Top Load vs. Front Load Washers

Wintering in Cairo led us to be in the market for a washing machine.  The machines are pretty much limited to front loaders so we went with the flow and bought a popular model, the Zanussi Ideal.  We had a little familiarity with front-loaders from a recent visit to a friend who has one back in the states.

Check around the internet and you might find a chart like this one at About.com 

Now we already knew that there was at least one item missing from this chart based on conversations with our friend. Just try putting "front load washers stink" (don't include the quote marks) into Google and you will see what I mean.  There is a problem with mold building up on the gasket unless properly cared for.  Now we know about two more issues.  Check this vibration thread at houseblogs.net "Think Sikorsky helicopter hovering in the laundry room!" And, by the way, there is no opening the door and redistributing the load with a front loader either.  You just have to tough it through.

And the biggest think we noticed is expressed in this discussion thread.  Front load washer cycle time - is 115 minutes normal?

So, lets just revise that chart a bit: