I have a Bosch Nexxt 500 and I love it. I don't know how it compares to other frontloaders, since this is my first, but it is considerably more gentle on clothes than my old toploader was.

Over the years, I've strayed 2x (2 brief and regretted moments) from Miele. Both the Samsung and Electrolux seemed VERY hard on fabrics. Their wash fins/paddles in the drum have some hard edges & I noticed clothes looking rough and pilled quite quickly. I have never tried Bosch, but I remember their wash fins/paddles looking smoother than both Electrolux & Samsung. Miele, on the other hand has smooth, solid stainless steel fins/paddles. As far as I know, I do not know any other residential machine that uses smooth, stainelss fins/paddles like Miele.

Consider this. In a front-load washer, the "speed bumps" inside the drum that cause the clothes to ride up the sides before they fall back down to the water hit the clothes at low velocity. All they do is to keep the clothes from sliding backward before they can get to the position on the drum where they can fall. They are not the harsh source of accelerated wear.

In the water evacuation process, however, the spin cycle, the clothes get mashed against the drum. During that process, locally, some portion of the fabric of the clothes gets drawn through the perforations in the drum through which the water is being evacuated. The higher the spin speed, the more that is likely to happen. In getting pulled into the evacuation holes, some fibers break. Another way to say that is that the fabrics wear.

Two makers (perhaps others, but I am not aware of any others) have addressed that issue by shaping the surface of the drum to mash the clothes against smooth raised bumps in the drum, while reducing the diameter of the water drainage holes that are positioned in the valleys between the bumps. Those two makers are Miele, with its Honeycomb Drum, and Samsung, with its Diamond Drum.

"Those two makers are Miele, with its Honeycomb Drum, and Samsung, with its Diamond Drum."
Yeah, that's why I was looking into Samsung. But Larsi has owned a Samsung and describes it hard on clothes. I really wouldn't be surprised with these new front loaders coming out in America that are designed to be stylish but don't have the same fabric care as Miele, who's had decades to figure it out.

There are many people out there washing thier clothes in a FL other than Miele and do not complain about it being harsh on their clothes. I for am have items that I wear on a regular basis, been washed for years in my non Miele machine and they look brand new, no pillowing, pulls, snags, not even on my nice thick "Lenox" towels.

gates1, Yes, we have had only front loaders in our family over three generations since 1936, and, in common with your experience, one of the pleasures has been the gentleness on clothes.

That said, many of the newer models, across brands, have gone to much higher speed spin cycles than in earlier generations in order to reduce dryer time. It is that high speed spin cycle that (apparently) causes small points of fabric to be drawn through the water evacuation holes and thus to break fibers.

That all makes sense, guess Im lucky. My 1200rmp machine has not pillowed anything I put in it, and I spin everything from Jeans to curtains at the highest speed.

I have the Bosch Nexxt 500 series, and I love it. It is my first front loader, so it's way gentler than the old top loader. It's a simple machine, but does a really good job, and I save a ton on soap. I used a Meile in Europe and it seemed very gentle as well, but the Bosch wasn't as expensive when I made my choice.

It's funny though, since I've had mine for almost 5 years, I rarely feel the need to go clothes shopping anymore. So, maybe it's not such a good thing after all! LOL!

How long do your machines run at the max run up speed? Mine only runs one minute at max speed... hardly enough to do serious damage. Most spins are 500-700rpm

fordtech, the issue is not the duration but the force. If someone shot you with a gun, the length of time the bullet took to pass through your body would be of less consequence to you than the initial shock of the bullet entering your body.

Our current washer (a mid-1990s Frigidaire, which is one of the Electrolux brands) probably maxes out at 250-300 rpm, if even that fast, in its fastest spin cycle, and is gentle on clothes; but Bosch claims that the top spin speed of its Axxis washers is 1000 rpm, and some of the newer models of other washer manufacturers are claimed to have spin speeds of 1300 rpm and up. That is nearly 22 full revolutions of the drum every SECOND. At such very high speeds, the clothes try to follow the water out through the holes in the drum, and if there is any fiber breakage one would expect it to occur in the first fractions of a second of the fiber being pulled through a small hole.

Are you sure your washer spins that slow? My old Whirlpool-made agitator TL, circa 1999, spun at 640 RPM, and water extraction was ok but not great. Since the G force varies as the square of RPM's, assuming the same tub diameter, your washer at 300 RPM would have less than 1/4 the G force of my old Whirlpool (tub diameter is probably similar, if yours is a TL). Stuff must come out of there pretty wet.

Clothes pulled through the holes in the drum? Well, to some degree yes, but I never had anything (cotton, poly or blends) damaged despite the 1400 rpm spin on our Euro-sized washer. Gorenje, Asko and Miele offer Euro front loaders that spin at 2000 rpm.

Asko spinning
Gorenje spinning

Alex

Some of the asko FL european washers spin at 1600rmp. I dont hear of anyone complaning that they eat up clothes. Ive spin my clothes for the last 9 years at 1200rmp, and I am not walking around in fishnet clothes....go figure

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My Fisher & Paykel toploader spins at 1010 RPM for a full 6 minutes. I've never noticed any clothing damage that could be attributed to spin speed.

suburbanmd asks, "Are you sure your washer spins that slow?"

No, I am not sure; so far as I know, the spin speed is not "officially" specified. I am simply guessing, based on eyeballing it and estimating somewhere around four to five revolutions per second.

"Since the G force varies as the square of RPM's, assuming the same tub diameter, your washer at 300 RPM would have less than 1/4 the G force of my old Whirlpool (tub diameter is probably similar, if yours is a TL)."

No, ours is a front-load washer.

"Stuff must come out of there pretty wet."

Not bad; no worse than our previous ca. 1972 Westinghouse front-loading washer or my mom's ca. 1936 Bendix front-loading washer.