Speed Queen FL on the fritz *again*

[stricklybojack]

.
Oh boy here we go. My wife said "something is wrong with the washer, and I smell something burning."
Sure enough there was a burning smell, while the 'wash' and 'rinse' lights flashed in unison.
The drum was motionless. She thought the smell was like rubber burning, I couldn't tell for sure.

I unplugged it right away and called the local service center. The service manager wanted the serial number, so I open the door and...flooded our wash room!
It was filled seemingly to the brim, at least half way up the glass in any case. Thank god for the drain in the floor.

When I told of this machine having the motor control board replaced once already, the tone turned grim.
"Ya...you may have a lemon, SQ may need to swap you for a new machine, you might have to make some noise though."

A new board is no fix unless whatever contributing factor is also addressed, that is if the MCB is determined to be needing replacement...AGAIN. We shall see.
Egads, this is not good. This time the machine was plugged into the surge protector someone on this website recommended, after the last blowout. A quality surge protector whose lights are showing green as they should.

We have had no other appliance fail in this house for electrical reasons in 45 years time, and this machine was running only a half sized load of kids cloths...and probably has only run about 70ish loads thus far in it's short life.

[this post was last edited: 1/25/2017-14:30]

 

[brucelucenta]

WOW! Another happy speed queen customer! Seem to be quite a few of you. Certainly makes me happy I DID NOT buy a speed queen. Maybe if you squawk enough, they might give your money back and you could get a good machine. It worked for someone else back a few months ago. She bought a completely different kind of machine and has no more trouble now.

 

[ea56]

While I appreciate reading your post, I'm afraid that instead of sharing this with everyone on AW.org, I would be first on the phone with Alliance in Wisconsin, wanting to know just what they intended to do to make this right, especially after what the service tech said to you over the phone. For a much as you spent on this machine I certainly hope that you can get a satisfactory resolution. If Alliance is as good as so many seem to think, they will make this right for you. Good Luck!
Eddie

 

[mrb627]

Opening the Door...

Should not have flooded the laundry room.
Water level should never be that high in this machine.
What model is this?

Malcolm

 

[stricklybojack]

.
Let me copy and paste from the now ironic receipt:

AFN50RSP113TW01 Speed Queen 3.3 Cu. Ft. Front Load Washer with Long Lasting Durability - White

 

[washerdude]

Filled halfway up the glass? MCU gone again? I'd say this is a definite lemon.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
Our first problem was fixed by unplugging the machine for a day or two until the service tech arrived, he plugged it in and declared nothing was wrong with the machine. I was not there and subsequently guessed my 87 year old mother wasn't used to the pausing drum motions of her first ever FL washer and wrongly figured something was amiss...now I am not so sure. That was a year ago.
THEN the machine failed with all the lights flashing in unison...that was the first motor control unit.
I watched the new one get installed and was not confident the tech was very familiar with our model of Speed Queen. I think he even said he was more comfortable working on the TL machines...but that's only a guess. He was guided through the diagnosis from SQ over the phone it seemed. That was over the summer.

And now this. I chose a different SQ warranty repair outfit this time that claimed to do more SQ work than any other in the region.
Hard tellin' not knowin'...

 

[launderess]

Isn't there a way to drain a SQ washer that has stopped?

Or maybe I shouldn't ask?

 

[combo52]

Over Filling SQ FL Washer

You either have a bad inlet valve  [fairly common on this series ] or the air-dome at the rear of the outer has some type of build-up in it blocking it which keeps the pressure from sensing how much water is in the washer. { a blockage here is usually related to a combination of local water conditions and poor detergent choices, usually too little for water conditions }

 

The other reasons could be a bad water level switch or air-dome hose that is loose or has a small hole in it.

 

In any event while this is disappointing it is easy to fix and will not harm the longevity of this washer, this type of thing can happen to any FL washer, we see it all the time on WP Duets.

 

If they want to give you the newer model of this washer I would take it, But if it was me I would really like to know what went wrong, especially if it is a blockage problem in the air-dome [ your fault ]

 

After 40+ years of servicing major home appliances I have seen almost NO LEMONS it is really highly unlikely that nearly every machine can come off the assembly line in perfect condition and then one comes off the line with multiple problems. Most so called Lemons are a combination of shipping damage, poor installation, and poor service. For many years we would buy back appliances exchanges from WP where they had exchanged an appliance and we would fix and resell them with a full factory warranty and we almost never had another problem with the appliance.

 

John L.

 

[brucelucenta]

Funny thing that we hear about so many lemons of speed queen on here, isn't it? I mean for such a fine machine that has no lemons.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
Two lights flashing in unison is the door lock error code...
a replacement part has been ordered and will be on the truck when the tech arrives.

 

[combo52]

Over Filling SQ FL Washer

A bad door lock will not cause the machine to fill 1/2 way up with water, be sure that the tech checks for causes of overfilling.

 

[yogitunes]

anything that is built, today as well as in the past, your never going to find something that is 100% on the money, without a dud in there somewhere....

as in first thoughts, NEVER buy the first generation, or first off the assembly line....thats just common sense....theres always going to be glitches until they work out the bugs....

of the millions of machines built, if a few hundred end up being duds for one reason or another, from a company stand point, their doing pretty good...

oddly enough, Alliance has been supportive with customer service to fix or replace.....

then again, you have companies like LG with their exploding machines, telling their customers where to go.....

its just a chance you take with any purchase you make for anything....

 

[brucelucenta]

And don't forget the burning smell too.

 

[kb0nes]

+1 to what Martin said. Any product made (that we all can afford) will have a percentage of failures that must be accounted for.

The Speed Queen machines are generally well designed and heavily constructed although a bit crude. Their quality control is very likely not as good as the Asian companies (this is true of MANY American made products). But in the long run the SQ machines are going to well out last the lightly made import machines. Especially since those companies are likely to discontinue part support earlier then Alliance will.

I don't like the word Lemon either as it tends to be just a catch phrase that people use when they don't see the whole picture. Problems stem from bad design, construction or inferior/defective parts. Assuming the machine is reasonably well made, seeing the same problem repeat is more likely bad service. Obviously seeing the same part fail frequently would hopefully have the company make an engineering revision.

Years ago I worked with a woman that had a little Dodge Omni 024 that apparently ate front brakes like they were going out of style. She had replaced the rotors a few times and the calipers twice. One day she pulled into work and the rotors were glowing red. She was bitching about how she had a 'lemon' and I pointed out that she likely just had bad service. I asked if they have ever replaced the master cylinder (they hadn't). It was clear that the brakes were staying engaged. She took it to the dealer and they replaced the master cylinder and voila the problem never returned. Bad service isn't a lemon.

 

[washman]

<blockquote>
Funny thing that we hear about so many lemons of speed queen on here, isn't it? I mean for such a fine machine that has no lemons

 

</blockquote>
Even funnier is how many on here have raved about switching from an over hyped over engineered HE algore pleasing machine to a crude, SQ TL and have never looked back.

 

I guess it depends on how one defines "....so many lemons......"

 

[brucelucenta]

What you are comparing a speed queen top loader to, is a piece of crap that was NEVER meant to work like a traditional top loader and could not POSSIBLY do even a decent job at anything! Not a fair comparison. In THAT comparison, of course the speed queen top loader comes out FAR above all others! Compare them to a front load machine and they will lose in every category except how quickly they get the job done. Front load machines are the best now and save water too. If all I could have was a top load washer, speed queen would definitely be the clear choice.

 

[jp10558]

It's also generally accepted that you'll get far more people to voluntarily talk about things that they had a negative experience or problem with than people who have no problems at all or had a positive experience. Think about it, if everything is working fine, and you're not a fanboy or the like, you're not likely to go to any trouble to find out about or join AW.org or even Amazon.com and leave a review. But whoo boy - if it broke, especially more than once? You're far more likely to go looking to see if everyone else had a problem, and if so comment.

So given the ratio of positive to negative reviews? Speed Queen is probably amazing IMO. I've seen 2 or 3 posts, one of which was a cross post, of a SQ failure and return. That's just not unexpected, especially as you start to see them get into the market.

I will say these failure modes of FL don't really make me in any hurry to want to switch to FL. It would take an explosion style failure in most cases for me to flood the floor from a TL - opening the lid to see the serial# isn't going to flood the floor for instance!

 

[brucelucenta]

All of that about negative experiences is quite true, there are many more positive experiences than negative ones. However, trying to make speed queen machines out as the ONLY front loader one should EVER buy is ridiculous. They may be built as a more heavy duty machine is some ways, but they lack capacity and features that are important to many people and they clearly have issues. Their front load machine doesn't seem to be any better for home use than any other machine is as far as dependability goes. The top loader is a completely different story. It is very easy to be the best top loader when you are the ONLY top loader that washes clothes like a traditional washing machine. Doesn't make you the BEST, just makes you the ONLY choice. If there were still other machines around like Maytag or Whirlpool belt drive machines, they would NOT be either the BEST or the ONLY choice in top loaders. They NEVER have been the BEST machine since automatics started being manufactured or the most heavy duty.