When I lived in a rented 2-room cracker box of a house, I'd do my laundry at my parents' house. I'd dump a heaping scoop of Arm & Hammer FabriCare Laundry Detergent with Color Safe Bleach into the ol' top-loading Roper, start 'er up and after 30 seconds of agitation, I'd toss in the clothes. When I couldn't use my parents' washer, I'd go to a laundromat and seek out one of those big ol' front loaders, hoping some day to own a front-loader myself.

Well, that day finally arrived (Labor Day, 2001, of all unlikely days). That was the day the fine folks at Lowe's Home Improvement Center delivered my new GE WSXH208AWW Extra Large 2.7 Cu. Ft.Front Loading Washer and its companion gas dryer to the house I now own. My wife and I were the first of our immediate families on either side of the aisle (on November 17, 2001, we took the plunge) to own a front-loader and in the next few months, as friends and family drop by, I anticipate a few converts.

Once you've made the switch to a front-loading washer, you'll wonder why it's taking so long for most Americans to catch on to this way of doing the wash. Cost? Baloney. Every manufacturer has a premium line of laundry equipment, and $600 top-loaders far outnumber same-priced front-loaders. Capacity? Try again. This GE holds 14 pounds of dry-weight cottons, as much as the vast majority of top-loaders. What about all those horror stories of flooded laundry rooms? Oh, come on. That might have been true back in the 1960s and '70s, when front-load washers were as unreliable and as unpredictable as, say, a Ford Pinto or Chevy Vega. Today's front-loaders never fill with water beyond the bottom of the washer door, so, yes, you can add a forgotten towel to the load after the cycle has started.

Perhaps the whole idea is still just too "weird" for some. Or, they think there's something un-American about washing clothes the way most Europeans do. Besides, aren't there already eco-friendly top-loaders on the market with more to come? Yes, but the current American offerings, the $1,200+ Whirlpool and Kenmore Calypso washers are having more than their share of maintenance and breakdown woes. The $700 Fisher & Paykel EcoSmart top-loader is getting rave reviews but qualified service personnel for this New Zealand-built washer might be hard to find here in the land of spacious skies, amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesty above the fruited plains.

The previous reviewer has already done a fine job of describing the nuts 'n' bolts of the GE WSXH208AWW Extra Large 2.7 Cu. Ft. Front Loading Washer. I will, instead, take you on a written tour of what it's like to use the machine and advise you on how to adapt to this new way of washing your clothes.

You slip your hand into a small recess in the glass-windowed washer door and give it a gentle tug to open it. After piling in your sorted dirty laundry (big items on the bottom, please), you close the door.

The logically laid-out control panel then walks you through your available choices. To the extreme left is a small drawer that you open by releasing a small concealed safety catch. Pull it out and measure your detergent into the left-most chamber. The scoops included with most "ultra" detergents might be hard to maneuver into the detergent chamber, so I find an ordinary 1/8 cup coffee measure to be an excellent tool for this task. Use 3 such measures (3/8 cup) of regular "ultra" detergent or 4 measures (1/2 cup) of "ultra" detergent with bleach. By the way, if these quantities seem high compared to the mere tablespoons required for most European washers, remember that this machine holds as much as a regular capacity top-loader. If you're going to bleach the load, add just 1/4 cup of liquid "ultra"chlorine bleach to the next chamber (If you can still find regular strength bleach, use 1/3 cup). And, if desired, pour a capful of fabric softener into the third chamber and add enough water to fill it to the MAXimum fill line. Slowly slide the drawer shut until it latches.

Continuing left to right, the first knob on the control panel sets the wash and rinse temperature. In addition to the usual combination of a hot wash, warm wash or cold wash followed by cold rinses, the GE also offers the rare warm wash/warm rinse combination.

Are you going to hang around and watch the show or are you going to be somewhere away from the laundry room? The next knob controls the loudness of the end-of-cycle buzzer, from silence to just shy of an aircraft carrier's "scramble" horn.

If you want a fourth rinse added to the cycle, set the next knob to ON, though even without the extra rinse, there's rarely a tell-tale hint of detergent perfume, bleach or softener fragrance by the end of the cycle.

Lastly, there's the big cycle control knob. It's the one that runs the show. Push inward on it and turn the knob to the beginning of the desired cycle. Pull it out and let 'er rip!

At this point, 3 things happen. The door locks and the 'DOOR LOCKED' indicator lights up. The stainless steel drum begins turning and the laundry is blasted with water and detergent. There's no water level knob on this washer because it will use its load balance sensors and water level sensor to pump in the right amount, taking into account displacement and absorption as well as the weight of the load. For the next several minutes, the clothes are lifted and dropped into a concentrated solution of water and detergent by the drum's reversing tumble action. The detergent and water are kneaded deeply into the fibers more effectively than in an agitator-driven top-loader. "Showerhead" slots and holes in the drum's baffles ensure that every item is thoroughly saturated.

A brief suds-clearing rinse follows the wash portion of the cycle and the bleach, if you've measured it into the dispenser, is metered in during the first deep rinse. This prevents the chlorine from having an adverse effect on enzymes and other dirt-fighters in the detergent.

The cycle then proceeds through a series of increasingly intense rinses, alternately pumping in water, tumbling for a couple minutes and spinning for a while. The penultimate rinse is followed by a fairly thorough spin.

During the final rinse, the fabric softener is pumped into the drum and after that rinse, get ready for the ride of a lifetime. The drum tumbles quietly back and forth until the washer senses that the load is balanced. The rotation then gradually speeds up until the clothes are flattened completely against the walls of the drum. Just when you think terminal velocity has been achieved, the drum speeds up even more after a couple minutes!

At the end of the spin cycle, the drum coasts to a gentle reversing tumble to peel the laundry off the sides and then stops. Finally, the buzzer sounds, the 'DOOR LOCKED' light turns off and the door can be opened.

The whole process takes about an hour for the Cottons cycle started at the Heavy soil setting, and the results are worth the wait. At the end of the cycle, the laundry is so dry, it'll spend far less time in the dryer.

The Pre-Wash cycle can save you the cost of pre-treatment products. The next time you're faced with a tough protein-based stain (blood, grass stains, chocolate), throw it in the washer, add a dose of detergent and set the wash temperature to cold. Dial up the Pre-Wash cycle and come back in about 10 minutes. Pile in the rest of the load, refill the detergent dispenser, reset the wash temperature and prepare to be amazed by the end of the normal wash cycle.

Like all front-loaders, the GE WSXH208AWW Extra Large 2.7 Cu. Ft.Front Loading Washer is more than just a money and resource saver. It's a whole different way of getting the job done.

For a review of GE's companion gas dryer, the model DSXH43GAWW, see
http://www.epinions.com/content_41645215364

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 597+tax&del