Another Speed Queen owner and lover here. Prior to this, I had a Danby/Gorenje Slovenian made front load that you one could crank up to 200 degrees. It lasted 5 - 7 years which was pretty good considering that it was super cheap.
My late mom had a front load with electronic controls. At some point, some of the lights stopped working so you could never be sure what type of load you were doing and for how long. It was a common brand sold in big box stores and Sears. Speed Queen is only sold at small independent appliance stores.
LOL My response was interrupted by my new Maytag range. It was turned on and started smoking. The manual says it’s normal. Anyway, I’ve had a Maytag top loader for several years with no complaints. I was specifically told by a repair man to stay away from LG products. He says he constantly replaces mother boards. They are made in Korea. I try to buy U.S. made appliances and cars in a small effort to support jobs here. All my new Maytag stuff is designed and assembled in the U.S. My new Toyota was made in Texas. I will explore Speed Queen appliances when these need replacement. They are allegedly the best on the market.
I have maytag front loaders. The MCU (a circuit board of some sort) went out on the washer after 3-1/2 years. It is a $250 part with a $400 total repair cost. We got a refurbished part with a one year guarantee for about $80 and fixed it ourselves. Its continued to work fine and is another 18 months older now. But a repair in less than five years that was half the cost of the machine was not good. I like everything else about it, especially the large capacity and the delicate cycle. I wish I trusted it to be reliable.
I have a Speed Queen too and love it. I think it is 2 or 3 years old, the year before they had the electronic parts option. So far, so good! The only problem I had was when apron strings got tangled under the agitator but H looked up how to fix that on Youtube and it was easy.
One thing that various repair people have told me - when you let a washing machine lid drop down and slam onto the machine, you could break the latch. The latch is the most common thing that needs to be repaired. In the “old days” it was due to it breaking from careless dropping. Today it is more due to people getting impatient with the lid locks who yank the lid open anyway. I like very much that the SQ doesn’t have a lid lock. It does stop agitating or spinning if you open it though.
Yes, according to the appliance repairman, there’s a huge difference in quality between OLD Maytags and newer ones. The latter just don’t hold up at all, sadly.
We have one of the early Whirlpool Duets. We do periodically have mold trouble and leaving the door open blocks traffic. Clorox wipes are a weekly chore. Sigh.
Ditto here - I also so so so miss my older (original) Maytag; it died after 22 years. Whirlpool ruined Maytag when they bought it. Tried 2 highly recommended Whirlpools after that and they both were terrible (broken almost immediately).
My appliance repair guy also recommended forgetting about water savings, Consumer Reports recommendations and everything else, and just buying something with as few electronics as possible - simple controls, no push button anything… So far, so good.
Our repair guy said we should keep our original Maytags as long as possible because they are amazing. We plan to follow his advice. They were pricey, @ $1000 apiece decades ago, but when spread out over all they years we’ve had them and the little spent maintaining them, definitely with it.
I have the Samsung VRT Steam washer and dryer. I love them.
They’re super capacity front loading machines. I don’t have issues with smell, and they have a “sanitize” cycle that uses huge amounts of superheated steam to get stuff really, truly clean.
I can run all the gross, stinky workout clothing on the sanitize cycle and it comes out smelling like new. Same with sneakers. It’s like magic, and pulling stuff out of the washing machine is occasionally like a religious experience because I really thought the clothing was done for.
They have a 10 year warranty on the drum drive, and you can access the lint basket on both the washer and dryer without having to take the machine apart (nice little compartment in the front-we get a lot of hair elastics stuck in it).
There’s even a USB port where you can plug in your computer or smartphone and it will explain the error code to you. Mine tends to be “too much soap, dummy!”
HIMom- It’s worth it unless you care about energy efficiency at all! My husband (and me to a more moderate extent) are all about saving power- both for the environment and our own $$$- and the older appliances just don’t cut it in that regard.
I think we’ve had our Whirlpool front loaders for 10 years or so. They’ve been just okay; had to have both repaired for various reasons. I’m not likely to go with a front loader again.
We don’t use our washer and dryer that much and have PV and solar, so we feel keeping our appliances as long as possible saves the huge amount of energy required to make more new machines. As it is, we make more energy than we use, so we feel we are being ecological.
Our CPA and PV installer were surprised with how little energy we consume.
If you happen to be short (I am), something to consider is the height of any top loader you’re considering. I use a step stool to reach small items at the bottom of my Whirlpool Cabrio because I can no longer stand on tiptoe. My washer is just a smidgen over 42". There’s a newer Whirlpool that’s about 45" tall and I cannot reach anything at the bottom of the basket. When using it at a relative’s home last week, I had to ask my 6’+ dh to move about half the wash load to the dryer.
Washers and dryers are getting so big. I have a small laundry closet and have been babying my dying front loading washer because most of the new ones are at least 3" too tall to fit under the counter.
I hate that the front loaders (2 Maytags and a Frigidair, same thing?) don’t last as long as they should. 5-6 years is all I seem to get out of them. Dryers have lasted more like 10 years. No need for them to be pretty matching pairs.