We bought one of those high energy/low water no-agitator models--the Sears version of the Cabriole--and boy do I not like it. First of all, it uses so little water the clothes don't come clean. (And we have a whole-house water softener, which makes for better use of the detergent.) There's only one way to get it to use more water, and that is to saturate the clothing with a bucket of water after loading, because the machine weighs the clothing to determine how much water to use. And still, I have had to resort to using Clorox on the whites or else the stains don't come out. This is a pain because you must separate out the cotton blends because you can't use bleach on them. So the huge drum aspect is pretty much negated.
Plus, we had to turn up our water heater to try to get the hot and warm settings to use hotter water.
Read reviews of this agitator-less type washer online. Many people are complaining that their clothes are not coming clean, and also that the machine is ripping up their clothing.
This type machine can't hold a candle to the front loader I've had in Michigan for the past 15 years--pristine clothing and so gentle on them. I SO which I'd stuck with the front loader. I let the new technology and the fact of using less water suck me in. In reality, I got hosed!
I'm giving it five years before I start campaigning to replace it.
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