Question:
It's hard to believe. It is a brand new washer, front loader, MaytagNeptune model number MAH5500. I paid $999 for it. The thing won'tspin anymore. It locks the door shut permanently. When I yank thepower cord and wait for a few minutes, it reboots and acts normaluntil I try to use it. All it will do is fill the tub and count downthe timer. If I cancel the wash program and try to do a spin, thewater pump kicks in until the timer counts down to zero, then itfreezes with the door locked. I can get the door to unlock by doing acold reboot, pressing off, and then pressing the signal loudnessbutton and wait for two minutes.

I saw that in the past the model number MAH3000 had problems likethis, and Maytag had some upgrade kit for a door gasket and somethingelse. On that model, it was likely the motor controller board thatwent. So here I am, sitting on a brand new thousand dollar piece ofexcrement. The repair people will come out soon and fix whatever wentflooey, but I feel like a sitting duck now, just waiting for the nextmajor failure. I feel very foolish for having bought this.

I researched this purchase pretty well, but I should have used thesearch string "Neptune spin" to get at all the bad stuff. I missedall the bad feedback, because I guessed the search string wrong. So,to help out anybody else who has not figured out Maytag yet, here aresome ancillary descriptors to make this post stand out: bad faultyunreliable reliability unreliability crap poop worthless rottenundesirable

Answer: I'm very suspicious of claims like "They get your clothes cleaner."Th clothes look and smell clean. Stains are removed. What are peopleusing as a quantitative measurement for "cleaner"? Besides marketing hype?You hear the same sort of qualitative, but non-quantitative claimsin the rec.audio groups, too.

When it comes to "abuse" of the clothes - delicate knits and such havegone through the washer dozens of times, without pilling, etc. Whatis a high-end washer supposed to offer beyond that - a built-in tailorto lovingly restore any pulls or pills that may inadvertentlyhappen?

When it comes to capacity - the high end washers we saw when we wereshopping around tended to have half as much capacity as the standarddepartment store models.

That ties into energy and water savings - if you have to run the machinetwice as many times to wash the same volume of clothes, then where arethe savings? For that matter, here in Upstate NY, the water is soplentiful they practically pay us to use it.

Perhaps I'm just cynical, but all of the reasons that the owners seemto give for spending 4 times as much for a washer tend to be longon speculation, but short on facts.

I have proved to myself that front loaders are definitely easier onour clothes.

We installed a "septic protector" filter ,to filter out fibers from the washer discharge before the water drainsinto our septic field. (These fibers can plug the leach field lines)

The filter needs to be emptied on a regular basis. With a toploader we needed to empty this filter weekly. With our front-loaderwe only need to empty it monthly. The quantity of lint produced bythe washer is far less with the front loading machine, which meansthat fewer fibers are being beat out of the clothes during the washcycle.