[NeilBlanchard]

Okay, using the LG WM0642H is pretty nice. It is easy to figure out -- my 12 year old son Nicolas picked it up right away, and it is very quiet, gets the clothes very clean, and they are barely damp at the end of the cycle. So far, we have used just the normal cycle (~1hr) with tap temp, and the default high speed spin cycle.

You select on of about 8 different cycles, and then you can change any of the settings. You can save one custom cycle, which is the one that we will use almost all the time.

You are supposed to use a special (low suds) type of soap called "HE", but we have to use a soap without any perfume or dye (my wife's skin reacts with many soaps), so we use All "Free and Clear" concentrate -- you just have to be careful not to use too much. I do a four-count with the spigot going straight into the soap tray on the top of the machine. This save you from having to rinse out the measuring cup -- which would be very hard to do with this or any front loading machine. The door locks when you start the machine, so you cannot rinse out the cup and dump it into the machine without using water from a sink.

This machine has a new water temp setting that I have not seen before: Cold/Cold (Tap) which seems to be straight tap water. Maybe the Cold/Cold setting actually warms up the water a little by mixing in a small amount of hot?

The energy estimate is $14/year if you have an electric hot water heater, and $10 if you have a gas fired hot water heater. I'm guessing it will be even less if you use the Cold/Cold (tap) water?

It does draw phantom power when it is sitting there (all the controls are electronic). It draws ~1 watt continuous, but the power factor (PF on the Kill-A-Watt) is horrible at ~0.14. (Close to 1 is best!) So, the volt-amp (VA on the Kill-A-Watt) is ~7watts which is significant. The work around for this is to use a power strip or to unplug it.

The peaks during start up is ~60watts, and the PF during operation is ~0.5-0.6 though this fluctuates a lot. Again, this is a pretty poor power factor, and it increases the effective power use. So, 130watts (during parts of the wash cycle) is effectively 250VA.

The total power usage for a normal load is 0.12kWh (100wH), so the cost to run a load of laundry is tiny -- about 2.3 cents per load with our local electricity rates.