BigO

Also, computer boards where none are necessary.  I will not get a front-loader until it's impossible to get a top-loader.  Don't need the added headache of it eventually leaking all over the place.

@thanatos: a few years back, we had to junk a fridge because it fried its PCB.  It was cheaper to get another fridge than to purchase the motherboard, which was a known failure point on those fridges.  Stuff like that drives me nuts.

And yes, front-loading washing machines suck.

I have had a motor control circuit board fail on the washer. Cost about $2 to replace a bad FET and resistor. But the board would have been $300. It has fairly sophisticated motor controls.

I was surprised at how tiny the pump motor is. It turns out it's a permanent magnet motor. It actually still runs. A piece of bra underwire managed to get through the drum at some point years ago, based on it being rusted into two pieces. Once I found it and removed it, the pump worked fine. I noticed a little side play in the shaft so opted to replace the pump. It wasn't leaking despite the play in the shaft.

Other than that, the only problem I had was the knob failing to turn the *mechanical* timer. I fixed that with less than a dollar's worth of o-rings and epoxy.

In 25 years, I have had zero leak issues. The belt still looks good. I don't recall ever replacing it.

If this unit died and this exact model were still available, I'd buy it in an instant.

Unfortunately, everything you guys say about front loaders seems to be the absolute truth about the newer models. Even the next generation of the Neptune scares me silly.