BLACK+DECKER 4.1 Cu. Ft. Top Loading Washing Machine with Agitator, Full Size Washing Machine with Glass Lid and Stainless Steel Tub, Machine with LED Display, 10 Wash Cycles, 120V, BTLW41MW, White

So I specifically bought this to bucket fill… I live off grid and don’t have any water source to directly hook it to. I have also had the Japanese style ones where there’s a wash cycle on one side and a spin on the other and they’re AWFUL. This is much much better. I had seen a couple reviews stating that they bucket fill this one, but not much info about water usage doing that or how it works, so here’s what I’ve learned so far (please note, this is for the largest model offered):The system seems to be weight based. Given that it’s hooked up to nothing I can hear the intake pump running at the beginning of a cycle. This will continue until the unit has enough water in it, but how does it know? I played around a lot and decided it’s gotta be weight based, which correlates with the size of load you’re running. So, I put my wash settings on “normal”, change the load size to small, add about 8 gallons of water + the drum 3/4 filled with clothes will get it to start. You’ll see the time for the wash drop from 37 minutes to 34 as soon as it’s got enough water. The cycle size you choose will affect how much water it wants, so I always choose “small” for size and this cuts down on how much water I use.The same thing happens on the rinse cycle. It drains the water from the wash cycle and wants another 8 gallons to do the rinse cycle. At this point it really depends what I’m washing if I choose to do this or not. I have a geriatric dog that makes a whole lot of laundry throughout the week, and for those items I don’t really worry about the rinse cycle. I’ll let the system run through the beginning of the rinse cycle where it is draining most of the wash water off, pause the program, turn the washer off and back on, and then put it on the “spin only” cycle. This cycle is automatically 27 minutes but I usually run it for about 10 and then stop it again. I use those little $3 Walmart micro fleece blankets for him and after 10 minutes in spin only they come out almost completely dry and smelling super fresh. I’ll hang them on a rack in front of a box fan and they’re bone dry within an hour. I also have a regular household pillow for him as a dog bed and that will spin out and dry super fast (2-3 hours) with the same method. This machine will hold two of the fleece blankets and the pillow at the same time, and get everything very clean on the normal cycle, small size.For my clothes I do want a rinse cycle so when the washer changes from wash to rinse I’ll let it drain the wash water, add another 8 gallons, and let the rinse cycle run. The main thing I listen for is if the inlet pump is trying to run. If it is, add more water. You’ll have to pause the system every time you’re adding more water or you’ll get an “E3” error, which just means the lid is open.So, all in all, it is kind of hands on if you’re a bucket filler. It uses between 8-16 gallons of water on small cycle depending on if you want to do a rinse cycle.Based on other reviews I was cautious to have the drain inlet at the proper height. I drain it to my bathroom sink and it works great. If it’s too low it won’t hold water, too high and the pump isn’t strong enough to drain. The drain hose has a nice moveable gooseneck on it and the power of the pump has yet to be so strong it kicks the gooseneck out of the sink, which has been my biggest fear.Despite the hands on nature of it, I really love it. It took me about a week of use, using it 2-3x a day to where I felt really comfortable not just standing over it staring and learning the sounds it’s making to know when it needs my attention. Living in a small space I can just attend to it while I’m doing other chores and it doesn’t feel like a pain. This may depend on how much you hate the laundromat or how much access you have to one. There’s only one laundromat nearby but this woman runs a wash and fold out of it and will tie up all the machines until about 3 pm, and then the rest of the community has a mad dash to try to get their stuff in so it feels like sometimes there’s a laundromat nearby, but it’s a huge source of stress to try to time my day around it’s availability.Other pros: it is really really quiet. I’ll run it at night while my s/o is sleeping and it doesn’t bother them at all. Whether you use the rinse cycle or not everything comes out smelling incredibly fresh. If you want to soak anything, just put it all in with water, soak as long as you want, then run the cycle as you see fit. Will definitely be keeping.

The media could not be loaded. Make sure you remove all styrofoam supports before you try and use this machine!!! If you’re looking for a cheap reliable washer this is definitely what you want. If you don’t mind a tad bit bigger washer then I suggest you go check out your nearest Home Depot and Lowe’s for washers on clearance because I seen a whirlpool brand 4.8 cubic top loader for $475 which was really nice I would of bought that instead but I bought this first also I don’t know if the sink would work for the whirlpool so it is what it is. This black and Decker works with the sink which is why I went with this because my apartment doesn’t have a washer setup. So far so good with this washer it holds a good amount of clothes and being in an apartment with neighbors to the left, right, and below it’s great that this machine is quiet. When it’s on full speed spin which would be the loudest point for this washer you can’t hear it if your in the next room, also if your using a dolly to move the washer around you can put a shock resistant pad on the dolly and it will help even more with lowering the vibration and sound. As for the size it’s bigger then I thought it would be it’s about the same size as a regular washer it stands about 3ft tall out of the box but you can make it a little taller if you’d like. It’s still a good enough size to where you can tuck it away so it’s not taking up a lot of room which I like and if you put it on a dolly it super easy to move it around. It washes towels with ease and they come out super clean and if you use sent beads it’s really makes the clothes and the room smell very good you can smell it coming through the washer the sent on the clothes really POPs with this washer I’m not sure why but it’s way better then other washers I’ve used. I also love how you can mix and match different kinds of wash settings to how ever you want which not many washers do with other washers you kind of just get what they give you. Also keep in mind if you press the program button and it goes down the list of quick, bulky , normal and delicate the more you press the button you’ll notice the light starts to blink which means the settings on the left, So solid light is settings on the left and blinking light is settings on the right. As for how long this washer will last I believe it can last 10 years with no breaking down and if anything breaks on it I think it would be super easy and cheap to fix because I looked on the inside and the mechanism looks super simple and I don’t think it would be hard to fix plus black and decker has professionals that will come out and fix it. It also depends on how you treat it too if over load it you’ll probably get less time out of it but if you load it so there’s less strain on the motor it should last a long time. I like how the clothes come out nice and dry after the spin cycle so if you don’t have a dryer it doesn’t take much to get them fully dry. I also like the drain hose because it drains fast without the hose moving or falling and the water goes down the sink drain with no problems, I can have a bunch of dishes in the sink and the water has no trouble draining or filling up the sink. Also keep in mind it’s filling from a sink so it’s best to let the washer fill up half way before you put the clothes in so the clothes don’t soak up the water at the beginning making the fill take a lot longer. Over all great buy im very happy I bought this machine if anything changes I’ll update my review but I definitely recommend this washer and I also recommend the Comfee brand washer and Comfee brand portable dishwasher, if you need a portable dishwasher the comfee brand is amazing I’ve had mine for 4 years it works like new every time I use it and it runs and drains using the sink as well.