Squeed Queen TC5/DC5 Discontinued?

[henene4]

There have been several threads on here detailing a multitude of minor but significant issues on SQ TLs around the 5 year mark.

Have said at several points that John's comments should be taken with a grain of salt - he has resorted to making very unreasonable remarks when doubting him.
There is information out there he treats his customers with similar manners sometimes - if anybody doubts his claims or statements he can get easily annoyed, basically he often assumes there is just one way, and that is his way.

I have black listed him so I no longer see his posts - but that is mainly because he just refuses to show ANY sign of self reflection or consideration towards me and that drove me up the wall at some point.

What I can say is that a SQ today is right around 350$ in 1980.

And you can get a very good FL from other brands with an extended warranty plan for the same price.
That will still run you cheaper in usage at the end.

And if even the biggest proponent of a SQ TL on this website has made remarks in the past that you shouldn't be running a second rinse on it as that would cause seals to wear out prematurely - I wouldn't go with the "SQ is the only route" train.

If it supposedly can last so many years - but I can't even do laundry the way I might want to in fear of it wearing out to early and I have to service it in some way every couple of years myself - what is that worth?!?

Again, a SQ TL can be a good choice under certain circumstances in my opinion.

So can be SQ FL.

But all the "SQ is the only good, reliable washer!" talk is just completely removed from reality and shows that there is NO reflection being done.

 

[henene4]

Small addition

If you search YT for videos of laundromat owners showing their business operations, you see that they have to do sometimes pretty major repairs on their SQ TLs and (Horizon) FLs after often just a year or two.

And they often resort to doing it themselves since a service call from SQ is just unreasonably expensive.

That's to say: There is no point in debating if the belt lasts 5 or 10 years.
If it lasts 4 years, you will have 1 repair under warranty.
If it lasts 9 - well you don't get anything from the warranty.
And if it supposedly lasts 50 years no issues - what use is the 5 year warranty then if you supposedly don't even need it?

If you have to pay 400$ in service calls because you can't do it yourself in the first 10 years, you get close to 1800$ for 10 years of operations.
Considering the reduced usage, that can basically get you 2 LG FLs with an extended warranty plan.

 

[kenc]

laundromat?

A "year or two" in a laundromat is a lifetime for the average home user.

 

[henene4]

5 cycles a day in a laundromat compared to maybe one in a home seems reasonable to me as an approximation...

 

[windrivers]

"A "year or two" in a laundromat is a lifetime f

...the average home user."

Also by the law of odds, if you own as many washing machines as a laundromat, there's a much greater chance that something will go wrong in five or ten years (using Henrik's approximation of one load to five).

I'm not sure I follow his belt example. I thought warranties were different for laundromats and that they generally did their own service or had their own service contracts, and Speed Queen basically provided the parts. I may well be wrong.

BTW, are belts covered under warranty, or are they considered a wear and tear item?

 

[windrivers]

Laundromat vs Home

I'm also guessing laundromat machines get abused more than home machines, so maybe we could stretch the 5 to 10 years in my last example to 10 to 20. So a failure or two out of how ever many machines a laundromat has in 10 to 20 years for a residential machine would seem to be not too bad a record.

 

[combo52]

Speed Queen laundry durability

Usage in a commercial setting varies widely, it would be very rare in a laundromat have only five uses per day the machines won’t even pay for themselves at that rate.

 

I’ve seldom seen a laundromat replace machines in less than 10 years, keep in mind the frontload Speed Queen‘s will last about twice as long as top load machines.

 

We do see a lot of commercial top load and front load machines last over 20 years in laundry rooms in apartment and condominium buildings where they’re not used as much and there they are more for the convenience of the residence and not so much as a money making thing.

 

No other full-size laundry equipment made today is based on commercial equipment speed queen washers and dryers, a 150 pound person can stand on top of them without bending and caving in the tops etc.

 

All parts are covered for the duration of the warranty including belts, even in commercial settings the belts would normally last 10 years. I have made the comment a double rinsing can increase the likelihood of rinsing all the detergents away and if you’re in hard water areas that can ruin the seal and cause bearing failure this is true of any washing machine has nothing to do particularly with Speed Queen.

 

Speed Queen laundry equipment today is much like the old Hobart dishwashers, it’s the only machine based entirely on commercial equipment. This does not make Speed Queen the ideal choice for everybody, it does make it a great choice for somebody wants long durability and easy repairs when they do come.

 

John L

 

[launderess]

"and that they generally did their own service or had their own service contracts.."

Depends upon several factors.

Since a down washer or dryer does not generate revenue it behooves laundromat owner to have malfunctioning equipment repaired ASAP. However not all laundromats are owned by hands on owners who also have skills and knowledge to do repairs, even basic. In such instances laundromat like anyone else will have to call in a service tech to do the repair work.

That being said a good number of laundromat owners, even those with several shops do their own repairs. It just makes more financial sense and keeps from having machines out of service for long periods.









It's like anything else, if you cannot get someone to even walk in and look at your washer or dryer for one or two weeks, then another week or so until parts are ordered, tech comes back to do the job.... Meanwhile again you've got equipment sitting there costing you money but bringing in nothing.

Other thing is depending upon clientele base laundromat machines take quite a bit of abuse. In some cases you'd have a service tech out every other day or week dealing with misuse or vandalism.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #10

Let me clarify on a few things. Those posts you saw on Facebook were from a few years ago, I’ve since cleaned house and pretty much deleted a majority of the stuff on my timeline and since have changed the privacy settings so no one can snoop around to see what’s on my Facebook page. Once in awhile I’ll share something witty and silly but haven’t been as active on Facebook lately since there really isn’t much going on Facebook at the moment as well. I pretty much post in groups I am in along with answering questions people have about their vintage Maytag or Whirlpool belt drive washer.

I don’t recall you ever reaching out to me since I don’t remember getting emails/messages in the past few years, only time I recall you emailing me is when I inquired about a Maytag 808 control panel for the customized Maytag dryer I am trying to put together. The only AW members who I’ve gotten in touch with is Richard, Tyler, Chris, Paul, Hans, Christina, and Pat (Agiflow). Those are the only AW members I’ve gotten in touch with. I would like to get in touch with QSD-DAN however he doesn’t have a email posted.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

matter of time

It's just a matter of time before speed queen is forced to build a top load HE washer.

 

[windrivers]

Speed Queen TL HE

If Speed Queen is forced to make their top loaders HE, then I think it will be time for Speed Queen to drop TLs altogether and focus on the front loads.

I'm not sure they'd lose too much as I think the TLs are mainly bought by homeowners, who last I heard were only a small part of their business (though I suspect growing as people grow more dissatisfied with the build quality of competing machines).

If only they'd make their front load machines more competitively priced they could still reach a lot of homeowners.

I don't know, I'm expecting my TC5 to outlast me so I won't have to worry about it.

 

[windrivers]

Then again, considering Speed Queen came up with the TR series in order to supposedly meet some kind of regulations, who knows what they might do?