New Speed Queen washers and dryers!

[laundrynut]

Arriving Tuesday

The SQ units are scheduled for delivery Tuesday AM. Won't get a chance to audition them until after work in the PM. Will try to get some pics somewhere along the line. Don't think I'll get any sleep tonight... LOL

 

[yogitunes]

to me the thermostat in the vent pipe monitors moisture in the air...that was in my whirlpool and the speed queen...this was way better...whether one piece or half load or full load...all dried evenly

now my kenmore has the sensor inside the drum and unless you have a full load in there it can't "feel" the clothes unless they touch it...you can't dry a small load or one piece...in the auto cycle the sensor gets hot and dry and thinks the load is done...only after a few minutes of drying...then you have to use the time dry cycle to get completely dry

 

[DADoES]

The moisture sensor on my F&P SmartLoad works very well, small loads or large. I can run jeans on the Denim (high heat) cycle or Perm Press (medium heat) cycle, at the same "Normal" dryness setting, and they come out dry (just takes longer on lower heat). Shirts/casuals on Perm Press or Delicate, Normal dryness, they're fine. I have several towels (washed separately due to bleeding and picking up lint) of a particular fabric that's odd and always comes out damp, requiring a recycle.

Our 1976 Whirly dryer was in an unheated/uncooled garage, and the thermostatic auto-dry had different drying characteristics between summer and winter. Winter it tended to overdry unless the setting was cut back.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Thermostatic auto-dry will not adavance the timer unless the heat source is off--meaning the temperture in the drum is rather high. In an unheated garage (or any other unheated space) the heat takes much longer to turn off therby keeping the timer from advancing.

My electric dryer has auto-dry (time and temprrature) rather than sensors. I use it on 110v, in that my aparmtment has only 110v 30a service IN TOTAL. At that voltage it uses 13.25a according to the Kill-a-Watt meter I put on the line to see its draw. Anyhoo, point being that the dryer will only shut off if I use the "LOW" heat setting-- there is not enought heat input to get it up to the "HIGH" tmeperature setting needed to cycle off the heat, thereby advancing the timer.

 

[laundrynut]

They've finally arrived

The new dynamic duo has finally arrived. The SQ LTSA7A stacked FL machines are quite the change from the old Whirlpool egg beater I had for 20+ years. Very quiet running. Stands very solid during high spin. I've noticed that it does much better at balancing with a full load.

Normal wash cycle is 25 mins. You can restart the wash cycle again if you want to add a separate bath for bleach, etc. Otherwise, it adds the bleach with the detergent when the wash cycle starts. I know the pro formulas call for a separate bleach bath after the detergent bath is drained.

The rinses are a bit short for my taste, less than 2 mins. each. I talked with a tech at Alliance, who said the length of the rinse cycles can't be changed. But since previous versions had different cycle times, I'm sure he wasn't telling me everything. I got the impression that it could have left the factory with a different "control" (as he called it) had I requested it prior to it shipping. I will ask the local distributor if an infield retrofit is possible.

It works very well as it stands, even with the short rinses. Of course you can add the 3rd rinse, which, so far, gets rid of all the detergent. The only reason I would want longer rinse cycles is in the case high pH detergents were used. I would want the neutralizer to have more time to do its thing.

I will take some pictures when I get a chance. It’s installed in tight quarters and I need a real wide-angle lense to get a good shot.

Low suds and high spins!

 

[mysteryclock]

25 minutes?

Is that the wash time or the total cycle time? If its the total cycle then it is sounds like it is set to the older 9-minute wash time like one of the manuals I found online suggested. I know they've upped the actual wash portion of the total cycle to 24 minutes for the residential model FLs.

 

[laundrynut]

Mysteryclock

The 25 mins is just the Normal wash cycle or bath. The rinse cycles and spins are additional time, approximately 45 mins total, without the extra rinse. The Perm. Press wash cycle is about 21 mins (total about 41), and the Delicate wash cycle is about 13 mins (total about 31). This is the OPL version, which seems to be about 1 min extra on each cycle than the home version. Why? who knows.

The other difference I can see right away between the OPL and home models is the color of the washer door. It seems to be light grey on the home model; on the OPL model it's white, like the rest of the machine. Also, the home model comes with a 1 year warranty on labor (in addition to the parts - 3 and 5 years, depending on the part). The OPL labor warranty is whatever the distributor wants to give you.

 

[mysteryclock]

Thanks!

Sounds virtually identical to the home model -- that's good to know. Just out of curiosity, did you get a warranty that was at least comparable to the normal residential one out of your distributor? Did it come in one monolith-sized box or was it bolted together from two separate units on-site?

Can't wait to see pics and maybe vids)!

 

[laundrynut]

Warranty & stuff

It arrived in one piece in a tall box. Looks as though it could be separated if necessary to get up stairs or something, but not in my case. The distributor, who normally deals with commercial laundries, and machines in constant use, was a little hesitant to give me anything on labor, but said if it's the machine's fault and not user error, they would probably give me a year on labor since it's in a residence and not under constant use. The parts warranties are the same on all Alliance products because they're all considered "commercial" systems, even the SQ home models say "commercial" on the front.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Question

FL washers are more expensive to produce, as one stated above. So manufacturers have to cut costs accordingly to increase sales, thus cheapening the product.

So then, with that said, do the manufacturers just not care about their reputation? I mean, if Whirlpool wants to make Duet's as cheap as they can get by with to millions of people, then risk these machines going out in 2 years of some sort of failure, then those people may NEVER buy Whirlpool again? I mean, you would think the manufacturers would put thought into that aspect as well.

 

[DADoES]

What makes you think they don't? I'd bet manufacturers have departments that track repair trends, customer complaints, coordinating with engineers for component redesign to address confirmed problems, etc. I'd even hazard a guess that they have a look-see at online appliance discussion forums.

 

[mark_wpduet]

I'm not saying that they don't

care.....I just was reading some of the statements about SQ's reputation and I would love to have one of these machines. It got me thinking why would other manufacturer's not want a reputation of quality and not cheap. I guess it's a give and take. Without the lower price, they won't sell as much product. But even some of the high end stuff is cheaply made inside. Oh well.

 

[mysteryclock]

Balancing act

I think the level of quality you see in most big-company machines is a balancing act of absolute build quality vs. cost. Clearly these big companies have the expertise to build something that's virtually bulletproof, but it would probably have to have a pretty dear price to boot. And if these big volume mfgs. did build something bulletproof, that would cause two problems for them:

1) They might price themselves out of the big-volume market by charging what they had to to recoup their parts and R&D costs.

2) If the machines were really bulletproof then they would not get very much repeat business after 3-6 years when the machines crapped out (on schedule?) and, by definition, would no longer be "big volume" companies.

SQ is sort of an odd bird here -- they appear to build machines that are peers of their commercial units, price them as required and don't appear to be too concerned about getting the same customers to buy again every 3-6 years due to "planned obsolescence (/ failure)". They'd rather build a good machine and keep their overall reputation intact.

Refreshingly old fashioned, eh?

 

[ronhic]

It is a shame...

...really that there seems to be a 'line' missing.

We seem to have BOL, MOL and TOL ranges depending on where you live, but these seem to be based on 'add-ons' rather than a difference in quality.

It would be good if a manufacturer chose to give us the choice.

When my mother got her ASEA in 1989, I asked a couple of questions of the sales man and his answer was simple.

- Miele machines (at the time) were more like a domestic version of a commercial machine.

- ASEA were a more robust domestic machine.

I'm not sure where either really sits today, but it would be nice to see a robust version of a domestic machine.

Years ago, 'Heavy Duty' used to mean something and people were prepared to pay a little more for it.

So if a mainline manufacturer, such as Electrolux, Whirlpool et.al did decide to have a line of domestic heavy duty machines that were perceivably of better, more robust build and quality than their normal domestic lines and charged say 20-30% more for them (with the same programme options) it would be interesting to know how they would go from a sales and service point of view.

Miele have built their reputation on quality for the domestic market...and SQ too....though you could argue that their approaches are different, the result is the same - buyer loyalty, reliability and serice.

 

[surgilator_68]

Stacked

The dryer can be unstacked, it's rather a pain though. Thankfully most everything you would ever need to do can be done from the front, both washer and dryer.

 

[surgilator_68]

Balancing act, cost, etc

I want to believe, well I actually know that a near bullet proof machine can be built. It would not take a whole lot to make some of these machines better. If you look back when Kitchenaid had a full laundry line you can see the difference. They had better motors, the dryer belt was thicker, they had bronze bushing in the drum rollers and idler, the cabinets were galvanized and triple coated, the porcelain tops actually had porcelain on BOTH sides, the wash basket had a thicker more durable coating of porcelain. They also had the longest warranty in the business. With only a few more additions to those machines, the washer in particular, it could have been a truly near bullet proof machine.

Sadly, today that is not the case. You will be hard pressed to find a machine that even has the inside of the cabinet painted!! Now how is that for cutting costs. As far as I am concerned no body can beat the quality of SQ right now. As for cost, it is actually less expensive to buy a pair of SQ than it is to buy a comparable pair of another brand.

Jason

 

[frigilux]

Just curious: Were vintage (60's-70's) Speed Queen washers reliable? Does anyone have a stash of Consumer Reports mags with reliability ratings? The parents of my sister's boyfriend had a late '50s SQ set that lasted at least 20 years.

On the other hand, a neighbor had an early '70s pair and the washer had numerous problems. The set was gone and replaced by Kenmores by the time I went to college in '77.

 

[laundrynut]

Stacked Queens?

Just to clarify one thing about the stacked units: They can be separated temporarily in order to get them in or out of a building, say with a low stair case going down to the basement, but both washer and dryer share the same control panel, which is mounted to the washer section. Thus, using them unstacked is not an option. What I was saying (above) is that in my case, they didn’t need to be separated in order to get them into the house.

I have to admit, I didn’t know that SQ even still existed when I started looking for a replacement for my Whirlpool TL and dryer. In fact, I didn’t even stumble across the name SQ until I Googled “OPL laundry equipment.”

This is the first SQ product I’ve ever owned, so I can’t speak from experience as far as their longevity or robust construction may be concerned. What I do see is that SQ’s are alive and strong in commercial applications, so they must be building a product that can withstand the constant use associated with a coin laundry or OPL operation.

Pricey? Depends on how you look at it. From what I can see, they’re built like a brick s??t-house. I expect to still be cranking out the laundry with my SQ long after those environmentally friendly other washers (with all their pre-wash, steam, temperature, spin and designer color options) have found their way to the landfill.

Low suds & high spins!

 

[mark_wpduet]

Ktichenaid

But aren't Kitchenaid's Whirlpool's TOL (most expensive) machines? So since Whirlpool charges top dollar then why aren't they built as such? That's my question. I mean, if people want "cheaper" alternative, they can always go with Whirlpool basic. IT just angers me that Whirlpool doesn't do the same thing with "Kitchenaid" as Kitchenaid did. I think my next washer will be a SQ FL washer but my Duet seems to be doing great for over four years. We shall see.

 

[laundrynut]

Cost vs. Quality

My Whirlpool washer and dryer were 20 years old when I replaced them. Never required one service call on either. They were both working (albeit loudly) when they left. But I think quality, competition and marketing strategy has changed in the last 20 years. The companies can charge as much as consumers are willing to pay. These days, some people are going to buy nothing but an HE rated FL, simply because they just “feel good” about using it. They’re doing their part to help the environment, etc., etc., etc. People are willing to pay top dollar for an HE FL, even if the price is inflated way beyond the actual value of the machine. And when they break, they’ll buy another one. The companies know this. Don’t forget, Whirlpool, Maytag, etc. spend a lot on media advertising. This cost is built into the price of their products. Local dealers have to include their overhead and operating expenses into the retail price. And don’t forget the sales person’s commission. So expensive doesn’t necessarily translate into quality.

In contrast, when was the last time you saw a SQ ad on TV or in Better Homes & Gardens? The SQ distributors(or Alliance, for that matter), for the most part, are commercial laundry operations suppliers, selling from behind a cluttered desk or over the phone. No fancy showroom. Just a warehouse with a front office. So if the price of a SQ washer is high, you know it probably has more to do with product quality, rather than supporting a marketing budget or decorating a fancy showroom with pushy sales people on commission. Or, for that matter, IMPORT COSTS!!!

Low suds & high spins!