I remember going to Frys in Santa Clara a few years ago, and becoming very amused with the home appliances section. It was funny to see nice shiny 'european style' front loader machines, built using a top loader chassis that looked exactly like the machine I remember from growing up in Canada in the early 70s I mean, the thing even had all the controls along a console on the back top of the machine, unchanged from the top loader variant! It was so big there was no possibility of fitting it under a counter, which is surely one of the main reasons for even HAVING a front loader in the first place.

Meile machines are pretty much the top of the range. The first one of those I came across a few years ago was the only washing machine I'd seen based around an 80486. It was pretty amazing, with a full load on maximum spin all you ever heard was a faint rumbling noise. My Bosch unit is pretty quiet, but not to that level.

Mold is easy enough to deal with, just occasionally do a very hot wash with nothing in the machine, and use bleach instead of detergent.

pca