Those are the good ones. Why a new drum ?

Steal

Enjoy putting a ton of unnecessary wear on your clothes while wasting water and energy.

The repairman found a small amount of rust when replacing a spring inside the machine, and replaced the whole drum via warranty

Thank you, I will!

It's gonna take a while for that energy to offset the cost savings. It's fine.

Also agitators clean objectively and demonstrably fine.

We got a set of those. Im going to include them in the will. Lol

Vs what? Hand wash?

Uh what

That's the set we have had for over a decade, still running strong.

I am so jealous. I just ordered the dryer for several million dollars. Have had the washer five years, love it.

Wow ! Nice, how’d you score this ?

You'll find the snake hiding in there later though! LMAO! That's why it was so cheap!

I'd been using the same speed queen dryer and washer in an apartment I just moved out of. I'd lived there for 20 YEARS. The house I just moved into had speed queen washer and dryers. The third day the dryer broke and I fixed it my self with YouTube. I will never buy another brand of washer/dryer.

I’m very envious!

You know what wastes even more? Replacing a machine every 5-10 years. These models could last a lifetime and have far greater repairability than energy efficient models.

Infinite laundry!

Facebook Marketplace!

I wish these fit in my washer dryer closet

My speed queen dryer is older than me lol

Wow!

I paid more than that to repair my not-speedqueen dryer this week.

These seem to be the only decent, life long appliance purchase now!

For the dryer I'd highly recommend everyone to always buy a heat pump dryer. They use so much less power that the money saved on electricity far outweighs the extra initial cost. A heat pump dryer only uses around 300-500W compare to 2000W for a traditional dryer. That is quickly a lot of money saved if you run it often. Also it's better for the environment.

Are you sure they don't? I have a shallow closet and it was a pain finding a dryer that fit. The washer was easy. These would have fit but we won't stay here too long so we don't care about the longevity much vs what we bought at half the price.

I love how square they aree

Man people are downvoting you hard, but you’re speaking the truth. Plus they essentially use a loophole to get around Department of Energy’s efficiency regulations.

People love them because they’re built like tanks and are just willing to overlook everything else about them.

My Miele is on year 15 and is gentle on my clothes and efficient.

How much did that cost?

Electric Dryer's Are extremely easy to fix. Diy with YouTube

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I have that exact set. Had it for 11 years now.

Speed Queen is made in my hometown, Ripon, WI. They make some of the best washers and dryers money can buy. You got really lucky! Congrats!! 🫶👏

good luck getting it repaired though. very few know how to work on them and those that do will charge a lot

22g/load vs a HE machine using 7g/load could, in theory, become a pain point in the future. Depends on where you live, obvs.

Holy shit that thing still has a warranty😂

They work like a refrigerator and has very few moving parts that can break down. Like how often does for fridge jut die? It's not too complicated for a technician to deal with, but I also live in a country where heat pumps are common for hole house heating so we have technicians available for heat pumps. Also always buy from a well know Company that also has good repair service. I don't know any specific brands because it'll vary a lot from country to country how the service is.

I live in Europe (Netherlands). A Miele machine costs around 20% more than other quality brands (Bosch, Siemens, AEG, etc.), and lasts on average 20 years – 50% longer on average than other brands. That was my driving factor when I chose to buy a Miele,

I live in the Netherlands. Vented dryers are non-existent. All models are either heat pump or condensing. For my region, reparability is not an issue, but indeed always wise to check what is the case in your market to make an educated decision about reparability.

I got a great deal on a new (but scratch on the side, so nicely discounted) WWR760WPS for €800.

This.

I can understand the idea of "buy it for life" but the running costs of such an old appliance are insane

I recently bought this

https://www.pauldavieskitchensandappliances.co.uk/miele-tcr780wp-freestanding-condenser-heat-pump-tumble-dryer-white.html.

There are cheaper alternatives out there made, BUT I bought that because '

It's A+++-10%. Stupidly no country within the EEA has downgraded the grading of heat pump tumble dryers. If they downgraded it, an A+++-10% EPC would maybe be EPC C rated on the new scale

It's also got a reversing drum which helps with drying times, and less ironing required (therefore less electricity and less time)

It's also a Miele. LG and Samsung do the same thing for about half the price but I don't fancy how unreliable those things are.

Here's my thread on it too

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/10a0i8w

Not really, when most emissions are made during operational use

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This. The rationale for buying Miele here is different to Americans. You can sometimes get heavy discounts too. I did on a washing machine but not so on a tumble dryer

Now what if you have a gas dryer? How do they compare with costs? Our gas is relatively cheap compared to our electric.

We bought a new washer and dryer last year. After showing us a bunch of machines, I asked the sales person what the difference was between some brand of machine and a Speed Queen. He said that all the machines in the store are ten year machines except the Speed Queen machines. The Speed Queen machines are twenty-five year machines. We went with the Speed Queen.

Unfortunately the quality of the newer models isn't up to their previous standards.

My wife and I joke our kids will fight the most over our Speedqueen’s when we’re gone.

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That is a steal!

I’ve heard these last forever.

Huh, I didn't notice this but you're right. Our last dryer was a vented dryer, but that was a pretty old one. I just checked online and they're barely sold anymore. Just a few irrelevant brands.

How many people have got stuck in it

So how do I know which one to get?

Reviews. I don't think anything being sold now is worth the money, but you can look for used models.

Ahh the SpeedQueen.

The last relevant item on this sub, cuz everything is is made the break these days m.

I mean, is there a version of the speed queens that are better. I’m reading your comment as saying that new speed queens are not what older ones are. I’m happy to get an older one, there are a few on my local marketplace and my 15 year old LG is out again after me replacing the heating element last year, so I’m considering getting a pair of used speed queens.

I can say this for sure . I will never have another samsung anything in my house their w/d are crap . I will go with maytag or speed queen . My last set before the samsung was maytag and they were wonderful , real work horses but these samsung what crap they are !!! Never again . Glad im moving in 3 yrs to my retirement home and there will be no sam sung anything in my home every again .

My daughter is very handy. Three times in the last two years she called me to walk her through the repair of her Samsung dryer. Once the drive belt flipped. Once the heating element failed. Last week the belt tensioner failed. Fortunately she is able to do the repairs or she would have had to pay at least as much in repairs as the machine cost.

She too said that she'll never buy anything Samsung again...well, except, maybe their phones. They're boss.

I'm the same. If I were to switch to all electric, my costs would increase, most likely be a significant amount.

The version in the photo is the one you want.

The new Maytag Commercial stuff is comparable in quality to the old Speed Queens.

I do recon front-loading washers use less water and since the motion (rolling) is less pulling on the clothing, it's less likely to cause tears

I've had 2 to 4 Speed Queen washer / gas dryer sets running 4 loads a day for up to 20 years. Including 2 of the newer design. Newer washers are slower, more bothersome safety interlocks, more electronic jazz.

I do prefer the old washer design. I think the new ones are still worth it, but might look for a used older unit next time

The problem with these is those old angered washers and older driers are really hard on your clothes. I moved from a place with new ones to a place with an older one and I was shocked at the difference.

If the point is to buy less stuff, upgrading your washer and drier can be a BIFL move.

Angered washers? That does sound hard on clothes.

They changed that though right? Iirc, a few years of models suck but they course corrected

Which Maytags are you referring to? Do you have any model numbers? I'm frequently trying to help people decide on new washers/dryers and the more good options, the better. I've seen my share of newer Maytags getting kicked to the curb in 5-8 years (busted transmissions/gearboxes, usually).

Would something like the MVWP575GW fit the bill?

Yep, I have similar ones and they tear all my jeans at the crotch.

12 year appliance tech here -

Yes. This is the way.

From what I've heard, this can be curbed by running the delicate cycle. I by no means have long term experience with these though

I have heard so many people hating on them it is not even funny . My oldest brother calls them chinese junkets LOL .

BuyItForLife discovers commercial appliances are more durable than consumer ones, but doesn't check the downsides.

I just ran down to check. Mine is also on delicate. Still ruins the clothes pretty quickly compared to my last newer one.

Haha autocorrect…

SpeedQueens are commercial washers and dryers, so are intended to do a passable job for a very long time, with few other considerations.

Their washers and dryers, from what I've read in several articles that I've read because I keep seeing these l on this sub, not only use a lot more energy than consumer washers and dryers, but are also a lot harder on clothes.

They're laundromat machines, and that's the quality of wash you'll get.

Nice!

I don't believe so. The reviews on the current models are disappointing, and there's reddit posts on those models complaining about the company. Was recommending the brand to a coworker a month ago, when I briefly looked into them for it, once I saw the model I've had for 6 years was discontinued.

These old Speed Queen washing machines should not be used. I will explain.

I often see people mention here that it is more environmentally friendly to keep using these Speed Queen laundry machines and dryers than to purchase a more efficient new model. For many products this is true. But these devices here are EXTREMELY ineffecient compared to an energy efficient model.

A Speed Queen AWN432 model uses 0.96 kWh per cycle^(1) while a Miele with the new A label uses 0.493kWh^(2) per cycle. Additionally, the Speed Queen uses more than twice (!)^(1 2) as much water. Taking the CO2 emissions of water purification and wastewater processing, the Miele only produces 49% of what the Speed Queen produces. This adds up to more than half a tonne more CO2 emissions over 10 years of use. See my spreadsheet ^(6).

Of course we have to look at manufacturing and transport too, but this barely changes the picture. A washing machine uses so much energy that the production and disposal are hardly significant compared to the energy consumption during its use^(3). This paper mentions that the usage of a washing machine accounts for around 80% of its CO2 emissions^(4).

Laundry represents 18% of all emissions in the US and 3% of national Co2 emissions^(5), so it's worth paying attention to this!

1: https://images.webfronts.com/cache/frysbageflai.pdf. I picked this particular washing machine for comparison because it's from a brand that lasts long and does up to 9kg per load. There are slightly more efficient washing machines, but picking a less brand would not be a fair comparison. 2: https://eprel.ec.europa.eu/screen/product/washingmachines2019/295205
3: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig-2-Life-Cycle-Assessment-of-a-washing-machine_fig2_235679049
4: (table on page 5, in Japanese) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jie1992/75/12/75_12_1050/_pdf

5: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19438150903541873#:~:text=The%20emissions%20from%20residential%20laundry%20care%20%28water%20supply%2C,of%20the%20national%20carbon%20dioxide%20emissions%20in%202005.

6: The 220 washing cycles per year is based on the EU average. For families it's likely more.

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No, there was a government change that was mandated for water conservation.

It's pretty well known and Speed Queen even talks about it. The trick is to take it from Normal and set to Perm Press.

That's the old water level and the way it worked before the mandate.

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Wasn't that addressed with their 2019 revision after all the bad press they got for the initial change?

I bought my set last year and it was all over the internet to change to Perm Press. You may be right, but I didn't read where they had fixed the issue.

It mentions it on Wikipedia and gives this as an example - https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/speed-queen-introduces-new-top-load-washer-model-with-classic-design-1028253901

100% not arguing because I'm not sure either 😂

> I can understand the idea of “buy it for life” but the running costs of such an old appliance are insane

Oh god yes, even if my refrigerator only lasts 10-15 years your buy it for life fridge from the 70s is using so much energy it would have bought 2 of my refrigerators in that time. Some of the “they don’t last as long” is strictly because of having to use more energy efficient designs and materials that just isn’t as strong as thick heavy steel and cast iron. Some is just bad design or trying to get too fancy like French door fridges with a door ice dispenser.

There are things worth it for buy it for life but refrigerators, old as hell heat pumps, washer and dryer, and dishwashers become very debatable if they are worth it when looking at energy costs and how well they actually work.

Now an expensive pair of jeans that last forever is a no debate it’s worth the cost.

No, let this be our thing. We hunt each other down on the internet and talk about Speed Queen wash cycles.

Korean*

Unless it gets too fancy but usually it’s just a thermostat that needs to be replaced.

Hahahaha! Fuck yes.

It's hard to get tone right on the internet and wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't being a prick but was actually curious if what I remembered was even right.

FYI, Consumer Reports gave one model of Maytag Commercial units a dismal rating. May not be indicative of other models.

Don't they make a commercial and a residential line now? I'm assuming the commercial ones would be higher quality. I've even seen retired laundromat ones for sale with the coin dispensers still attached.

In addition to running a delicate cycle, if you wash your clothes in mesh, zippered laundry bags, it can help a lot to reduce wear-and-tear, too!

Nice.

I calculated it in another comment. The energy usage of this laundy machine is literally twice as high as a current A label laundry machine. Water usage is even more than twice as high.

I hear you, but $1500 for a new Miele washing machine isn't in my budget unfortunately

Not shocked. I’m sure my washer dryer (that have 10 year warranty on the motors) using them is paid for twice with that energy and water costs.

Speed Queen was my nickname in high school

My dishwasher is "D rated" on the new EPC scale. It would have been A+++ rated on the old one

I don't truly care because it cost me £200, and I use it maybe once a week. If that lasts me, that's great. If it doesn't, no biggy because my own BIFL habit is to... not having had a dish washer most of my life. If it fails in five years time it's just another £200 or so

The A rated ones are ridiculously expensive for little energy efficiency gain

The power move here is to only wash your clothes twice a year, everything in laundry bags, delicate cycle, and line dried.

You don't have to. There are decent brands that produce even more energy efficient machines.

If you simply want to find an energy efficient laundry machine that's available where you live I'd just check the webshop that people tend to use for this and short on energy efficiency. I guarantee that some cheap and decent washing machines will pop up.

If you want to find the most energy efficient laundry machines available, you can use the product database of the European Commission for this. It contains all products that are required to have an energy efficiency label. See their page for washing machines and sort on energy efficiency. Among the top results are Electrolux, AEG, Hoover and Candy. I'm not an expert on this, but I believe some of these brands are known to be decent and affordable.

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I hear you but those little energy efficiency gains and better cleaning jobs really start to add up with families doing daily or more runs.

Yeah don’t even need the dryer just use it to clip a clothes line to

LOL okay thank you .

Oh for sure. I mentioned my own requirements because I couldn't set why I'd need to spend a few hundred extra to save minus still a few hundred

That's the main reason that stops me from buying a Miele solar save dish washer. Like yes it uses so much less, and yes, it makes better use of my solar panels but also its a lot more expensive for what's realistically little gain (for me)

My D rated dishwasher uses 0.85 kWh per cycle. An A rated one uses 0.54 kWh per cycle. If you use it every single day, you're looking at a saving of 113.15 kWh in a year. In the UK, assuming April 2023 pricing that's a saving of £61.11 a year

When electricity was 15p/kWh, then you'd have to use your dishwasher multiple times a day for it to be cheaper. Assuming you're using it once a day, that's a saving of a mere £17 a year. Assuming also that it lasts ten years, I'd look to have spent £200 extra, max.

But again that is if I was using it once a day, which I'm not.

But then it doesn't actually clean very well.

This is Buy it for Life. BIFL items are usually expensive.

I have that exact set. It’s fantastic.

PRO TIP: if you want to be able to open the washer and keep it running, there’s a switch under the back right that can be held down with a clothespin or piece of foam. Here’s a video of it.

Personally, even though I understand that the efficiency isn’t the same as newer machines, I find that reliability to price is unbeatable. Knowing that for the next 20 years, this thing will be a tank, and I won’t have to mess with it, (and when I do, repairs will be simple and affordable) beats out the day to day efficiency issues. Efficiency isn’t necessarily the primary concern for all consumers.

adore my speedqueens. It's only been 4 years but the only issues we've had with them were user error. They'll outlive me for sure.

Eh, I don't recall the test engineers mentioning anything on them really ruining clothes or anything. I tend to run them on either normal or heavy soil, cold wash.

Get the one on their website with the lower spin cycle RPM. The newer models spin a bit faster with the direct drive (one of the positives of direct drive) but the old bulletproof style with the transmissions are still made.

And even in some cases where it does get fancy. If anything fails on the main control board of a washer or dryer, the only "answer" is typically a $250-$500 board replacement. I just got done replacing the heating element relay on my driver's board for the high high cost of... 10 dollars. This does require soldering to remove the old relay and install the new one, but close to everything is fixable.

I think it depends on who the board is from and what is fancy on it. $110 is my board replacement cost. Boards don’t usually fail quickly anyway unless they are just crap from the start.

How are you going to control it without Bluetooth though??

How is the energy and water efficiancy on these``?

My parents got married in 1977. They bought a Maytag washer and dryer. They finally replaced them because of broken parts that couldn't be procured in 2019 and 2022. They only had minor repairs 3-4 times on each machine over the entire life.

They replaced them with SpeedQueens.

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They're also terribly inefficient. The money you save on the purchase and longevity is eaten up by your energy and water bills.

When it comes to appliances, this is an important consideration when it comes to "buy it for life" thinking.

>MVWP575GW

That is the Maytag washer I have, and I really, really like it. I've only had it 5 years (I've had my Speed Queen dryer for 8) but it works like the day I bought it.

They are not water efficient at ALL, which Consumer Reports weighs very heavily.

However, most of the energy from washing clothes comes from hot water, but modern good detergents are designed to clean with cold water. I run nothing but a cold water (or cool, in the winter, via the Maytag) wash and have no issues with stains whatsoever (I have three small children).

I bought a pair in 2018 and have had no issues

I talked with the factory when I purchased mine, they have always made commercial and homeowners with the only difference is the commercial has a coin box. Both of ours are going on 10 years

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>old angered washers

I hereby charge that this old angered washer did feloniously and without just cause munch on premium dress shirts until they were deprived of all form and appearance.

Great. Doesn't mean that the complaints aren't valid, since they made major changes to the lineup in 2019-2020

We fixed the ignition in my gas dryer ourselves. Honestly, dryers are just very easy to fix if their problem isn’t computer related.

But those springs in the clothespins will wear out if you use them too much....

Either that or the thermal fuse, which will blow if someone tries to run several loads without cleaning the lint trap.

/s?

My method is to put the clothes into a soaking cycle for 30 minutes, then wash on delicate.

Nice! I looked at a set brand new last month for $2600...

It's the chafing, not the washer. I'm sorry you had to hear it like this. 😔🫡

I'm not fat and no it's not when I cut the washing on the jeans it took way longer to appear. There's so much pulling on the machines that it messes pants.

Yeah gas and electric Dryer's that don't have crazy digital screens Are all easy to work on. I would say 80% of the issues you would run into are fixed for less than $100 in an hour of your time. Maybe another hour? Looking up the issues and ordering the parts. Most of the time there's even a local repair shop that has the parts.

I always say get a nice Fancy efficient front loader washer. Then get a bog standard big ass dryer with auto sense and without digital screens. A dryer unless it's a heat pump. One can't really be efficient. Besides, the ability to turn itself off when it detects the clothes are dry. It gets its efficiency by your washer. Ringing out all the water to where it doesn't have to do much work. So spend the money on the washer. I personally prefer LG washers with direct drives as they are actually pretty easy to work on and generally reliable and come with a 10-year warranty on the drive

Yeah I was just making a joke (but unless you have a thigh gap, which is rare and weird, you have chafing). It's best to wash jeans as little as possible; the washing machine exaggerates any spots of wear and tear. Most dirty spots can be washed out by hand and left to dry, a washing machine is only necessary when the whole garment has been thoroughly soiled

Not quite. They met the government standard to sell in the US and added a "deep fill" option button that basically overrode it. I can't find anything to support what you said about the perm press override, this NYT article is like the many, many others I read supporting this point and not touching on yours.

3d print a little cap for them in the rain so they don’t get rusted! Now we’ve solved it

Why would you want to do this? lol

We shared our results with Speed Queen, and the representatives were not surprised. McDonald even told us that the company coaches dealers to tell customers not to use the Normal Eco cycle and to use the Permanent Press or Heavy Duty cycle instead.

That's in the article you quote.

That's an insane deal, last year we bought a house and I think it was about $2400 our tc5/dc5 plus a multi month wait :/

Lucky Ducky!

I repair appliances for a living and no one in our company works on them. also went out to one by accident and customer said we were the 8th company they called trying to get it repaired. theres simply not enough of them in my market to get trained on them. also cant justify spending 100+ hours of training for a machine you will run into once or twice a year.

I still have my grandmother's Maytag sitting in a basement somewhere lol still works

Consumer Reports weighs heavily on features and initial quality but it seems to me their ratings care not at all about longevity.

Why do appliances need to be aerodynamic, anyway?

Funny how different the markets can be because here you'll be hard pressed to find one that is not a heat pump dryer.

WOW NICE!

Hard on WalMart thin Junk clothes maybe. We have no issues.

we have plenty of water. Sorry about you West Coast drought places. Shouldn't run my life though.
TVA power from rivers. Well water.

This:

https://www.lysol.com/products/laundry-sanitizers/lysol-laundry-sanitizer

Almost had me. Can’t dry your clothes in the rain, dum dum.

Now available at local Dollar Trees; =)

Harder on the very same clothes I was washing in the old washer. Some junk, some not.

That washer is the best washer. My mom, my dad, and my grandma have the same one.

Never wanted to throw something in after the cycle has started?

Autocorrect makes me shave my head sometimes

3d print an enclosure to prevent your clothes from getting wet!

I've recently started doing this with my newer machine. Less lint appears in the dryer's trap.

Damn that is a serious find. Those units run forever. I’ve never come across one for less than $1k let alone a set for under $200. Great job.

Hydro power is not as good as you think it is…

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Now you should go buy a lottery ticket!

Are you guys going after hydro now? Next you'll be complaining about the higher death rates from solar and ecological damage to bird populations from wind.

Damn… where’d ya find that STEAL of a deal. Congrats!

My mom has the washer. I never had any problems with clothes getting ruined, it's a great washing machine

I love speed queen!!!!!!