If you are not careful in how you load the machine, the load sizes, the mix of materials included in each load, and closely monitoring the amounts of detergent used for each cycle you could be DRAMATICALLY reducing the life of your washer! Don’t ball up your clothes and jam them in the tub. Make sure each item is loosely placed in the tub. Imbalances in the load will cause the machine to try and compensate by extended tumbling or intermediate spin speeds to fluff up the clothes and balance the load. Don’t use max load sizes even though the sales person told you that the machine will handle 22 pairs of jeans or 16 bath towels. Be reasonable on every load, recognizing that if you constantly require max performance you will reduce the washer life expectancy. Don’t mix fabric types such as all your bath towels and some thin polyester shirts or a throw rug with light items. The machine will try and determine a proper load balance and will struggle to ever find it, possibly resulting in an out of balance load or a shut down during the cycle throwing a fault code on the main computer display. And lastly don’t follow the directions for detergent amounts found on the detergent bottles. Always follow the amounts listed in your washing machine Use and Care manual. Excessive use of detergents are a major cause of premature main bearing and tub seal failure as well as mold and mildew on the door boot! The picture I’ve attached to this blog is of a two year old Frigidaire washer with a hole in the soap dispenser housing. The housing cracked from an out of balance load causing the washer tub to beat against the housing and break. The housing leaked on to the motor control board mounted down below making the repair more than the value of the washer. So with moderate attention to loading and detergent amounts you can get the maximum life expectancy from your front load washer while enjoying all the benefits they offer!!!