I had all three and WP belt and DD too....
The original Pitman tranny with Powerfin did the best job, IMO, but if overloaded could be hard on clothes. People often criticize these machines for languid agitation, but IMO they were quite vigorous, more so than WP belt or direct drive. However, all agitation was at the bottom of the tub where it’s not visible. IMO the lack of side fins on the agitator resulted in better load rolling than the
WP belt drive we had, because the side fins detracted from the pulling down action from the bottom fins. Another thing is that often the critics are watching a Maytag with 40 year old tranny oil that has turned into grease. If those Maytags are overhauled with new tranny oil they agitate much more vigorously.
The orbital tranny with Powerflex was an awful washer. The short stroke was inadequate to pull down and roll the load with larger and heavier clothes, such as jeans. It had no ability to pull down bed sheets when they developed an air pocket, resulting in their being twisted into a rope, and not getting clean. It often twisted blankets into a rope too. Also, the rinse cycle was so short, only about a minute, that it did not roll most loads even once during the deep rinse. I used to reset it to agitate longer two or three times with loads like jeans and sheets. I ditched that washer the moment Maytag came out with the LoadSensor.
The orbital tranny with LoadSensor like Whirlpool’s dual action corkscrew was infinitely better than the original orbital with PowerFlex at rolling loads over, but it still twisted sheets into ropes that did not get clean, although not quite as often. (The Whirlpool Direct Drive was also guilty of same - had one of those too.).
Anyway, the Pitman got clothes cleaner and rolled loads over just as well as the orbital with Load Sensor, and never twisted sheets and blankets into a rope. The orbital with LoadSensor was easier on clothes but did not get them as clean.
I also had a pre-2018 SQ TL and it performed better than all three Maytag formats, probably because the rinse cycle was longer.
My Speed Queen FL outperforms all TLs I have had by miles, with far less water and detergent to boot, and I would never go back to a TL of any format or type.
