Help! Speed Queen TC5003WN questions.

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@dan- Yup. I had to change the seal a few times 15-20 years ago due to slow filling when I lived in the high iron content town. The amount of iron in the water was obscene. A new toilet tank went from white to brown to black in a few years. Iron streaks in the sink, shower and toilet bowl. Toilet bowl turned red. The inside of the dishwasher turned coffee color. Everything would streak and discolor. Being lazy and not wanting to get upset scrubbing the sink and vanities weekly started to look like death LOL. I made the mistake of thinking that extra detergent in the ultra soft water would help but it only etched my cups and caused suds lock. Yes, the water was soft. A drop of dawn or Joy in the sink or washing machine would make for the thickest of suds. When I moved in the late 2000s I was surprised why the detergents would suds much less and soap would not lather. Come to be told the new place had hard water. Not super mega hard, but still hard enough to notice. My place now has little iron and just the right amount of water hardness in that any detergent will suds just the right amount at a reasonable dose. 

 

Only major downer was 10 years ago several boil water advisories after raccoons would get into the water tower vents and expire. As I understand the issue has now been resolved with new vent caps.
 
Very hard water will reduce the sudsing even of non HE detergent. Key is knowing how hard you water is and going from there. 1983-1990 GE dishwasher manuals had an excellent explanation of how much detergent to add for water hardness, soil level and water inlet temps below 120*F.

 

In the OP's case low sudsing or HE detergent might actually help in preventing stand pipe sudsing. In my experience the only time I have suds (albeit small amounts) is when I overdose on detergent. But that has become rare.
 
sudsing

I've never had "standpipe sudsing". Until reading Speed Queen reviews, I didn't even know it was a thing.

I use Gain powder. We like the fresh smell. It says "HE for all machines" on the box, I had to look. We don't use fabric softener in the wash, we use dryer sheets.

We use the setting on the cup for medium loads. It's the lowest one. Turns out thats about 3 tablespoons. Works great.

We had to replace the 39 year old drainfield in 2014 (house built in 1975). And were told too much detergent was not good for the drainfield. It was quite pricey, so we don't want to do that again. Although 39 years is longer than the expected lifespan.
Probably a non issue. the new code for dranfields was 5x50' drain pipes. The old one was 3x40' pipes, so the new field is more than double the size.
 
Too much detergent in a septic tank

Is very unlikely to hurt the operation of a septic tank, the main things that affect the septic tank. It’s just too much water volume.

Also be sure you’re using your garbage disposal a lot. The food waste really adds to the effectiveness of a septic system with only two people in the house it may not be getting enough waste Otherwise.

The main thing to avoid with a septic system is grease, be very careful about scraping all grease off dishes, etc., and anything that’s even slightly oily should be run through the dishwasher. The dishwasher does an excellent job of emulsifying the grease with the detergent and water so it really doesn’t separate back out as when you wash dishes by hand.

John
 
combo52

Soap will kill the bacteria in septic tanks, not a big deal as long as it's not excessive.

And you don't want to use the garbage disposal much, if at all. You're the first person to ever tell me it's good to use it a lot. Or that it's good for the system. Food does not break down as easily as human waste and tp.



https://www.premiertechaqua.com/en-us/wastewater/should-you-use-garbage-disposal-septic-system

We try not to use ours at all. And having one requires a larger tank and field by code. They never looked to see that we had one, so we got to keep the old tank. We were pumping evey 3 years after it was replaced, our septic guy said we should go 4 or 5 without issue. So we are trying 4 this time. It's always looked great when pumped out, I'm sure it will outlast me, when it's 39 years old, I'll be almost 90. And it should last longer than the old one.

My county made us have the old field dug up and removed, and all new fill brought in. Doubling the cost. Normally you just put the new one next to the old one, if you have space, and we do. They let our neighbors do that a year after we replaced ours. But they made them replce the tank, to go from 1000 to 1200 gallon. Removal of the old cement tank required a crane to lift it over the house to the front yard, not enough space on the sides to safely do it witout lots of tree removal. I imagine that was costly as well.
 
You're the first person to ever tell me it's good to

He's been spreading that around here for years and it's bullshit. I have talked to several in the industry and they recommend not using one. If it's used, pump the septic tank no later than every 3 years (generally recommended every 3-5 years).
 
qsd-dan

I know, I researched septic systems quite a bit. As you do when you are dropping 10K!
Not sure what it would cost now, 10 years later...

Funny how this thread started with me just wondering if the SQ would pump 76" up!

Now I'm more nervous than before, Sudsing, hoses, belts, screens, etc. Questioning the purchase even more now. And I don't like that plastic corrugated hose! Still have to see how well/if it attaches to the extension.

But I love all the information.
 
I spent my teenage years in a home with a septic tank. The home had a garbage disposal that the builder installed when the home was built. Once while I was home alone doing the house cleaning when I went into the bathroom to clean the tub I noticed a great deal of sludge in the bottom of the tub and thought that couldn’t have been from anyone’s bath. I was also doing laundry and when I went into the kitchen I noticed that filthy water had backed up into the laundry tub.

I called my Mom at work and she had a guy come up to the house to pump out the septic tank. He told us to NEVER use the garbage disposal again, that they were bad for septic tanks. We took out the garbage disposal after this experience.

If you’ve ever had a septic tank backup you’ll never want to have it happen again and do everything you can to keep your septic tank from backing up again.

I have no use for garbage disposals whatsoever. They are a big waste of water. I took ours out several years ago when the kitchen sink backed up during Easter and I had to plunge the sink while trying to get dinner on the table. The kitchen sink has never plugged up again since I took out the disposal. And I don’t miss having a disposal at ALL! We compost our food waste and vegetable peels and it’s no problem at all.

Eddie
 
We were lucky, our drainfield was in the very early stages of failure. It would handle showers and toilet flushes just fine. But it flowed slow enough that if you did two loads of laundry in a row, the second load would usually dump 1/4 gallon of water or less out of the standpipe on final rinse. Never did have sewage backup into the home, or water in the yard.

We were sure it was the drainfield, but the first septic company we called dug a hole, and said it was bone dry, so he said the drianfield was fine. He noted the standpipe was only 9" above the trap, code is min 18", so I made it taller. When that didn't work, he said the vent was too far away, so I added that AAV device. You can see both in the pic. I doubted either of these would fix the issue, since we had no problems for over 20 years, and it didn't.

We called a different septic company to inspect, they just stuck a rod in several places on the other side of the yard, and hit standing water at less about 3'! They asked me why the first guy dug a hole? Turned out the first guy was 30' from the drainfield. He claimed he hit gravel, but that just isn't possible. He wasn't even close. I knew where the tank was, and assumed the tank went straight out. It actually goes about 20 feet to the left before draining into the field. The county keeps all this in thier records, and the septic companies are supposed to get that information before they even pump a tank.
 
 
My aerobic septic system is 20yo.  No drain field, a discharge pump sprays the treated water onto my furthest back yard area on a timed (early morn) schedule.  Some repairs have been done (aerator, aerator control, discharge pump) but it has never been pumped for sludge.  The state and county requires a maintenance contract (or the homeowner can get certified).  The installer/servicer does an inspection every 4 months and has remarked a few times that it's among the cleanest they see.  Wiring is in place for a disposer but the builder didn't install one.  I use plenty laundry detergent, chlorine bleach for whites, and add STPP to every load for 15+ years.  A phosphated product (or add STPP) to the dishwasher for the same duration.
 
Wow!

$1150 out the door price for a new TC5?
I recently priced the same model at the sole SQ dealer here in Honolulu and was quoted $1800, with an ETA of a month, the quote is high because I would have to pay for shipping.
The dealer does not stock any SQ machines at all because the prices scare too many buyers away, they do, however stock the garbage from Whirlpool & GE, many prospective buyers will opt for a vastly inferior washer, totally unaware that in 5-6 years(if they are lucky) they'll be pushing it to the curb.
The reason why I'm looking for a new washer is that my uber reliable 24 year old Maytag top loader is on it's last leg, the outer drum has developed pin hole leaks due to rust, I can only patch so much of them with Marine Tex, of course the part is obsolete and a good used drum is rarer than hen's teeth...
I did buy a used 2017 SQ 2 years ago and have been disassembling it to sanitize it, it has a trusty mechanical timer, however the SQ's build quality cannot match my Maytag's
 
the SQ's build quality cannot match my Maytag's

Don't tell me that! My Maytag lasted 35 years, with no repairs.

How can a dealer charge you shipping? Retail is only $1479.

Do they charge shipping on Whirlpools? I could see shipping individual units being quite expensive. Our dealer had 18 TC5s in stock, and 13 TR5s.
 
How can a dealer charge you shipping? Retail is only $1479.

The answer is simple, as I stated this dealer is the sole SQ agency in Honolulu and probably the entire state of Hawaii, so they pretty much have a "carte blanche" on how they do business. I also stated that this agency does not stock any SQ TC5 machines because of the machines price point, otherwise they'd be stuck with inventory that they just can't sell. To the uninformed consumer a Whirlpool or GE will suit their needs just fine for half the price, until they discover what a POS their choice was in performance and durability.
Ninety-five percent of consumer goods are shipped to the islands via container ship, the port of Long Beach, CA is some 2.5K miles away.
This is the price we must pay to live in Paradise...however I'll live nowhere else.
As for Maytag vs SQ build quality, the Maytag is vastly superior, that's a given.
 
Original question about drain height.

Speed Queen finally called me back, I called a few times this week, and with 1 hour hold times, opted for the call me back option. Today they actually called back!

Their support was pretty worthless. She just read the line from the manual about above 48" not being ecommended. Also said it could cause issues later. I asked he what that meant, and she mentioned slower drain times. I asked if it would damage the machine, she said no. I again asked what she meant about issues LATER, She didn't know...

She did contact tech support, and they confirmed that the extension hose I have #451P3 is the correct hose for that machine, NOT the other with the check valve.

It will be delivered Monday morning. I was really hoping to read that someone has this working above 5' or 6'. Guess we will find out.

I have never seen a basement installation with a standpipe lower than mine around here. Pipes don't leave the basement at floor level, even on city water. It's usually 3' or 4' minimum off the floor. Then you have to add the sani-t and the standpipe above that...just like in my pic. My neibors is actually at 86", barely any room to pull out the drain hose from the pipe. He is using a 10 year old Kenmore with an extended 1" drian hose into a 1.5" standpipe. I have a 2".
 
5 or 6 inches will not make a difference. Having the drain time go for an extra 15 seconds won't hurt anything. The belt slips more than it grips during the whole 60-90 second drain period and continues to slip during the remaining spin. The spray rinse starts prematurely anyways, so I doubt it would make that any worse. 

 

When we moved into our previous place the original DD washer in the basement was elevated on cinder blocks and a plywood board. I got rid of silly elevation and extended drain hose with another hose up to the standpipe. I never actually measured it, but it worked. The next two DDs also got the same treatment and it worked well. Yes there was a bit extra water at the bottom of the outer tub with the machine wrapper removed (not seen in the inner wash basket) however it did not effect washing or rinsing.

 

Look at it like this: if your previous Maytag could do it, so will your Speed Queen.
 
5 or 6 inches will not make a difference.

It's not 5 or 6 inches.

76 inches (6+ feet) is 28 inches above the recommended height.
 
extended

It was extended to meet the 18" above trap height required by code. It was only 9" above the trap.
There is a post above about my drainfield that goes into the whole story, but when we got a new drainfoeld, everything had to meet code.

I think the previous owners cut it down, because they were too cheap to get a longer hose.

You are probably right, I'll find out Monday.
 
If it was done out of code, leave it as is. If anything it will reduce the probability of water or suds spilling out.

 

 

Can you take videos and upload them? A vid of the cycle on both normal and delicate would let members here verify the machine is draining ok.
 

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