That said....
The machine has a few "quirks".
First, the tub drops as it is filling, little by little as if it is going to sink into the sub-floor. Its crazy, but I understand this is how the older Cabrios are as well. Its nothing that would cause a usability issue with the machine, its just odd to see. It dropped at least four inches in a full tub fill. (By the way, it's awesome that we can get a FULL TUB in both wash and rinse!).
In my opinion, the machine spends too much time trying ascertain whether or not it is going to have a balanced load. When you start the machine at first, it spends a couple minutes slowly rotating the basket to check for balance. Then it starts to fill. If the machine weren't so lightly sprung in the cabinet, it wouldn't be so fussy about balancing, but then again the design spins at 720 rpm and the mechanism is suspended from the cabinet like the original belt-drives, so at that speed, balance is critical.
The fill would ruin MY appreciation for the machine, though I know most people don't scrutinize them like I (or we) do so I don't hold this against the design for others to use. The machine takes approximately 8 minutes to fill!!!! Warm or hot water is going to loose some temperature in 8 minutes! During those 8 minutes the machine does the usual auto-temp thing and switches the taps on and off to moderate the temperature. STUPID! I know this has been a part of new machines for several/many years, but its frustrating when it results in an 8 minute fill, which translates to 16 minutes per load. I can say I would have an auxiliary garden hose nearby to blow away the fill-valve.
This means that on a day like tomorrow, when I am going to wash at least four loads of laundry, that my machine would use an extra 10-12 minutes per load of my time futzing around with a degree or two of water. That doesn't say much for Whirlpool's appreciation or value of my personal time. In four loads that is over 40 minutes, or the time my old belt-drives take to wash an entire load.
Other than that, the machine was fun to use, very quiet, and seemingly quite capable. How one of these would behave after 5,000 loads remains to be seen, but we both gave the machine a thumbs UP for now.
Gordon
