@khrios: did you take your mother shopping with you? Did she think she could handle the controls? If I recall, the IQ model has mainly buttons and dials and less touchscreens, which would be in your favor (in terms of user-friendlier for your mother). I imagine if you showed her the default cycles (Heavy, Regular, etc) and the "start" button, she could learn to run several different cycles, albeit without customizing them with extra features. The defaults (rinses, spin speed) should work.
One of the major areas where she (and you) will need re-education is in the type and amount of soap to use. Use HE preparations only. I stay away from liquids because they tend to gum up the dispenser and the molding into which the dispenser fits; one doesn't see that problem with powders. Assuming you are using a powder (say, Tide HE), use 2-3 tablespoons per load, no more than that. Measuring cups are pretty much passé at those small quantities. I bought some extra coffee scoops (30 ml = 2 tablespoons) and use 1-1.5 scoops per load. Your mother may be used to dumping in 3/4-1 cup of detergent into a TL, so this will be a learning curve for her.
A number of people here have posted good experiences with Sears Ultra Plus HE powder detergent. Costco sells a house brand of detergent that is labeled "HE", but if you read the directions, it says "for both top and front loading washers" which to me says they didn't reformulate for lower suds/better rinsing, they just re-labeled it.
I am not certain how a product earns the "HE" logo (pay a fee?). Tide HE on the back has a list of manufacturers (Miele, WP, Electrolux/Frigidaire, Bosch, etc) that endorse/approve the formulation---how this is earned (fee? meet certain quality standards?), I don't know. I pretty much use either Tide HE or Gain HE, though latter is hard to find in California (sometimes VONS or Ralphs carries it). Gain HE powder was reviewed by CR only once in the past 3-4 years, but it scored very high (as good as Tide HE but cost less).
Prices are the same as for the non-HE variety, but if you use 2-3 tbsp/load, your detergent costs will drop significantly. Tide HE washes fairly well, but not as well as Henkel's Persil from Germany, or Unilever's Persil versions (I have used UK Persil and Via from Sweden, which is the name used for Unilever Persil in that country). If you have friends who visit from Europe, or friends whose business travel takes them to Europe, you may be able to con them into bringing you boxes of these detergents when they fly Europe-California. Persil in Germany is sold in tough plastic pouches that pack nicely and don't break. The cardboard boxes tend to leak/rip when packed in luggage (after security goes through them) so I always place them in gallon size Zip Locks for safety.
