The Bendix Economat was a very simple machine -- in fact, the agitator was just lowered in place, no screws or anything. One could lift it up, remove the filter underneath and rinse it, and just put it all back in a matter of seconds, the longest operation was rinsing out the filter. In fact, it was much easier than cleaning the filters on any number of machines, including Maytags.
The scoring for cleaning tests (particularly at CU) have changed over the years too. At a certain point (mid-90's? I can't remember) they mentioned in every test that current scores could not be compared to previous scores, some machines that cleaned "really well" previously started rating only fair or worse when compared to the Calypso and the new frontloaders.
There are reasons for that too: since the dawn of time, women were expected to pre-treat/remove all stains before the clothes were washed. Often there were long soaks and pre-washing involved too. The last step was a 10 minute agitation with detergent followed by rinse and spin. Some machines offered "heavy duty" or "heavy soil" setting which were 12 or 15 minutes. That is simply not enough and it shows poorly when compared to any machine that washes for 20 minutes or more -- those can remove most stains and soil by themselves, and machines that can automatically fill with water and detergent, do a pre-wash, then discard that water and refill with water and detergent and do a long wash will basically outwash most any other method. This is not news, Bendix did have some front-loaders way back then that did exactly that, but at that time places like CU were doing a "uniform" test with a "normal" cycle, instead of trying to find out maximum performance. So, it's not any surprise that some manufacturers just relabled what used to be "normal" to "short/express" cycle and some Heavy Soil/Whitest Whites to Normal. Poof, instant promotion to the top of the charts.
The reason for the "over 15 minute" wash length is that most enzymes (and detergents etc) take at the very least 15 minutes at 60C/140F to do the job. Longer in warm or cooler water. The problem one faces now, is that a front loader is essentially just squeezing the clothes (which releases some of the water) when they go up, then dumping them back in the water which gets reabsorbed again, and one can do that for a very long time without excessive wear and tear, but anything with an agitator, impeller, infuser or whatever you call it, might be too rough.
One of the promising features of this new SpeedQueen model is that maybe they found a way for the clothes not to wear out so much compared to other toploaders.
It's a rather counter-intuitive fact when dealing with front loading washers that the less water they use, the more effectively they wash the clothes, but the cost here is that they also wear out the items faster. That is one of the reasons that older frontloaders used more water (to protect the clothes) and did not perform/clean as well as the new ones. Cycle times, speed (rpm) and rhythm (how many revolutions, resting time and reversal) etc are very important too.
So, you see those machines in the laundromat half-full of water and tumbling madly in only one direction or stopping as little as possible and reversing, they look cool and exciting, but they might not be cleaning as well as they could. In fact, a machine that has a low water level but *two* wash speeds (one for tumbling and saturating the clothes, and one a little faster to push the clothes against the basket and squeeze some water out) will outwash the "traditional" frontloaders.
I would also like to point out that *most* people will have a terrible experience in laundromats, where the washers are often tuned for speed and to save hot water, so no matter what, toploader/frontloader, a 6-8 minute wash is not as good as what a domestic washer cycle can do for you.
Do not judge a machine just because what you experienced in a laundromat. In fact, my statement is stronger than that. My husband and I used to have a 6-cylinder car that we loved, so, naturally, we were happy to find out years ago that we were given a car of the same brand/model at the rental place when we were visiting friends in a different state. The car was like a totally different car, if we had rented it first, we'd never have bought it in the first place. First off, it had a 4-cyl engine, and they had not maintained the car as well as they should.
It is *very* very rare that machines in laundromats are maintained well, filled with hot water and wash for the same length of time you machine in your laundry room would do.
I tell European people "don't judge toploaders by your experience in a laundromat" and I tell Americans "don't judge frontloaders by your experience in a laundromat".
The other thing I want to mention: don't judge others who claimed some machine doesn't clean well enough for them. There's an awful lot that goes with local water chemistry, for example. Just because you have an office work and the *most* you need to pre-treat is a ring-around-the-collar and maybe 3 pairs of socks and your laundromat machines suffice for you, it doesn't mean other people are filthy. They have different situations/requirements that you or anyone else could *easily* find yourselves into -- kids, for example, get clothes much harder to clean than my clothes; there are people who walk in white socks which turn filthy; there are people who participate in community theater, for example, and inexpensive/cheap theater makeup is a real challenge; and that's not even touching in an awful lot of other things.
What I want to say is that if we want to be *serious* about this hobby, we can't let small stuff like "this washer cleans or rinses better than that" affect us. It's a fact of life that can by scientifically shown, it says nothing about you or me. Not everyone is after the best performing washer, some want the most fun to watch, some want something that doesn't break easily. Some are happy with whatever came with the home when they bought it.
Cheers,
-- Paulo.
