SQ redesign
That is actually deeply routed in how efficency metrics are calculated for comparison and classification:
https://www.energystar.gov/products/appliances/clothes_washers/key_product_criteria
Lots of talk around what is what on that page, but it clearly shows that several factors play into the efficency rating. Can't make out how a test load is defined, but the efficency rating takes into account:
-the energy usage of the cycle
-the energy used to heat the water
-the energy then required to dry the clothes (basicly taking spin speed into account, though, again, haven't found the way that is determined)
-the energy the machine uses while in low power mode (I guess that means standby/off)
-that all is broken down into a per cuft number to make it comparable independent of machine size
For waterefficency, you just divide the water usage of the normal cycle set to cold by the drum volume.
So basicly, all major ways of making the operation more energy efficent are taken into account and pushed into one number.
Thus, getting below that magic number can be done in several ways.
Speedqueen probably had to find a verry delicate balance of all the factors which made a complete redo necessary.
Mostly by now I suspect that spin speeds and waterlevels in combination made for a complicated redesign thought process. You have to keep in mind that these machines can't suddenly get even more expensive which would be the case if for example they combined a variable speed inverter drive with a trasnmission/clutch/brake system but still have to be abled to achieve the needed efficency.
Whirlpool had it easier there as they have 2 pretty much tried and tested drive train designs which they only tweaked from generation to generation.
And, furthermore (even if you do not consider that SQ had I think 3 different mother companys in the past 20 years and these company changes certanly meant delays in productdevelopment) WP has at least 10 years more experience with current HE machines and probably actually something like 20 years more experience with the general idea to make a washer more efficent. Thus, a lot of their designs just adapted along.
SQ basicly had to jump that decade of R&D and go from something like a good old WP DD to something like WPs current machines in just 2 machine itterations while WP itterated probably a dozen times.
Putting a 2018 SQ side to side to a 2014 SQ is like putting one of the last WP DDs next to a current WP TL.
By now, manufacturers were abled to just basicly ignore cleaning and rinsing for the most part or at least there were no standards set.
Check this slideshow out:
https://www.energystar.gov/sites/de...ashers Draft 1 V8_0 Specification Webinar.pdf
Page 17 clearly says that stakeholders (so the people who own parts of major appliance cooperations) are concerned that to strict regulations might push them to produce products that can't satisfy any consumer anymore. Keep in mind, stakeholders want at least a certain customer satisfaction to keep them with their company and thus keep the profits they bring.
On the same slide, you can see that there are movements to create a standartised comparable testing method for cleaning and rinsing performance. These would make these ratings basicly water proof (maybe except for wear/gentleness) as the word "clean" and "well rinsed" are finally put into numbers and numbers don't lie.
That would legally force manufacturers to produce products that wash laundry clean, rinse it well and do that efficently.
Apparently, these comittees work in 3 year cycles and always for the redo 6 years ahead.
Basicly right now, they are finalizing the 2021 regulations so manufacturers get the 2021 standards at the begining of 2018. Thus the manufacturers have 3 years to redo their products.
Then the comittee will work on the 2024 regulations during the period from 2018 to 2021. In 2021, the 2024 regulations will be released and so forth.
So if I didn't get something wrong there, next year, we should get the 2021 regulations which should include a rating for washing and rinsing results.
And as a consequence of that, by 2021, every machine should clean and rinse comparably well which might mean that IFA and CES 2020 during which the 2021 products should be presented could be full of completly new tech in the appliance sector.
