Thanks to the forum members who have helped me as a lurker over the years. I'd like to give back. I was unable to find the information I wanted prior to purchasing my washer and dryer. So here is what I have learned since purchasing. First what it takes to install the units and then a little about my experience with the units. The photos are uploaded small as per this sites instructions, but double clicking will take you to the host site where they are seen larger.

Samsung DV457EVGS 4.5 cubic foot front load washing machine. DV457EVGSGR/AA
Samsung WF457ARGS 7.5 cubic foot dryer WF457ARGSWR/AA

In preparation for installing there are several things you must do and things you may want to have or purchase.

Box cutter
Heavy duty hand truck
slip joint pliers
Good quality Teflon tape
felt pads 1� round
Good quality 6 ft washer hoses
Appropriate dryer electrical plug
Phillips head screwdriver or electric one
Flat head screwdriver or electric one
Bucket and towels
Know where your water cut off is for your house.
Plastic zip ties
Quick connect hose adapters for the hot and cold outlets
#10 socket and ratchet
metal 4 inch duct work for the dryer and worm drive clamps
stacking kit if you are going to stack
mini resister water-hammer arresters two for each washer

Here is what the washingWF457ARGS comes with:

The washer units come with 2 4-foot hoses. They are basic with straight ends. One is labeled hot and the other cold. These are basic hoses that are functional but not usable for my purposes. I had purchased on my own "FSP accessories by Whirlpool" braided hose, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSFw456h6Ns two six-foot braided hoses. One of the ends is a gooseneck and the other end straight. I also purchased felt pads for the bottom of the washer. I recommend the 6 ft hoses for ease of working with and moving the units.

I also purchased 6 ft dryer electric plugs in the configuration of the existing wall plugs. I also purchased "orbit" quick connect sets to hook up the hoses to the water on the wall. These are made of brass and are used for garden equipment to attach a hose to the spicket easily and disconnect. They are about five dollars at the hardware store. I find having these makes it easy to remove hoses at the wall rather than having to unscrew the hoses with a wrench. I also made sure to purchase good-quality Teflon tape.

Before installing the washer and dryer, I hired a plumber to redo the water and drainage. Previously I only had one washer and dryer and I wanted to second. When you add a second washer you have to have a second drainage pipe and I believe code calls for at least a 2 inch pipe for each unit. You could put one drain into the existing drainage and one to the sink. You also only need one hot and cold water supply which you can spit. I chose to add new water and new drains in the wall. The old water hookup had the old compression style handles where you would have to screw the handle down to turn off the water. Those are very cheap and often times the insides deteriorate and fail and cause trouble. I had these replaced with quarter turn fittings. You may be able to do this on your own. Many new wall boxes come with this type of fitting. You may need a plumber to help.

Your washing machineWF457ARGS will come with a plastic fitting to wrap the end of the drainage hose around before you put it into the drain. It keeps it from straightening out and falling out. I'm not sure if the plastic tie that is included in the set is used to attach this plastic piece too one of the faucets on the wall?

Your washing machine WF457ARGS also comes with a wrench tool that you can use to remove the shipping bolts on the back and also to turn the washer feet to balance the washer. If you do not use what is included you can always use a number 10 socket on a ratchet which works a lot better. You will also have to purchase the metal duct work for your dryer as well as the worm clamps. You will also have to purchase a stacking kit from Samsung which are around $30. The kit comes with two plastic pieces that go into the bottom of the dryer and brackets that you affix to the back of the washer and dryer. I recommend purchasing a set of mini resister water hammer arresters. I purchased one made by Sioux Chief. I purchased one for the hot and one for the Colts sides. They are anywhere from $10-$15 apiece at the hardware store. I found mine at Lowes' for around $10 apiece.

Also you want to have on hand a good box cutter tool to assist in cutting away some of the plastic. Also a nice Crescent wrench or plumbers slip joint pliers are helpful. A flathead screwdriver and a Phillips head screwdriver are also necessary.

The dryer will come with a brass splitter (to get water to the steam dryer) for the water as well as two hoses, I believe a 4 foot hose and a smaller one foot hose. The dryer also comes with a large plastic piece that you can put your shoes or sweaters on in the dryer. That is at the top of the packing so do no throw that way.

The units particularly the washer are very large and very heavy. They are tested at the factory and have some left over water with makes them even more heavy. The units come packed very well in plastic so that you can pretty much see the entire machines without unpacking when they're delivered. These are not packed in cardboard boxes, rather only in Styrofoam and wrapped in plastic. Mine came delivered on a large semi on pallets. When it came off the packages were pristine. I did not unpack them as is recommended prior to signing the shipping papers. This is easier then it sounds and very stressful if you try to unpack the units and inspect with the driver standing there. The driver just dropped them into the house. You definitely need a large professional hand truck to carry these.

I had an old Frigidaire Kenmore frontload washing machine that seemed to weigh about half of what this washer weighs. Leaving the units in the packing may help with moving the units. I moved them both ways.

The best way to unpack them I found was actually in the living room where there was plenty of space. The first set I unpacked in the small washer dryer area and it was very difficult. The washer is packed on a large Styrofoam pallet. The Styrofoam has a large piece in the center the Jets up into the lower portion of the washing machine. In order to remove the lower Styrofoam pallet when unpacking these machines you may need two very strong people to lift the machine and one person to pull the Styrofoam off the bottom.

I worked around this with the second set of washer dryers. The first set I basically tried to tilt up the machines and rip apart the packing removing pieces and chunks of Styrofoam. This was messy. The second unit which I opened in the living room, I cut the plastic off stripping it from top to bottom on four sides and peeling it down like a banana. Then the Styrofoam top and sides came off very easily. No mess. I had a large rolled up rubber mat or you can also use a rolled up carpet that I then used to tilt the pieces on to remove the bottom packaging.

Make sure to have the rolled up mat or rug in the back portion of the machine and plenty of room to tilt the machine back onto the rug or mat. Tilt the machine backwards so that the back wall of the machine lays down onto the mat or carpet. The mat or carpet should be placed about a foot from the washer when you start the tilt the washer. This way, when the washer goes down it is sort of Lifted up at the bottom. You can either have someone help you or as I did it by myself just be careful not to let it drop all the way down. As it leans back the rug acts like a fulcrum like a seesaw. You can easily or more easily remove the bottom piece of Styrofoam this way as the machine is on its side. Having the rolled up mat or rug under it means that not only it's on that side but the bottom is also lifted up off the ground and the Styrofoam piece comes off much more easily. Working by yourself it's not too difficult but having another strong person to work with you will make the chore much easier.

From there once the Styrofoam packing was removed, I placed the hand truck at the back of the machine. I put the strap around the machine at the top going just across the top of the door and strapped in tightly. I closed the latch and the machine was secure on the hand truck. From there it was relatively easy to move the machine. Going across carpet was not easy but it is manageable. When you get the machine to the area, remember that in order to go through most doors it has to go through facing front to back. You may have to take the hand truck off and reposition the machine to to get it into the laundry room. Keep in mind that the laundry units are real beasts. The dryers are a bit easier. It is not a job for the fainthearted. While one guy can do it, it can be done safer with two strong people and there is less chance for damage. I don't think these units just come into the house and get placed easily.

Again, my units were pristine when they were delivered and the packing of these units is very good. All the hardware and everything is either taped to the machine on the back in the top packing and also within the machine. Remember for the dryer the top Styrofoam contains an important piece it don't throw that away.

Once the unit is in the laundry room, I found it difficult to move the units as they are so heavy. My floor is a vinyl floor and it sort of sticks and does not slide. At the hardware stores they make these plastic bottoms that slide that they are really for sliding things are carpet not hard floors. I purchased some felt pads.

So what I did once I got the washer unit into the laundry room I tilted it up from front to back and back to front and slapped the felt pads onto the feet. Again, these units are so heavy that even with the felt pads it is difficult to slide them. The felt pads do make a good bit of difference though.

Now that the felt pads are on, this is a good time to start taking off all of the instructions and everything and cleaning off all the tape off of the unit. They used tape that does not leave a residue so that's a good thing. Keep the tape on the top of the unit until you're ready to stack them if you plan on stacking them.

At this point it's a good idea to discuss what you will find in the instructions. Instructions actually state that if you plan on stacking these units, the manufacturer does not recommend standing the 457 dryer on the 457 washer as you will not be able to see the computer because of the angle. Unfortunately nobody told me about this before purchased these two units. Nobody says this anywhere on the Internet. Even the people I purchased from did not say this. Had I had known about this issue I would have not purchased the dryer with the computer screen on the front and I would've purchased the old-fashioned one with the dial. Because of this we now have to have a small stool in the washer room in order to be able to see the computer on the dryer. Now the units can be controlled somewhat from a smart phone app. This may make having to see the screen on the dryer not necessary. I'm not at that point right now. My wife says she had to use a stool the first few times, but now knows just which area to push and no longer needs the stool. She says if she wants to use any of the other functions, she will need the stool.
So at this point I'm ready to take out the shipping bolts. There are four of them on the back. The washing machine comes with a tool. A ratchet is probably the easiest way to do it. I used a small number 10 socket and they come right out. People that are new to front load washers don't realize these bolts must be removed, so I want to emphasize this. Remove your bolts.

Once you've unscrewed the bolts, pull out the Rubber plugs with the plastic piece in him and keep them somewhere safe. For me, I purchased the stacking kits. There's a nice box that the stacking kits come with. Make sure to put all your shipping bolts in there so that you can find them later. I just sold my old front load washer. I actually remembered where my shipping bolts were from 10 years ago. I actually still had the old energy label from that. The old Kenmore front load washer I believe had a $23 a year estimated energy cost. This washer uses approximately 7 dollars a year of energy for eight loads a week. That's not including the cost of water. That's really amazing the difference in size of the equipment and in 10 years they cut the cost of using it by three times. Also this one spins a lot faster than the old front load that I had. The cost of the washers about three times more than the old washer too.

The machine actually comes with caps to put on the holes after you remove the shipping bolts. I'm not sure why they did this as nobody really is looking in the back of the machine. Nice touch though. Oh, you will see six caps. You may think wow they gave me extra. They're actually six holes on the back of the machine that you use the caps for. They did not give you extra.

Now is when you want to Hook up your plumbing. The first thing you want to do is attach the plastic adapter as shown in one of the pictures above to the gray drainage hose. Use a plastic zip tie to attach it to one of the hot or cold plumbing lines as you don't want this coming out when draining. The next thing you want to do is get your water-hammer arresters and put Teflon tape on the threads.

The picture above shows the splitter attached to one of the water hammer arresters and the quick connect is the black and copper piece towards the right.

The actual manufacture of the water hammer arresters recommends hooking them up directly to the back of the washing machine. For me and for this setup I feel that this works best. If this is not possible you can also hook them directly to the wall. There is quite a water hammer effect without them and I believe that this actually dampens that once they are put on. The manufacture of the water-hammer arrester says it protects the machine and the hose better if it's closer to the machine.
For the cold water, take your water hammer arrester with the Teflon taped threads and attach the water splitter that comes with the dryer to the bottom of the water-hammer arrester as shown in the picture above. To the splitter, wrap the threads with Teflon tape and then attach the hose (a two foot hose comes with the Dryer WF457ARGS) that comes with the dryer to one of the ends of the cold water splitter. Attach one of your 6 ft hoses to the other end of the splitter. The straight end of the hose goes to the splitter, and the goose neck will go to the wall outlet in this configuration. The goose neck end will go to the wall. On the wall spigot male ends (hot and cold), wrap your Teflon tape. Attach one of the quick connect sets to the hot water and to the cold water outlets on the wall. The reason I chose to use these quick connects is that on my set up the goose neck was not long enough to hang over the side comfortably. I needed approximately 1/2 inch more of space. These quick connects are inexpensive and work well and have the added benefit of being a quick disconnect and connect. I know that I will have to move the washer and dryers in the near future to do some work on my washroom and drywall so this will make getting the hoses off-the-wall quick and easy. It also gives me the room I need to have the hose fit comfortably. It adds one more point of potential lead, but it is a risk I am willing to take. When you take the hose off the quick connect, there will be no flow of water from the wall even with the quarter turn handles turned on. Attach the goose neck into the other end of the quick connect adapter applying the appropriate amount of Teflon tape. Then attach the other Goose-neck to the other quick connect for the hot water hose to the hot water outlet after applying Teflon tape. The straight end of the hot water hose is then attached to male end of your other mini resistor which has Teflon tape on it. There are plastic male ends and do not require Teflon tape. Remember not to over tighten. Hand tighten and then an extra � to � with a wrench.

The instructions say not to put Teflon tape on the plastic threads on the back of your washer. I did it anyway. You may choose not to. Attach both of your mini resistors to the appropriate hot and cold side on the back of your washer. Then from the split end of the cold side that of the washer take the hose that came with the dryer, which should be attached to the splitter, and attach that hose to the back of your dryer. (Do this only after your dryer is stacked if you are stacking the units.) There is an outlet (plastic male end) on the back of your dryer to attach this hose. If you are stacking, wait till you've stacked her washer and dryer to connect this hose. Remember to hook up your hoses onto the splitter before you attach the water hammer arrester to the back of the machine. The reason is that the male end on the back of the washer is plastic and you don't want to be torquing hoses onto the splitter with it attached risking breaking the plastic.

For the dryer, if you are stacking, you wont need to put the felt pads onto the legs. The legs will easily be removed. Tilt your dryer all the way on its side onto a blanket to prevent it from damage. The legs will come off by hand. Remove all four legs. Put the legs in the stacking box along with the shipping bolts.
I forgot to take a picture of the stacking kit. The kit includes 4 brackets. Two for one kind of machine and two for another kind. It also comes with two large plastic pieces that fit onto the sides of the bottom of the dryer after you remove the legs. The instructions that come with the kit are easy to follow. The plastic pieces go on with two screws each. Once the plastic pieces are on, bolt the appropriate brackets loosely onto the back of your washer. The next step requires two strong people. You will lift the dryer gently onto the washer. The plastic allows the dryer to slide gently back on the washer tip without scratching it. You will then complete the bolting process by tightening the bolds in the back of the washer and dryer. This is what it will look like when you are finished.

Attaching the electrical plug (not supplied) to the back of the dryer is easy. Make sure to not lose any of the screws when installing the wires. For the three wire plug, the middle is the ground and the other two are hot usually. Getting the plug in takes a bit of working to get the clamp pieces just right, so take your time.
Now for the connecting the dryer exhaust. In my case I have only one exhaust leading through the wall to the outside. In order to have two dryers exiting into one exhaust line, you may have to rig up a special exhaust line. I purchased a "T" adapter at the hardware store. I also purchased two one way dryer exhaust valves. These are plastic pieces that cost about $6 that fit into the end of a 4 inch line and have a little plastic valve that allows air to flow only one way. I put two of these at either end of the "T" and I hooked up the leg of the T to the exhaust line. I affixed everything with worm clamps. The plastic one way valves have holes in the corners. I used twine to hold the two plastic pieces together across the T as the worm clamps did not hold well. I purchased the expandable hard tin exhaust lines for the dryer with the adapter ends. One end fit well onto the back of the dryer, but I had to remove the other adapter end to fit onto the T. The bottom line is that it works great. This is not permanent, but it could be. I plan on putting a separate line out when I finish working on the room. Remember the space limiting piece is the 4 inch duct work in the back of the machine. The dryer has ports on either side of the lower end of the sides in the back that can be knocked out to switch the exiting of the exhaust to either side.

The final product looks like this when it is all done.

We like these units. I have had other front load washers in the past, including Miele. These are not as nice of machines as the Miele units, but cost less and clean more than twice the amount. They do not require 220 volt sockets but they do heat the water and have steam. (I don't think Miele require 220 anymore for the washers.) They are extremely quiet and at 1300 rmp very still and quiet. At maximum there is no jet taking off sound like my other units. Finding a person to work on Miele in my area was impossible. All this with a better warranty then Miele, it was an easy decision to choose these units. I like the idea of a "diamond drum" similar to the honeycomb design of the Miele. The drum design was one of the major reasons to choose Samsung. Unfortunately not much is written about this on the internet. The design seems to increase the surface area and also decrease the amount of clothing being sucked into the tiny holes.
I can attest to cleaner fresher clothing than our old Kenmore Frigidaire units. I can tell you that having all the different cycles is worthless as I expected as my wife will only use maybe three cycles. I was hoping having the internet function would allow Samsung to update and diagnose my machine on line, but I'm not sure this is possible or if they plan on using the internet access this way.
My wife loves the sanitize mode for the sheets and the baby clothing. It takes longer but she believes things come out fresher and cleaner. Clothing is also dryer after the spin cycle then in our last machine, similar to what I remember with the Miele. Drying takes � the time it did in the units I just replaced. The clothing is not over heated. My wife had to change a setting, the "completely dry" setting for the sheets. For regular clothing she has it on "not completely dry" and she can't tell the clothing is not completely dry. For sheets she has to put the setting on "completely dry" as things can get wrapped up in the sheets and bedded and not completely dry. So by changing the setting for the sheets, everything get dried just right.
The units have lights in the washer and dryer. The dryer lint compartment has less lint on loads that are larger than our old units. This means that either the old units got all the lint out already or these units are more gentle or they don't trap as much lint as the old units. I'm going with more gentle.
My wife thinks the units are "pretty" and she likes this the best. I chose the onyx color as it cost less than the white when I purchased them. She says she can wash 2 king sized flat sheets, 2 full flat sheets and a full comforter and a crib sheet and 6 pillow cases in one load with some room to spare.
As far as time for a particular wash cycle, I'm a believer that longer is better as far as cleaning and getting all the soap out from my Miele days. Having two washer and dryers makes longer cycles more doable. I'm not a believer of the steam foam thing and feel this is a marketing ploy. I feel you should be using liquid detergent with these units in the first place. Also, less suds is better in the front load units. I believe that the enzymes in the modern detergents is what gets the clothing clean, and you don't need suds for this. People still think suds are better, so I think manufacturers of the machines and soaps play on this belief. I remember when I first got my front load Miele and we could wash clothing without soap as there was so much left on the clothing from the previous top load washers. This taught me an invaluable lesson that less soap and suds may be best. More time to wash out all the detergent and the dirt the detergents hold is better.
I did not purchase an extended warranty. I purchased with an AMEX card which will give me an extra year after the warranty is up. After that, there is enough information on the internet to fix these machines on your own.

I mean there are things you really need to know and don't find out until it is too late. Also you end up buying something with questions and hoping for the best when you get it home. That is how it was with this purchase. When you research things, people will give a subjective review of how the product works for them, but it never seemed to be enough information. I just wanted to put this out on the internet so that it could hopefully help someone considering putting these units in or doing some of the things I ended up doing.

I ended up doing a couple of loads in these units myself. I washed two king sized pillows. Two were el cheapo and two were designer brand. Both were fiber filled. There was plenty of room for the pillows. The end result was the pillows came out a little twisted and lumpy using the bulky laundry settings. Nevertheless, it did not destroy them and two pillows were washed and dried at the same time in each unit without trouble. Both cheap and more expensive pillows did about the same.

When washing king sized bed sheets, they will get twisted up in these machines. Happened in other machines I owned too.

I ended up connecting to the internet and it was so very easy. It found all the wireless in the homes around me and it had my wireless as number one. I just hit connect and put in my password and it was connected. I attempted to download an update, but nothing happened. So I called Samsung and that was also a great quick experience. Turns out there was no update to the software.

I also like the bins you put the soap into. The plastic is real smooth and the soap does not stick. It is very clean and removable for easy cleaning.

Again, these units are whisper quiet.

Can you tell me how deep an area is needed for the stacked set...on the washer in store it set 5.9 inches depth clearance...is that because the stack is sort of an L device...or is there something more behind that?

How did you get the sets into the alcove? Did you stack and push 1 side at a time or did you have room enough to go behind the machine? We don't.

Did you use the water hoses they provide or get other ones?

Thank you.

There is nothing you can do about the offset when stacking which again will add about 4 inches in depth. I know I wrote alot, but if you missed it, remember when stacking to keep in mind they do not recommend the model with the computer screen for the top as I have. No matter which set you stack, there will be that additional 3.5 to 4 inches added to the depth.

Then you have the dryer vent coming out the back. You can change this to the side of the machine, but this will add 4 to 6 inches for the vent coming out on the sides. They make a very thin connector that you can purchase at most hardware stores. The reason I chose not to use this in this set up or the one upstairs is that it adds significant resistance to flow and could result in longer drying times.

There is no "L". There are two "slides" that afix to the bottom of the dryer on the sides so that when the dryer is on the washer it creates lips on the bottom of the dryer on either side to slide it back. The feet are removed for stacking the the "slides" is what the dryer sits on and this fits perfectly on the sides of the dryer. On the back, there are two brackets that screw onto the back of the dryer, and the back of the washer. It is about 3.5 inches in length to accept the set back and still screw into the backs of both the washer and dryer.

Click on the pictures and it will take you to the hosting site where it is a bit larger.

I really did not have an alcove. There is plenty of room in this room for two stacks side by side and then a commercial freezer. You could put the stacked units right next to each other. I would say to add a good 4 inches to the width of both stacked units to be safe.

Look at other options where the fronts of the units are not angled as these are. I purchased a GE unit that is European sized like the Asko's and the Miele's. This will stack one unit directly on top of the other. I will redirect the dryer vent out the side and allow me to set the units within an inch or two from the posterior wall. You have many options if this configuration does not work for you.

I caution you putting these behemoth units together where you cannot get them out quickly in the event of an emergency. It is not often you have to take units out, but every year or so, you want to clean out your ducts on the backs of your units. Also once you push them in, you have to think about pulling them out. With only an inch or two on the sides, I can see this being trouble. It is not a straight pull but you have to wiggle these to move them around. I can see putting wheeled feet on the bottom like a refrigerator if you are creative.

My advice is that these are not "compact units" and not for small places. If I were you, I would think about stacking two European size units. They are typically 24 inches wide. Samsung makes a 24 inch wide unit, but Samsung does not have an electric dryer to stack, only a condensing unit. I also don't know if their 24 inch units use the same kind of staking kit, but with only a condensing dryer, it is a moot point.

There is not much to choose from in the 24 inch category. If getting Miele, make sure you are in a city with people who will service it. If getting Asko, you will need 4 220 plugs for the units as the washers and dryers need 220V. GE is what I settled on for an upstairs laundry. I have had European sized units before, and having two stacked units would be optimal. You would just have to take your kind sized comforters to the Laundry mat to get done.

As far as the hoses. Please refer back to my post where I discuss this and have a link to a great video on the hoses I chose. The first paragraph... (Whirlpool). You need three hoses per unit. I only purchased two, so I did use one of the supplied hoses to connect the cold split to the dryer.

Our requirements:
- quiet as our laundry room is right next to our master.
- large capacity for king size comforter
- wrinkle free as we don't know how to iron very well
- cleans well and reliable

Don't really need fancy cycles but can't seem to get the bigger units without them.

I really like Miele, and they do have a larger unit. Nothing like the size of these, but I don't think you need something as big as these Samsung units to wash a comforter. Although I keep going back to Miele, the issue of their warranty and the lack of local people to sell and service the units takes them out of the running. I did look into Asko, but the small size and the bad reviews (over many years) makes them just an interesting read.

I had a hard time deciding between LG and Samsung. I chose Samsung because of their Diamond drum technology. Although I was unable to find out much about it, it was similar to the honeycomb drum idea of Miele. That really closed the deal for me. I really felt that more manufacturers should have put more into their drum designs and make that information available. Sadly, only two lines have taken drum technology seriously and serious enough to flaunt it to the public. I ended up with the largest Samsung units because of the steam and the internet connectivity. (And frankly the deal I got.) I was hoping that if there was a problem, Samsung could just hook into the machine and tell me what is wrong. I'm not sure they can do that, but they can certainly update the units over the wireless.

I would say that I was also impressed with the anti vibration technology. I wish they had explained the difference between the regular antivibration and the upgraded antivibration of these units. I imagine it is some computer sensing thing. I was also impressed with the warranty on the motors and the 2 year warranty. Oh, I just registered my units and got an additional 3 months warranty for registering. Thanks Samsung. I would add an extra year on my own by purchasing with Amex and eliminating the purchase of extended warranty.

I looked into Speed Queen because they are American. Solid units but lack the modern technology and efficiency I was looking for. Rough sturdy brutes was all I could imagine from what I could find out about these products. I think the companies do themselves a disservice by not putting out all the information they can on their products. This is one case and point.

I went as far as looking into purchasing commercial units, but when all is said and done, I felt that the Samsung units were a better deal. Service and warranty work is much different for commercial than on consumer models.

Here is a really cool washing machine I found that I really wanted to get. I have a friend in CA who used to own Laundry Mats. He said, "That's a commercial unit. What do you need a commercial unit for?" Well, it looks so cool and is so well engineered etc. It was too much of a machine for my needs, but I really would have loved to have one. The Crossover Washer. (http://www.laundrylux.com/crossover.html) The world's first small chassis washer engineered to commercial laundry standards for your business needs. I think for the person who wants to have what no one else has, these units would be an interesting choice.

Here is some more information on the Crossover:
3 Engineered to be superior to all competitors
3 15,000 cycle machine life design
3 3 OPL liquid chemical injection ports and signals
3 3 compartment soap drawer
3 4 professional wash programs + 2 cycle options
3 Field adjustable water levels
3 Top quality SKF bearings in heavy duty assembly
3 3 seals with 5 lips
3 Professional grade 8-point suspension
3 Pump-drain standard
3 Solid steel counter-weights�no concrete
3 Energy Star compliant

The costs were about 2,000 a piece or less from what I remember. Stunningly beautiful beasts these are. They are made I believe by LaundryLux.

I also looked at Miele Little Giants. Just amazing little laundry units, but way out of my price range for what I want to spend. I think these are made for people with yachts. These are also stunningly beautiful.

The bottom line is I spent months looking at units. For me, with the space that I had and the money I wanted to spend, I settled on the Samsung. I had to use my Samsung units again tonight as the baby had an "out of diaper" experience. Not something for the faint of heart. Loved I could go and select sanitize on the computer screen and choose extra rinses and steams and prewashes and super hots etc. If they had nuclear radiation I would have chosen that too, but as of now, it is not an option on my units. I got a 3 hour cycle and trust me that is exactly what the job called for. I think I'm very happy right now with what I purchased. Look, as long as the darn units stay working without needing service etc, anything you buy will be fine. Again, I'm not happy about having to stand on a stool to see the dryer screens, but it really is not a big problem. The anti vibration on these really works great and the noise level is very good. The calming music the machines play to signal the end of the cycle is still OK with me and I'm not ready to beat the machine to death if it plays that tune one more time.

Just if anyone wants to see how these machines do on a soiled white one piece baby garment, here is how it just came out of the washer. I don't think I can believe how clean and white this is. You cannot see where the mess was. I have had experience in the past with my other machine where the white clothing was stained yellow after such an incident. All I used was about 1/4 of the recommended amount of ECOS plus natural liquid from Sam's and a tiny amount of delft liquid softener. No bleach. I did hit it with some Oxy prewash spray before putting it in.

Look, I have a laundry upstairs that I am doing. I decided to make it a "sound proof" room because of my experience with my old front loader. It was loud! Probably had gotten worse over the years because the bearings were going. So I double sheet rocked with green glue and put heavy clay on the backs of the electrical boxes. I put in a sound proof floor which I am waiting to tile right now. Well, I did all this because of my fear of the noise I would get from the front load machines. I think had I placed these Samsung units upstairs, the sound proofing would have been overkill. I'm hoping the GE unit I have for upstairs will be as quiet. I bet most of the better machines will be quiet.

I think that the other companies caught up with Meile and have incorporated many of the concepts and bring these machines at a value price. Will they last the 20 years Miele says theirs will? I don't know, but these machines have a longer warranty then Miele and they can be found everywhere. This means that your chance of getting service should be good.

I'm considering the wf455argswr which is slightly cheaper and the only thing I would be missing is the touch screen?

Did you consider this model? Also, need to sort out the fact that we have a 15' run for our dryer vent. I'm not sure if that limits my choice of dryers.

With the 457 you get 21 different wash cycles vs 13 in the 455. You probably will only be using a couple cycles so having more cycles should not be a big deal.

Those are the only differences as far as I can see. Yes I did consider, but I got 457 for less than 455 so that is one reason I went with 457.

You have the same size capacity and the same VRT +. You get pretty much the same stuff except a TV screen. You get the wireless app, the steam the foam the speed spray etc. They both have the diamond drum.

The information the web site is deceiving and frustrating. They list the 457 with Direct Drive Inverter and the 455 with a Direct Drive. I believe they are both the same motor.

The spin speeds are also deceptive in their listing showing 5 choices for the 457 and 1300 RMP for the 455. Both have a max of 1300. Both have the same 5 spin choices.

Now the length of dryer run is dear to my heart. I have a run over 30 feet in my house. It has some angles and most of the duct is I think 5 or 6 inch PVC.

You should not use PVC for dryer duct work. You should have less than 25 ft for a run. Each angle on the duct decrease the length from 25 feet. I believe when I read the instructions, there was nothing noted recommending a specific lenght or that limited the length of duct work in the Samsung instructions. (Some dryer will.) Nevertheless as a rule of thumb, 25 feet. You are good with 15 feet. Having a longer run increases drying time and decreases efficiency.

Now, I will recommend you clean out your ducts. Here is my story. I never cleaned out my ducts. I purchased a 12 year old house and when I finally cleaned my dryer ducts it was about 22 years old. I noticed that my dryer was getting really hot on the top back portion. It was so hot it would burn you. I thought my thermostats were fried. So I overhauled my dryer and put two new thermostats in, changed the seals and the bearings and the drive pulley. I spent over $100 plus the time I spent learning how to do the work and doing the work. Well it was still hot after all that.

I tried some home made things to clean out the duct and was able to pull some stuff out. I ended up going with a dryer duct cleaner I purchased at the Home depot. There are on line options, but this one I can tell you from experience will be perfect and IMO all you need and a good price. Because of my really long run I purchased extender links from HD. This is not easy as they don't carry these in the store. They will have no idea what you are talking about if you need the extenders and have to ask them for the extenders. The easiest way to get them is to have HD call the company that supplies the brush cleaner to them and order it. You may be able to do the job by going at it at both ends of your duct without the extenders. The brush cleaner hooks up to your electric drill. Just make sure it is in drive and not reverse and use a small piece of tape on the connections as you add them. Turn your dryer on first and keep it on and start from outside putting in one length after the other and drill brushing out your ducts. If your ducts are like mine, the job is pretty exciting. You wont believe the amount of stuff that comes out. BIG FIRE HAZARD! As much as I think I know, I had no idea you needed to do this.

You could not imagine how much stuff was in my ducts. They were completely blocked and a fire hazard. It was taking so long to dry my clothing. Anyway, after the clean out, the temperature on the the top of the dryer was cool to the touch (did not have to replace the thermostats after all). Clothing took no time to dry after the clean out.

Oh, also the type of vent cover you have on the outside of your house is important. On youtube there is one good video showing how different duct covers have different resistances. Make sure you have a vent cover with a low resistance and that it easily opens and closes. (this is the one with 4 parallel horizontal slats, the cheap one) You should never run a duct through the attic and avoid it running out the roof. If necessary (not in your case) they have accessory blowers you can install for real long runs of duct.

Bottom line is that IMO as I am no expert, 15 feet you will be just fine. Spend the $20 for the duct cleaner and clean your ducts and replace your flexible duct from the laundry dryer to a solid flexible duct, not the tin foil kind. Get the 455 if it is considerably cheaper. If you can get the 457 (white or grey) at a better price than 455, get the 457. In fact you can save a few bucks by getting the 433 dryer if steam is not important to you. (Call Samsung to make sure it will stack first.)

One thing I forgot to answer from the last question is wrinkles and reliability. We have not used the steam feature on the steam dryer or the sanitize on the dryer. The units have wrinkle free features which keep the dryer "fluffing" the load until you take out the clothes decreasing the wrinkles. One thing I recommend is that the best way to decrease wrinkles is to take out the clothing before the dryer completely stops. Take out a shirt or pants, close the door and turn it back on. Fold your pants or shirt immediately and then take out the next piece and turn on the dryer again. Anytime you let the clothing sit in the dryer when it is not moving, you will get wrinkles. My wife does not understand this and prefers to iron things (not really). She takes stuff out after the clothes have sat for a long time and then throws them in a basket. Doing this will result in wrinkles all the time. I never was good at ironing and the way I worked around this is with my method of taking pieces out one at a time.

As far as reliability, I have only had these units for a month or so. So far, pretty reliable. Long term, Samsung has in general good reliability. My opinion of reliability would mean nothing if you had a problem with your unit. Its a crap shoot, but statistically they have good reliability.

I hear a slight hum from the back of the washer when the waher is on. Do you by chance hear the same. Can't hear it if the dryer is going ;0) just wondering if its something I should call service for. Have narrowed it down to the control board back there. No error codes. Thanks!

One thing that we noticed during our research, though, was that among the users who reported problems with their Samsung washers, most of the problems seemed to involve electrical, or control, issues rather than mechanical issues, and the problems seemed to crop up after the machine had been in operation for a few weeks or a few months. While far from a proof, such a distribution of complaints suggested that perhaps the power supplies for the microprocessors of the Samsungs were not over-designed for robustness, and thus the electronics were vulnerable to dirty line power. As a precaution, therefore, we installed an inexpensive (<$7) Tripp-Lite SpikeCube where the washing machine plugs into the wall; whether for that reason or not, our Samsung has given us no problems for going on two years now.

Herring Maven... Thanks so much for the idea. Might be a good idea to put one of these on. You know, when they have to replace several thousands of these electronics, we may get a fix? I hope to have not problems. I knew the weak link might be the electronics. This is the world we live in though.

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=120

As I will need four, any suggestions for a wall mount? I guess I could get a multi port one and screw it into the wall.

As I will need four, any suggestions for a wall mount? I guess I could get a multi port one and screw it into the wall."

The model that you linked is exactly the one that our Samsung '419 washing machine is plugged into; it is small enough that it can go into one outlet of a two outlet wall fixture and leave the second outlet unblocked.

We had our stereo system components plugged into this four-outlet Tripp-Lite Isobar for over two decades: http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/product-series.cfm?txtSeriesID=82 5 (We replaced it because these units are built around metal-oxide varistors -- MOVs -- which are self-sacrificial: every spike stopped takes a little bite out of an MOV, and after an indeterminate duration, an MOV does not have enough left in it to provide protection any more.) I think that, both from a convenience point of view: runs of cords, etc., and from an ultimate protection point of view, two, two-outlet Tripp-Lite Isoblock 1410 joule surge protectors, http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-ISOBLOK2-0-2-Outlet-Protector/dp/B000 0510R4 will serve you better than one four-outlet protector.

Tripp-Lite is not the only source of good MOV-based surge/spike protectors. Panamax (and others) make excellent products and, indeed, the replacement for the Tripp-Lite Isobar in our stereo system was a Panamax SP8-AV (selected after another exhaustive session of research), which has eight AC outlets.

Much more expensive series-mode spike protectors offer greater protection, but are also much more expensive; our assessment is that the cost-effective path is to rely on MOVs, recognizing that they are disposable items that need to be replaced every so often.