Sveta, I had a very similar conversation with my husband too! Our old washer sometimes made little tears in my clothes, and even he realized this was a waste of money. Fortunately the bastard completely broke and we bought a new one.Thus I am freshly researched on the subject. We bought a Miele - it is one of those European style ones, where the barrel rolls over instead of having an agitator, but it is still top loading to save space in our little apartment. They have designed a barrel where there is always a thin coat of water on it so that the clothes are always in water and never in contact with the barrel itself, and this supposedly is gentler on clothes and makes them last this. Apparently they proved this by washing things over and over and over again. At least I have no complaints about my clothes now, and it is much quieter than our older one too. It also has a timer function so that you can load it in the morning and then have the laundry freshly washed when you come home from work so that it doesn't sit wet all day. We also bought a Miele because they have a much better reputation for service if anything is actually broken, which it's not supposed to do for 20 years. When our last, much cheaper washer broke, we realized that the company customer service was horrible. We talked to a lot of repairmen/salesmen and they said pretty much all washers these days are the same, except for Miele, which is better-made, and besides that, the basic difference is the level of service from the company when something breaks. This is all in the context of Germany, of course, but suffice to say I am satisfied so far.
