Buying a washing machine

should be simple but is proving complex.

I need another washing machine. The trusty machine the Senior Cat and I have used for the past twenty or so years will not fit into the available space in the new abode. It will also need to be a front loader, not a top loader.

Yes, I can possibly buy something more "energy" and "water" efficient but in actual fact the old one rates highly on both accounts. We have had no problems with it apart from a broken "paddle" at one point. Middle Cat's brother replaced it at a minimum cost.

Now I am looking at washing machines, at reviews of machines, at energy efficiency, at water usage, at capacity and more. I have discovered some washing machines have something called "steam" and others will dry your clothes as well. I doubt there is any small machine which will do this but it all adds to the confusion.

I remember my mother doing the washing by hand when I was a very young kitten. She thought she was doing well because she had a "mangle". This was not for ironing the clothes, simply for removing some of the water before they were hung on the line.

From there she graduated to a "spinner" which did much the same thing. Then there was the "twin tub". We went back to heating water in a "copper" and the mangle when we moved to the bush. All our school clothes and the Senior Cat's shirts were "drip-dry" terylene which did not get ironed. If Mum did any ironing it was done by heating flat irons on the stove top. At one point we went back to 240v power only to return to 32v power in yet another location.  Washing facilities went from one thing to another at the same time.  For Mum the return to the city and 240v power and a washing machine you did not need to boil a copper of water for was luxury indeed. 

Now I am "spoilt for choice" or, perhaps more accurately, confused by it. I simply want something which washes the clothes efficiently and spins the water out so I can hang things up to dry. Why does it have to be so complicated?