitting on the door used to eventually always leak plus you could not open the machine to add that single sock, shirt, etc. Not very energy efficient in my book then and now. But they are pretty, LOL.