Kenmore Elite Oasis HE (#27072) Day 1

Today I washed 4 loads of clothes with my new washing machine. Although it is early to say, here are my initial thoughts on this product.

1. Delivery - The Sears delivery duo was quick, effective and knew what they were doing. Both were pleasant although our conversation was sparse. Very nice and professional. Delivered machine right in the middle of my two hour window.

2. Appearance - Looks good. Lots of buttons and green and red lights while the machine is in use. I passed on the glass lid. Sure enough, I found myself dying to see what was going on inside the whole time. Oh well. Time to use my imagination

3. Here is my response to several common comments I found on several review sites:
- "Uses less water!" Yes, it most certainly does. While listening (wishing I could see) to the machine run, I didn't hear that much water. I actually wondered if it was using any water. The clothes did come out wet, so I'm positive water was used in the process.
- "It's so quiet." It is fairly quiet, but I think that is because the noisy part is the water filling the bucket and it uses so much less that you don't get all of the noise. It makes some strange alien noises, but overall it's quiet. Except for the annoying triple beep that tells you the load is done, but you can turn this off if you so choose.
- "It uses very little soap." I bought the special HE soap and it uses about 2-3 tablespoons per load. Hard to believe it is really enough to clean, but I suppose it does. The clothes smelled fresh and clean, but I'll need to wash some dirtier clothes.
- "The spin cycle works so well, I barely have to use the dryer." These people are smoking crack or have a better dryer than I do. I have not noticed that my dryer time has decreased noticeably, but I'll keep testing. I did notice one shirt looked dry in parts when I took it out of the washer, but I wasn't sure if that was because of the spin cycle or because it never got wet.
- "My clothes have never been cleaner." Hard to tell. I did notice some black marks on a pair of khaki pants near the ankle after they were washed and dried. Possibly this needed to be stain-sticked before putting them in, possibly the machine isn't that great, possibly it's a stain that has been there for a while. Jury is still out on this.
- "The spin cycle makes my clothes wrinkled, knotted and mangled." Wrinkled? Definitely. I've never seen so many in the cotton dress shirts. I will say by the time I shook them out and dried them, they looked about the same as they usually did with my other machine.
Knotted? Yes, a few pieces were knotted together, however I didn't need a boy scout to separate the items.
Mangled? Nah, I'd say that is a little extreme.
- "The bucket is so big and washes so much." Yes, the capacity is huge. If I liked to mix my darks with lights, I could have done all of today's laundry in 2.5-3 loads.

I'll update my thoughts as I learn more with my new washer. Would I recommend it? Not sure yet, but I'll have my answer within 3 months. Do I love it? No. Do I like it much better than the piece of crap Roper that I booted out the door earlier today. Absolutely. Do I find myself wondering what else I can wash around the house? Yes. Do I wish I would have splurged for the glass lid. No comment.