Whichever you decide on, buy the extended warranty! I am going to be replacing a 1 year old front loader (Whirlpool) this week. Even though the washer broke before the one year warranty expired, Lowe's will not fix it for me because I can't provide my receipt. Their corporate customer service is horrible, as they offered to provide me with a copy of the receipt twice but I have not heard from them. So I will either get nasty with them or take my business to Sears and buy a new TOP LOAD washer with an extended warranty.