My wife's sentiments exactly. The only thing that makes these front loaders energy efficient, is that they use less water. In Washing, less water translates into greater washing time, suds remaining in the clothes requiring more water (extra rinse cycle) to try to reduce the amount, and skin irritations because of the suds staying in the clothes. Our family cannot use just any He soap because we start feeling itchy. So in the end the question is, are these front loaders really energy efficient? This LG model uses more energy than our older Maytag top loader did, which was at least 10 years old. The new front loaders seem to waste a lot of time going back and forth, and then waiting. My wife has also had it with front loaders. We are going out to buy a top loader that does not have the energy star designation, and also one that allows us to decide how much water to add to the cycle, not some engineer who has no idea what it takes to wash clothes properly. And the last beef my wife has about washers today, is where is the hot/hot option. It seems that we are going back in time, where we have to lose something in order to claim energy efficiency. Not only that, but doing the laundry is taking much much longer than before. What every happened to increasing productivity for the person doing the laundry? What is up with that?!