Speed Queen Residential Going The Way of Maytag

[Chetlaham]

The more I look around the more I hear 3 common rants regarding Speed Queen home laundry:

1) Their machines can not and will not clean.

2) Their control boards are dropping like flies

3) Customer service is rude, unapproachable or simply gaslighting.

Word is getting around, and people are becoming more vocal. Also from what I'm hearing there are repair companies charging for the labor of replacing parts. Speed Queen is going from recommended to do not buy, Whirlpool is best.

Old vid, not 100% accurate, but it sums up customer feelings.

 

[maytag85]

I saw this coming as soon as the TR series were introduced back in 2018, and saw quality issues after Speed Queen went back to the drawing board and brought back the former design but with the Classic name on it. Speed Queen really needs to completely, I mean COMPLETELY redesign their washers since it’s been the same thing since 1980 and weren’t known for reliability back in the mid to late 90’s. They should just use Maytag’s old design they used forever, no one can claim patent infringement on a design that were used many years ago and the company that held all of those patents are no longer around except for the name which is owned by Whirlpool.

 

[pierreandreply4]

chetlaham

here are my toughs on the subject what really needs to be broken is the culture is the buy and replace mentaly that appliance companies like whirlpool maytag ge speed queen ect has adopted and go back to giving customer service a good quality repair service and also appliance companies need to realise not every consumers has the money to replace there appliance when they expect them to last for the lengh of there life cycle use just yesterday was at my aunt place family gathering she ask for my help to get pool towels she had whirlpool duet her dryer broke she had to replace she wanted to get whirlool again but she would of had to wait 3 months so she bough samsung this his her model with matching dryer and pedistal https://www.samsung.com/ca/laundry/washing-machines/front-load-5-2-cu-ft-inox-wf45r6100ap-us/ i think no matter if the appliance is vintage modern top load front load what ever is own repairs should be made avalable no matter what the brand we have.

 

[DADoES]

 
That video linked in the OP illustrates at least a couple points on the ignorance of the typical consumer.

 

[Chetlaham]

@maytag85: Personally I think Speed Queen should dump all electronics and in their top load line up considering that time and time again electronics seem to be the bane of all wahser woes in the first 5-10 years; no matter how much reliability or longevity is claimed by using them. Its not just burn ups, but I've seen and personally experienced obscure programming errors in electronic controls. Ie, I had one 2011 dishwasher where the detergent cup opened in the prewash such that a repair tech actually agreed with me and replaced the control board on warranty. On my current 2018 Maytag the indicator light goes off if the machine has to do a thermal hold in the final rinse and does not come back on until the cycle moves into dry. Clearly a code/programming error.

Which I think is common in the industry.

The idea of Speed Queen bringing back the Newton design is beautiful to think about (I hope it does happen one day from another manufacturer) however the reduced capacity and slightly worse balancing would be a step backward in the current design.

The current design has been tweaked solving most of the problems seen in the 90s. The current design today has very few initial defects and can easily last 15-20 years, so it meets the needs of being reasonably dependable.

A redesign could be better in the long run. But that would be a profound gamble. A single small negative or shortcoming in a redesigned platform could end Speed Queen home laundry for good as it did with Maytag. I'm sure Maytag thought their Neptunes would be trouble free, but the simple mistake of not considering residual moisture above the design calcs meant the demise of everything. There is no such thing a laboratory simulation or R&D. The real and only test is in the laundry room of the consumer. The rest is meaningless noise.

 

[Chetlaham]

@Pierre: I agree in full. The lack of longevity is the most upsetting thing for me. Consumers ought to have the option of a 30 year washer with a 7 year full warranty. But sadly it is also the consumer as they don't think beyond the surface of seeing an appliance and buying it just because it fits all the clothes/dishes/food and looks sleek.

If people were like me, the Maytag Newton would be the dominant design in 90% of households, the Kenmore of the 90s type presence, with a 3/4 or 1 HP motor.

@dadoes: Agree that it does show a lack of long hours spent researching a complex topic that she may not have time to research in full, but her distress is not at all unreasonable. All consumers have basic needs. Her basic need is a washer that A. works B. cleans. C. does both a and b at least until the warranty expires. At the time of filming it wasn't meeting any of those needs. Customers also have a need to be heard when either box isn't being checked instead of being blithely ignored.

Ultimately it boils down to manufacturer arrogance. The binary vanity that a certain design is completely impervious. The assumption that customers will unconditionally accept what ever is sold to them. The hubris that deleting negative reviews will keep sales afloat. The immodest assumption that denying customer service will make the problems go away. Speed Queen is doing all this and more.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

start over

They should just start over and bring everything back! Speed Queen should bring back the fluid drive and GE should bring back the filter-flo! I don't care about the environment! I want clean clothes!

 

[tolivac]

If the VMW "Maytag"Centnnial I have dies-guess I will have to shop for another vintage washer at the remaining appliance swap shop in town.Can't trust new machines anymore it seems.I had my eyes on SQ as a replacement for the machine I have.

 

[rp2813]

Video

She was too annoying to listen to or look at.  I lasted about one minute, shutting her down and assuming something along the lines of what Glenn posted above.

 

[launderess]

Among many reasons why SQ along with nearly everyone else has ditched mechanical timers for digital is simple; there are only but so many spaces on former, while latter is infinite.

Alliance "found a loophole" that allowed them to use more water for their top loaders because that cycle is not labeled "Normal". Federal energy regulations for washing machines require certain standard for "Normal" washes that cannot be altered by consumer. Thus ironically last thing many want on such SQ washers is "Normal", but that's hand Alliance along with everyone else was dealt.

Same applies for dishwashers and so forth. Midwest Timers and others have had to retool their business thanks to near demise of mechanical timer market. When WP phased them out of their washers and other appliances you can imagine what a hit that caused.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #4

I think appliance manufacturers should give an option for mechanical controls or electronic controls to allow for options. There will be those who argue that electronic controls have no moving parts which means nothing will wear out which is true to a degree, but certain components on circuit boards degrade over time and eventually the machine will become junk if it were to sit for a few decades since the whole sequence of operations would come to a halt. Yes, mechanical timers can be a bit screwy if they were to sit for decades but usually can be taken apart for a cleaning and servicing perhaps a rebuild and you are back in business. Can’t really do that with electronic circuit boards that have been sitting for awhile unless you have a soldering iron and the electronic parts to fix the board.

The Maytag’s can have issues with balancing but since I always load my Maytags properly, I have never had balancing issues with them and there were a few times where the off balance sensor tripped but was on my behalf and not the machine’s.

The capacity is a bit smaller but if you look at some front loaders, the capacity is sort of the same since you are supposed to loosely load a front loader and not jam everything in. If you load a Maytag with 12 to 14 pounds of laundry then put the same load in a front loader, it would be about the same if that makes sense.

A redesign would be a bit of a gamble but if they were to make the Newton style of Maytag washers for home use and use their current design for commercial use, it would definitely allow them to compare both machines and if the Newton design had positive feedback from techs and customers, they would have a successful machine. That’s what Whirlpool did when they developed the direct drive washers, instead of designing a machine without doing any R&D, they designed them and sold them in small numbers and got feedback from tech and customers before phasing the belt drives out completely and that’s what Speed Queen would do if they were to use the Maytag Newton design.

 

[Chetlaham]

Infinite Spaces

Do you really need infinite spaces? If a washer is designed well, why would anyone need more than 72 increments across a whole drum, a few cycles, with 8-16 SPDT opening and closing a few times across each cycle? The law of diminishing returns, at best, comes into play when mechanical timers done away with. Nothing is trully gained.

Modern top loads cans be built with 3 cycles- Vigorous Clean, Normal and delicate. Vigorous Clean and Delicate would have a deep fill while Normal would have a spray rinse along with a tempered wash.

Whenever someone makes an argument in favor of electronics, I ask them to look at this:

 

[Chetlaham]

Reply #10

Again, we agree in full lol!

To all those who say mech timers can not last, I says lies. The cycle sequence above comes from a GSD-500D dishwasher, one of the greatest examples of elegant simplicity that has ever been conceived. Potscrubbers of the 80s lasted 30-40 years and the timer was not the typical component that went out. We're talking about heat and moisture, a corrosive environment that has lead electronics to react to the extent it has triggered multiple class action lawsuits once fires began escaping various dishwashers.

Yet these Singer timers, some caked with rust and lime scale still work after 40 years.

Whirlpool did it right, the DD phase in was over a 10 year period, enough to correct potential blunders early. Speed Queen was humble enough to release the TC-5 when the TR series did not prove to be as promised.

 

[Chetlaham]

@gelaundry4ever- I routinely fantasize about this. The Newton, Direct Drive, and current Speed Queen classic design are worth being produced for another 30-50 years considering their performance and durability.

Maybe FFs, but being honest they use more water per fill, have poorer balancing, have a tub boot that can slip off, have less capacity and weigh more compared to other machines. That is not to say there isn't some redeeming qualities that I am missing which I'm sure that I am. You have the mic GELaundry4ever

I think these old designs coming back would make a lot of people happy.

 

[pierreandreply4]

if you had the choice of washer dryers today 2022 2023

if you had the choice today in 2022 2023 for washers and dryers would you go for one of those fancy electronics models that might not even last long 10 years max 5 years minimum or op for a classic ge filter flo like this classic maytag belt drive whirlool kenmore and to be honest after what happen with a 3 year old ge dishwasher purchuse 2016 2017 broken control board repair that would of cost 300$ i no longer trust appliances with fancy electronics

second vid credit to the member that owns the washer if i had the coice my choice is simple it would be something vintage

 

[DADoES]

 
What would be the impetus and justification for SQ to invest in retooling to produce a Newton Maytag mechanism when what they already have (in the TC5) is essentially that, or much closer to it than it is to a WP direct-drive or a FilterFlo?

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Speed Queen Perfect Wash

What was Speed Queen thinking when they came out with the perfect wash?

 

[iiijohnnymaciii]

Other than the TR7

Other than the TR7, I believe all the rest of Speed Queen's residential machines use the same internals as their commercial and multi-home units.

 

[DADoES]

 
There are three agitub models:  TR7, TR5, and TR3.