Yes the maytag Bravo is avalible with a internal heater. It is on the 850 series. as fas as I know the cabrio does not have a heater, but the Whirpool vantage does, which is a souped up over priced cabrio. The LG wave force is available with a heater too, along with the Ge Harmony. The "cooler" wash temps will apply to both HE toploaders, and Front loaders in todays market. Ther are some european models of Toploader that still beleive in using a true warm wash or True hot wash. No Non He machine has a heater in it. The best reviews for a HE toploader with a internal heater come from maytage Bravos, or the LG waveforce washer, which by the way uses more water and has a a water plus option that the maytag doesnt offer. I have the wave force, and Im very pleased with it. Please remember, whatever machine you choice, when washing with the sanitary cycle, the cycle time is long to the tune of 2-3 hours depending on options that are used. The LG takes the water to 158-160 degrees on a 110 heater. It must maintain this temp for 3 minutes to classify it as a santitation cycle. Im not sure what the water temp for the maytag is. The internal heater on the LG will work in the whitest whites cycle too. Maytag Bravos will work in the whites whites, sanitary, and in some of the warm cycles too to help maintain a warm wash. Since the clothes and drum are cold in the start, this a a good feature to have. I hope this helps you out.

Thanks for the reply gates1. I just found the LG waveforce last night, and think it would be a great machine for me. I don't mind the cooler temps for general loads, but need a sanitary, the long run time doesn't bother me.

Can I ask a couple of questions? One thing I used to like to do in my old fashioned top loader, but can't do in my front loader, is fill the machine with a few gallons of water, turn it off, add handknit sweaters for a soak without agitation, then be able to spin out the water. Do you know if I could do this in the LG waveforce (I guess it would be a non-agitating soak and spin cycle- on the old top loader I would just fill with water, turn the knob off so there would be no agitation, then turn the knob to spin). I cannot wash nor spin any of my handknit sweaters in my current Bosch Nexxt FL- the wool cycle, the delicate cycle, are all too rough for a handmade sweater, mostly because of "tumbling" in the spin cycle until it gets up to speed where the sweater "sticks" to the sides of the walls.

Also, how does the LG handle small loads? I wash my husband's dress shirts separately once a week, and 5 dress shirts in the washer don't take up a lot of room.

I need to see if a local store has the LG- it looks huge, and I'm vertically challenged!

Thanks-
Barbara

gates is right: the Cabrios do not have a heater any longer. The Vantage does as does the Maytag Bravos 850. The LG WaveForce and its sibling the GE Harmony also have heaters. On the GE, the sani wash goes to 140F as stated in the manual. I think the LG goes higher but am not sure.

All of the above washers can spin items without agitating them - given you distribute items evenly in the tub so things don't go off-balance.

Not so sure about the soak feature. The LG manual states that the washer does "weak agitation" during the soak. I suppose, however, you could just turn the machine off and let it soak that way.

Alex

The LG does use a weak agitation during the soak cycle. It is added to a wash cycle. The only way to fill and soak over night is to fill it, and unplug it. If you try to turn it off, I beleive it will drain the water first. It does handle small loads very well, Ive had no issues with this

Thanks Alex and gates 1. I am going to look at the LG this weekend and will likely purchase one if I can reach the bottom! My husband reminded me that the width fits our FL perfectly with no room to spare, so we can't go any bigger- lucky for me the LG width is 27", just like what is there now!

I had looked at the Cabrio and Bravos last year and not sure why I decided to wait.

If I can't soak sweaters, at least I'll be able to spin them out- right now I'm handwashing, squeezing the water out by hand and wringing in a towel. And I see there is a wool cycle, it is possible that it might be gentle enough to use on my handknits...

I'll be excited to have a rinse only cycle- my current Bosch does not have that feature, which sometimes comes in handy if there are still soap suds left at the end of the cycle (even with an extra rinse, it sometimes happens with bulky items).

And secretly, even though I'm all for water efficiency, there are times when I feel the bulky items in particular could use a little more water than what happens in my Bosch HE FL, and I'm glad to see the LG has the option of adding more water (which I assume is the water plus option? I just found the LG website, my previous searches didn't find it, which is strange...)

Barbara

Barbara, the water plus button is the the same one that is used for the extra rinse option. All you do is pause the washer, hold the extra rinse button for 3 seconds and you will hear a beep, press start and it will add more water. You can do this up to two times to add extra water. The bulky cycle is very generous with water. " Water plus is not availible on the bulky and sanitary cycles, maybe one more, but I forgot which one it is. Ther are times, depending on the size of the load that my washer fills all the way up to the top holes of the drum.. I agree, too like this feature, I didnt have it on my front loader that I had