I have one of the modern ones (Danby DTT-420), and it works great.
Re. the question of noise from the spinner (this is from my experience with a new machine, but probably applies to the classics such as the Hoovermatic and Hotpoint as well):
If you load the spinner evenly, it will vibrate very little, or not at all. In that case it's so quiet you almost want to lift the lid a crack to peek in and see if it's still spinning (yes, it is, and don't ever stick your hands in there).
When the spinner is winding up from stop to full speed, and for the first minute or so at full speed, you'll hear a sound like a jet turbine winding up for takeoff, but much quieter. Interestingly enough, much of that sound is the water being spun out of your laundry and spraying against the sides of the outer tub in the spin compartment. Think of all of those little holes in the spin tub suddenly becoming high-velocity water jets at 1600 rpm (US/Asian machines) or 3000+ rpm (English machines).
There's another interesting sound which occurs if the spinner is only a tiny bit offbalance. This is a kind of quiet "rroo-rroo-rroo" (yes, like "roo" but "roll" the "r" sound like some European pronunciations of words that start with "r"), and I'm not quite sure what that's about yet, but it doesn't seem to be harmful.
If you load the spinner unevenly, it will vibrate while spinning, which can be more noisy (though oddly enough, not any louder than the sound of water splashing as you re-fill the wash tub).
If you hear excessive vibration, turn off the power to the spinner and open the hatch, wait for it to stop, and then unload & reload to try to get it in balance. The key to effective loading of these is to "coil" the clothes around in a circle, much as you'd coil rope in a bucket. Overlap the end of one garment with the beginning of the next. Put the heaviest stuff in the bottom (towels, sweat pants/shirts, blue jeans) and the lightest stuff at the top (this reduces vibration).
The above makes it sound more complicated than it is. If you get one of these machines (classics like the Hoovermatic; or currently-made units, of which there are a growing number), you'll get the hang of it in a few washdays.
By the way, no need to stand up while doing the wash. Pull up a kitchen chair. These machines are at the perfect height for using from a sitting position.
