Great washer: the clothes come out clean and almost dry.

I bought my wife the Duet Sport a few weeks back. In fact, we bought both the washer and the dryer, with the matching pedestals. They were a little pricey, but she really wanted them.

The Duet Sport is a little different from the standard upright washer. In fact, when you use it for the first time, it's a little disconcerting.

The first thing you notice is the room. They don't look nearly that big. Our previous washer was a Whirpool "Extra Large" upright. It served us without incident for 9 years. Great machine. But imagine our surprise when we realized that the Duet Sport---billed as a "small" Duet---was significantly roomier than our previous "Extra Large" upright! Our Sport is something like 3.3 cu. ft., which doesn't seem like it should be that roomy.

The second surprise is the loading. These things can be pretty full. Of course, you shouldn't overload it and expect your clothes to get clean, but you can basically fill it up. I mean, load it until the clothing or whatever actually touches the top of the machine. I'm not advocating actually packing it, but if you fill it until the machine is literally full, all sorts of interesting possibilities open up.

When you go to start a load, you notice there's no way to set the water level. This is really cool: the machine actually figures out how much water to use! Isn't that great??? I always just cranked it to "Extra Large Load" on the previous machine, because I was afraid of my clothes coming out stinking. But the Duet Sport actually monitors the water level internally, and adds more as it needs it.

The other typical settings are there: water temperature, spin speed, extra rinse, etc. But in an extra touch of coolness, the machine has several pre-programmed cycles, which have reasonable defaults for everything. You can alter the settings before actually starting the load.

The soap dispenser actually comes all the way out for cleaning, which is cool. You'll find you use much less detergent with this machine than you do with a traditional upright.

Once you start the machine, it's a little disappointing to watch. I was expecting something like the old front-loaders at the laundromat, whirling the clothing madly in a swirl of color and suds, but it actually does more rocking than anything else. And the water levels seem way too low. So low, in fact, that the clothing seems to be damp rather than wet. I'm actually glad I didn't watch a load until a couple had already gone through: I would've probably sent the machine back as defective.

One really interesting feature is the pattern of suds running down the window in the door. There's so little water in there, you can actually see a rivulet of suds running down from about 1/3 up the window. So the water level appears to be below the window itself.

The wash cycles take longer than on an upright. But the clothing comes out very clean, and once you figure in that you do fewer loads (because the loads are significantly larger), you're definitely spending less time doing laundry.

The clothing does come out very dry. It's annoying, actually, to be unable to tell if the load is ready to go on or ready to go into the dryer. I actually have to ask my wife whether the washer is "Clean" or "Dirty" before use.

A lot of people warned us about the built-in sock loss mechanism: small articles get into the seal around the door and get trapped there. We've had to rescue a couple socks already, and I even watched one work it's way in one time. You can tell I have a pretty boring life.

One feature we really like is the timed wash: instead of having to time your laundry with showers, etc. you can just delay the start for 5 hours, and then it'll run after you've gone to bed or work or whatever.

There are a number of knobs, buttons, and lights on the front of this thing. Actually, it's kind of cool to stand in the laundry room with the lights turned off and the machine going. Of course, it would be even cooler for me to just get a hobby or something.

The pedestal seems to be a worthwhile investment. The machine is too short for your average adult, and the pedestal raises it to a more natural level. Further, the pedestal slides out, revealing a pretty sizable drawer for storage. This is really cool. This brings up another interesting point: the form factor lets you store stuff on top of the machine! So it's a net gain in our crowded laundry room.

All in all, I'd recommend this thing. I have no idea how much it will impact our electric and water bills, but it's already cutting down on the time demands of laundry in our family, just by virtue of the loads being so much larger.