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"  Purchasing a washing machine is a big investment, so to help you find the best buy for your bucks, we put twenty of the latest, including front-loaders, traditional top-loaders, and high efficiency top-loaders through a slew of tough tests.  First, and most importantly, we tested cleaning performance. You want to know how well a washer will get tough stains out of your clothing, so we looked at everything from mustard stains to chocolate milk stains to wine stains using our stain charts (pictured below) and ran everything through a variety of cycles.  Next, we evaluated how gentle the washers were on square cloths, an indication of how they&amp;#039;ll treat your clothes. Yes, you want them clean, but you don&amp;#039;t want them torn and roughened up so you&amp;#039;ll get less wear out of them.  How much did they vibrate? After all, you don&amp;#039;t want your machine to make such a racket that you can&amp;#039;t have a conversation in the next room.  Did they remove excess water on the spin cycle? The drier the clothes come out the washer, the less time they&amp;#039;ll spend in the dryer.  Lastly, we had a panel of real folks tell us how easy it was to use the machines. They told us if the layout of the panel was intuitive or hard to figure out even after reading and rereading the manual.    To find out which washers earned top marks in our test, see our results. If you&amp;#039;re confused about which type of washing machine you should buy, check out our washing machine buying guide. Regardless of what configuration you decide is best for your family, consider these insider tips before you buy:  You can save money (without compromising on performance or features) by purchasing the model in white.  If comforters are in your washing rotation, check the manual online or contact the manufacturer to find out if a king-size will fit in the tub. None of the models we tested could accomodate larger than a queen-sized comforter.  Does someone in your home have allergies or are you just a clean freak? You probably want a washer that can remove bacteria. Check to make sure it has a sanitize or sanitary cycle that&amp;#039;s NSF certified. If it&amp;#039;s not NSF certified, it may just mean that it uses extra hot water to clean but not kill germs.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a23067/how-we-tested-washing-machines/>