Washer/Dryer drama----continued.......

Go ahead, ask me ANYTHING you wanna know about clothes washers and dryers---I probably know it! I definitely know more than I ever wanted to! I have never researched a product more in my life. I tell you, we didn't put this much effort into buying our car or our house!
I guess it's just that there are so many problems with washers and dryers now that we wanna make sure and buy what's best.
We had a repairman come to look at our refrigerator which was leaking yesterday)it turned out to be no big deal and an easy, inexpensive fix, luckily). But he was an older guy and has been doing this a long time. He repairs washers/dryers, too. We asked him his opinions---what he gets the most calls to fix, etc.
He said Maytag is the worst and needs the most repairs. He HATES front loaders and said they cannot keep up with the calls on them and he actually refuses to work on them. He recommended Whirlpool as the most reliable. We also had a Maytag repairman show up after ours were taken away and he said he wasn't surprised we had returned them, that they cannot even keep up with the service calls they are getting-WOW! If the Maytag guy is saying that, then what does that say? He also said he thinks the main problem is the pedestals and that just about all of the calls they get are for units on pedestals. They make them top heavy and vibrate a lot more.
When we went to Lowe's to look(we went to Lowe's, Best Buy, and Sears again with an open mind and looked at everything) the sales guys there said they had just had a lady return a Maytag Neptune set for walking allover her floor and the had several sets on the floor that were returns. One still had water in it--which I'm sure was the case with ours on the Home Depot floor! The salesguy at Sears also said whatever you do, don't buy the Maytag Neptune---we've had too many complaints and returns.
After much talking and reading on the web, we decided to go with the Whirlpool Duet frontloader. We feel comfortable with that because Lowe's offers an extended warranty for $139 for 4 extra years(on top of the 1 year that comes with it) for BOTH the washer and the dryer. We thought that was awesome and at least we know we're good for 5 years! We are not going to get the pedestals(I mean we bent over for 15 years to get clothes out of the dryer, what's the diff?) Since they are lower, we are going to build a countertop over them for folding so they look built in. We're also going to put cabinetry over them to hide everything since once our basement is done, the laundry room will basically be a hallway to get to it.
Also, Jeff listened to our neighbors' Duet got through complete cycle yesterday and said it was much quieter and smoother than the Maytag.(They also don't have the pedestals) It has much better reviews, too.
Man, this has been an experience. I definitely know now to research things more before we make such a large purchasing decision.
I'll just be glad to get something and not have to think about this anymore!!!!