This is the age of the 'front load' washer, and welcome to it. No one can deny that new front loaders are energy efficient. They use much less water and most people say the clothes come out very clean. What we typically run into is draining problems. Because the washer basket is sitting on its side (as if were being poured out), anything left in the pockets of pants and shirts goes past the lip of the basket and down into the drain pump.

These drain pumps are typically small electric motors with a plastic impeller. Anything that makes it to the impeller usually damages it, and the pump has to be replaced. The best thing you can do to insure your washer makes it through many loads of laundry and has a long productive life is .....clean out your pockets before throwing your pants in the laundry.

Maytag Performance Series Front-Loading Washer

Another, and maybe I should have listed it first, is the soap issue. Putting in the right amount of soap has always been, and continues to be an issue. Think of it like this. When you had a top load washer, with the basket sitting upright, it could hold say 30 gallons of water, just for the sake of illustration, and you put in a cup of soap. Now the basket sits on its side and hold 3 gallons or less of water. You have to use 1/10th the amount of soap or less. Too much suds is one problem that can cause draining problems, but the other issue is mildew smell, too much soap can aggravate that as well. This is why the 'Affresh' tablets came out, to clean that build up off from between the inner basket and outer tub. We've seen mildew so bad that the tub boot around the opening has had to be replaced.