when we purchased our present house, i purchased a new Maytag washer &
dryer. this was in 1984.

we are still using both machines. if i purchased a new Maytag today, would
it still be just as good as the old one?? who knows? I have done some
minor repairs on both washer and dryer; replace heating element is dryer
about 8 months ago. but both are still going strong.

BTW, these machines survived two teenagers.

a previous poster mentioned Whirlpool, which I think is a very good machine.
if I'm not mistaken, Kenmore is made by Whirlpool. I would consider
Kenmore.
"The Dave©" wrote in message
...
I need to buy a new washing machine. I have narrowed it down to two
models. One is a base model for $287. The other is an energy saver
(Enerygy Star) model for $399. With the energy saver model I can get a
rebate from my power company for $75, making the real price $324, or
$37 more than the base model. The base model has water level and
temperature choices and that's about it, while the other model does
more stuff. Being a guy, I wash clothes, I don't get fancy. I can
separate colors and whites and wash hot and cold accordingly. I would
probably never use the vast majority of the extra features. My
question is this: Would the money I save on electricity actually make
up for the $37 extra price quickly, or would it take me 8 years to make
that back? Just looking for a general answer, btw, I don't need a
to-the-cent breakdown.