Solid tub speed queens still in use!

[blueneon]

More from City Wide Coin Laundry. Welp... I guess I now know what Apple Green looks like. I'd missed that row of them before I suppose.

The Speed Queen dryers look fantastic. There were also some Loadstar (Huebsch?) dryers there but I couldn't get a good photo of them due to MASSIVE sun glare. I have no idea who made the ones with the LED displays.

No idea when the Continental-Girbau washer is from but it's not the current model, and it takes *FOREVER* to spin down. No brakes, it doesn't even use the Ametek's trick of re-engaging the wash motor to force it to slow down.

Speaking of Ametek, these are definitely the original model from before the electric door strike that didn't let you open the washer while it was running. My grandfather told me a story of how one of his first large electrical jobs, he wired in an Ametek and had it up and running. These machines do not start draining until the spin motor is already energized, so you wind up with a very large amount of water spinning inside the thing with great force until it empties out. His foreman promptly pressed the door release tab just as it was spinning up and was given a tremendous shower. He was afraid the foreman would get mad and not sign off on the job, but the foreman took it laughing in good spirits and said he could use the cold shower anyway.

 

[washman]

Brilliant!

If this place ever shuts down, I want a green SQ!

 

[dnastrau]

Vintage machines in commercial duty

Very cool laundromat!  I wonder how much trouble it is to keep those vintage SQ solid tub machines as well as the Big Boy front loaders running.  Are parts available for them?  Just curious...

 

Andrew S.

 

[tolivac]

Memories from the lapse of time!!Those SQ machines shown look like the ones in an apartment building laundry room where I lived starting in the early 70's -It was the Oakrest Towers Apartments in Suitland,Md.The machine were Turquoise in color.They were my favorite laundry service machine.Wish I had one today!-just like those older solid drum machines.Liked watching the overflow rinse-the tops of the agitator blades were under water!Also remember "McGraw Edison" on the machine nameplates besides Speed Queen.Later SQ machines at that apartment were Ratheon machine-NOT the same as those older McGraw Edison ones!

 

[blueneon]

dnastrau: From what I understand, the Ametek machines relied very heavily on off the shelf standard parts and didn't really have much custom built aside from the casing and drum. They beat Staber to their game 30 years earlier I guess.

I know what you mean with the Raytheon based ones. Some of the Huebsch machines at the boring modern laundromat I take my stuff to have Raytheon labels on them, and a few places have the Raytheon/Speed Queen top loaders... they don't overflow rinse or anything cool like that.

 

[brucelucenta]

It doesn't surprise me at all that there are still old solid tub SQ coin op machines in use. They were extremely heavy duty and would last nearly forever with a little care and maintainence.

 

[tolivac]

I would also think the older SQ machines would be easy to fix if and when they did break.When the ones at that apartment house were removed-all of them that I knew of still worked.Hope they found another home rather than the krusher-would be sad to destroy machines that still work.Maybe they were recycled for home use.Like many commercial mowers-when they get "aged" they are great for home use.

 

[washer111]

These machines are GREAT looking - and pretty simple to boot too!

 

That Lime/Apple colour is a pretty interesting colour for a commercial machine, as is the Orange! 

 

The great thing about these machines would the superior agitation, as well as the thorough overflow rinsing - especially compared to modern coin-ops that only do a partial drain for the rinses to conserve water (talk about a rip-off!)

 

Would love to see one of these in action - they do look like fun machines

 

[dnastrau]

Solid tub SQ parts availability (?)

Are parts still available for solid tub SQ machines?  I have a feeling that the general answer is "NOS" only.  Maybe the owner of that laundromat has a stash of spares...

 

[combo52]

Solid Tub Commercial SQs Still In Use

This has be be about the last Laundromat in the US that still has these machines.

SQ like other brands seldom lasted much more than 10 years in Commercial use, which is actually saying a lot since the amount of use they get is like lasting 50-100 years or more in home use of just 10 or less loads per week.

The ST SQ washers were not partially easy to repair, but they did have a good main seal and bearing system, so a determined repair person could keep them running if you wanted to work that hard and have lots of skinned fingers and bruises.