i second the Miele, they are the best on the market, but also the most expensive, but as with most things you get what you pay for...

i love my front loader, it uses way less water and has heaps of different cycles, although with our miele i always use the short cycle cos anything more than an hour seems too long for me...

speaking of washing, i am amazed at how many loads i seem to do a week, i might keep a log and see actually how many it is, it feels like i'm doing about 15 loads but that couldn't possibly be right? there's only two adults and a toddler at the moment, but we seem to use so many towels and clothes... hmmmmmm.