The triple lip seal refers to to the sealing surface that seals to the drive shaft if I’m not mistaken. The external part of the seal that you see seals the assembly to the tub.
I don't trust any of them. The only ones I'll trust are speed queen and the older models of the older brands with real motors and transmissions and pumps. No need to explain.
Not sure I'd trust Speed Queen either. Eugene (Lorainfurniture) recently posted YouuTube clip repairing an 8 year old Speed Queen washer with a failed tub seal. The tub seal looks ridiculously overcomplex (like German engineering), expensive, and a pain to replace. The aluminum hub was badly corroded. Not good signs for an 8 year old washer that supposedly should last a minimum of 20.
I even asked in the live chat if these Speed Queens are better or the good old Maytags made from 1956 to 2006, and he pretty much said the build quality in them is night and day since Maytag quite literally overbuilt their machines and are still some in service in laundromats out there.
Speed Queen should just use Maytag’s design they literally used forever but put the Speed Queen logo on it. No one would really care since the parents have LONG expired and no one owns the rights to that design anymore. Definitely would get them a better reputation if they had a washer as durable as the Maytags made from 1956 to 2006.
My ten year old, lightly used, SQ MOL TL is having problems. The tub always leaned to the one o'clock position during agitation but that is now to the extreme and it makes a rubbing sound during agitation.
The timer has recently gone out as well.
Having problems with such a low-mileage machine is not a good omen. I expected this machine would be around for a long time.
Kind of pitiful since Speed Queen’s are supposed to last 25 years with heavy use. You are better off getting a Maytag set from either the 70’s or 80’s, rebuilding it from the ground up since it’ll outlast Speed Queen’s by a large margin. This advertisement from the 60’s pretty much explains why Maytags just last and last forever since Maytag mentioned their Highlander washer could do over 14,000 loads of laundry while Speed Queen can only do 10,400 cycles before they are junk.