Which FL problem does it adress?
The 6-sided drum is kind of stupid IMO. Less drum capcity for same tub size. It also requires far higher water quantities to reach the same water level when compared to a normal round drum geometry.
The process of loading and unloading is far less comfortable then with a FL even though one would think it should be easier. But the drum opening is far smaller (about the size of a normal sheet of paper one could estimate) and the drum is impressivley deep.
Further you always have 2 doors you have to use whenever loading and unloading. The normal machine lid and the drum lid.
The drum lid is spring loaded, thus needing a certain force by the user to operate. Oh, and you won't believe how easily the damp steel slips from your fingers, sending at least on side of the lid swinging open with some noise and force; verry easy to hurt your fingers there. Thoug there are softopening system on some of the EU machines.
Though I do not know how deep a normal TL drum is, I'd easily believe that the Staber is deeper and even with a round drum, I could easily see the drum being prohibitively deep. A normal FL drum can have a diameter of 24" for something like 4.x cuft capacity. That is probably 3/4ths the length of my arm.
Oh, and if the machine does not have an auto positioning system (which I think the staber does not) you have to turn the drum to position manualy. Dosen't sound that bad at first, but have you ever tried to turn the drum of a FL by hand before unloading? You need some force there, but that is easily applied by either grabbing a drum paddle or pressing your hand against the concave drum surface. Here however, you try to apply that force without any real points to hold onto and the flat surface of the drum makes that even more annoying as you easily slip. But even once you got the opening facing you the troule isn't over. If the load is unevenly distributed, the drum will turn if you let go of the drum. So while keeping the drum in position you will have to push the 2 sides of the drum hatch inwards and then slowly lead them to their resting position without slipping on the metal surfaces.
In terms of serviceability I found one huge gripe watching the "How is it made" episode about it. The bearings are mounted in seperate housings attached to the sides of the tub. So if one would brake, one would think you could swap them without having to take the drum out. But the bearing housings are rivited to tub. If they were bolted that would be so much easier.
And in general, the machine is just verry crude.
2 cuft capacity in a full size cabinet. Huge hole-diameter on the drum.
Super low spin speed for a H-axis machine at only 750rpm.
It claims to be more efficent then a FL yet uses at least 12gal. It even suggest NOT to use HE detergent. So its high efficency, but dosen't need high efficency detergent? You have to manually set the load size, but it only has 2 options for that. Did I mention that its energy label is still in refference to the 2004 standards? Yes, this machine has basicly not changed for more then 10 years.
It claims to be more reliable as it uses a timer instead of a electronic control, yet uses an inverter motor drive which uses a controll board that staber sells for 249$.
Oh, and if anything should ever go wrong, you never have to deal with a qualified technician that is trained on the machine, as there are none. No joke, even if something breaks while under its lousy 1 year warranty (though it has a 5 year warranty on the suspension and bearings) you have to fix that yourself. No, you do not have the option to do it yourself, you have to, no matter what.
And all of that for the cheap price of 1699$! And the matching dryer with the revolutionary automatic thermostatic drying controll is only 899$! But I mean, according to the website it pays for itself even compared to a FL as it only uses 1 ounce of detergent compared to 2-3 ounces.
Wait, a normal FL only uses about 1 ounce as well? And I can get a (for basicly every aspect) more efficent pretty well speced SET - yes, set, not washer alone - for the price of just this washer?
Hugh, weired, almost seems like a scam. But wait, no, Staber is your friend, they would never blatantly lie to you and scam you.
No really, the first time I saw that machine I was intrigued.
But the more you read into it, the less shiny and awesome it looks. Almost like an early stage proof-of-concept desin thrown onto the market.
I like to compare it like this:
Imagine you gather some engineers in a meeting room and tell them they should develop a TL H-axis washer.
They would brainstorm a few hours, gather ideas. They would create first sketches, and after a week or two, they would start to build the first few prototypes.
Now here comes the difference:
A big company would see the issues with the prototypes, would test them extensivley and itterate and change the design several dozen times over the course of a year.
A decade ago Staber just said "F*** it, I don't care, just go straight to production!" and basicly didn't do anything with the desing since.
