“Are front loading washing machines bad?”
It doesn’t matter. Your wife wants one. Who’s going to sleep with you, your wife or your mother or your sister or your friend’s wife? (This is a conservative forum, so your public answer is kind of limited.)
If you want to get a top loader, it has to be your wife’s idea to change her mind, not yours.
By the way, I’ve read that new top loaders aren’t as good as they used to be because of the “environment friendly” compromises they have been forced to make to them.
“It doesn’t matter. Your wife wants one.”
Just make sure you get it in writing! My wife wanted a fancy front loader when I was fine with the old-style top loader. She complains now that “how can it get the clothes clean without any suds? I hate this washer.”
I think it does just fine. But if you put too much soap in to make it “suds” (I STILL don’t see many bubbles - it needs more soap), it blows out the $100 “suds” sensor and it won’t work anymore. And after you get it fixed it forces you to put big labels on all of the bottles that say “ONLY fill to FIRST line. DO NOT put any more in than the FIRST line.” And even then, answering the phone and saying “Yes dear. Just up to the first line, the first one from the bottom that I marked. No - you aren’t supposed to see any bubbles.”
I’m guessing that it won’t last anywhere near the 20+ years we had our old one, so then we can get a top-loader again (and make sure to get it in writing that was the choice). All new appliances don’t last like the old ones did. There was an article somewhere talking about energy efficiency ratings, etc. and how the motors are smaller (takes less elec.) but they strain more. Also that is the reason why cycles take so much longer. Of course in the old days if it was 40 amp/hours (or whatever unit they use) for a half hour, and now it is 20 amp/hours for an hour, it’s the same but looks better (Hey 20 vs. the old 40, that’s twice as good!)