[NautiNurse]

After a smelly mildew experience with an early Maytag front-loader and 11 weeks awaiting replacement parts, accepted their post-warranty salvage offer of $550 and purchased a Kenmore (Whirlpool) front loader. After nine years in a hot and humid Florida garage, the Kenmore needed new guts--mostly covered under warranty. Paid for new electronics board. 13 years and running.

As for the Maytag--and a lesson about class action lawsuits--within two weeks of cashing Maytag's $550 check, I was notified of a class action suit against Maytag due to the widespread mildew issue. The most any Maytag washer owner would get from the class action was $500 (for <1 year old machine), and I would have only received about $150.

[IamConservative]

Couple things we have learned about the smell and mildew in HE machines.

- Leave the door open when not in use.
- Use very minimal detergent. We use 2 tablespoons of regular strength in a load. The HE detergents are enzyme based. Adding more is not better.

[palmer]

As for the Maytag--and a lesson about class action lawsuits--within two weeks of cashing Maytag's $550 check, I was notified of a class action suit against Maytag due to the widespread mildew issue. The most any Maytag washer owner would get from the class action was $500 (for <1 year old machine), and I would have only received about $150.

But the lawyers would have gotten $1000 so Maytag saved $600.