We have Kenmore front-loaders in both our homes. I'm pretty sure they're manufactured by Frigidaire and essentially identical to the Frigidaire branded washers of their day. The older one is 11 years old. Lately the spin cycle on the older one seems like it's less powerful than it ought to be, but other than that we've had no trouble with either of them. There's almost nothing that I feel like I need to hand wash any more, only the absolute most fragile things. Everything else is safe in the front-loader.

I pretty much take their word for the water savings and energy efficiency - but it does seem to use less water, and I really like the way that it automatically fills with the right amount of water for the load.