Speed Queen - The Way of Water

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JoyfulNoise

JoyfulNoise

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May 23, 2015
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Tucson, AZ
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Hahah. Ok, I’m no James Cameron raking in billions on a cheesy Smurf remake movie, but I can be joyful and make some noise (see what I did there 😉) about my latest purchase -

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Speed Queen TC5 washer and DC5 dryer set! Woooo hoooo!!!! Low complexity (love the knobs and buttons) and high reliability. I just got rid of my Maytag Bravo set that was 10 years old. Overly complicated machines with more cycles and options than anyone ever uses and an agitator-less design with a direct drive brushless motor. Nice machines but horribly complicated and expensive to repair.

These Speed Queens classics harken back to an older design philosophy that is more New York City laundromat style than elegant home appliance style. I prefer laundromat style!!

Looking forward to many years of service.
 
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yes they look a bit industrial, but pretty sure the clothes don't care, and its not like guests pour through the laundry making judgement. They can get stuffed if they do anyway.

What is the water or energy rating?
 
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Jaffles said:
yes they look a bit industrial, but pretty sure the clothes don't care, and its not like guests pour through the laundry making judgement. They can get stuffed if they do anyway.

What is the water or energy rating?
Click to expand...

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The dryer is gas.

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JamesW said:
I hate that most new machines won't allow you to select the amount of water to use.

They squirt in about 3 ounces of water and then agitate the slightly dampened clothes as the powdered soap just sticks to the fabric and never dissolves.
Click to expand...

Agreed. So here's the "dirty little secret" about washing machines - the stated tub capacity is almost always meaningless. The stated tub capacity that's used on advertising is almost always the MAXIMUM open volume of the tub which is useless because no machine ever fills up the entire tub.

For example, my old Maytag washer was 5 cu. ft. This newer Speed Queen is 3.2 cu. ft. So you'd be led to believe that I made a HUGE mistake and bought a machine that is only 2/3rd the capacity of my old machine .... what a fool that Joyful guy is!! But here's the deal - my old Maytag, on ANY cycle, would never even come close to filling up half the tub. Even on the bulky cycle, the tub was filled to half volume at most. So, in reality, it was a 2.5 cu ft machine. You could certainly pack 5 cu. ft. of clothes into it but good luck getting them clean and rinsed free of soap. By contrast my new machine is 3.2 cu. ft and, if I press the "DEEP FILL" button for ANY cycle, it fills the tub to the top and uses all 3.2 cu ft. So, again, my new machine uses more water than my old machine to clean and the cleaning performance is better.

Also, I actually bought TWO washers. I replaced the useless combo unit (stacked washer/dryer) in our casita which was ancient and couldn't clean more than 4 pairs of underwear at a time, with a TC5. So now I have 6.4 total cubic feet of washing power!!!
 
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Another nice feature I appreciate about this new washer - NO LOCK LID! You can open the lid to the washer at any point in the cycle and the unit will simply stop the tub and/or fill. When you close the lid, the cycle resumes 3 secs later. On my old machines, that was not possible - you had to cancel the cycle which would drain the washer before the lid lock would disengage. So you only had a few minutes in the beginning of any cycle to pause it to add items.
 
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And the really, really cool part that I absolutely love - the dryer has an end of cycle alarm that sounds like the old school basketball buzzer at the end of a game. It is so loud and low frequency I can hear it from across the house!! Of course you can change the volume or turn it off completely but I'm glad they used a buzzer and not some cheesy ringtone/chimes to signal with. When the cycle ends, I want everyone in the house to "jump-scare" including the dog!!
 
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I also bought this machine because it is one of only a few that are ACTUALLY made in the USA (Wisconsin) with parts available through a US based company. I've talked with a lot of service guys over the years fixing various appliances throughout the house and the one thing they always complain about are appliances that are impossible to work on in the field AND a complete lack of available spare parts. They can diagnose what's wrong pretty quick and know exactly how to fix it BUT, when you have to tell a customer that their fridge or washer is going to be out of commission for 3 weeks waiting for parts to arrive, all you get is a very angry customer. With Speed Queen, the parts come from Wisconsin and the service guy I talked to at the appliance shop I bought these from told me that they rarely have to wait longer than 2 days to get Speed Queen parts. That really checked some boxes for me in terms of buying these appliances - I really wanted reliability and repairability, I could care less about looks (which would be fairly obvious to anyone who has met me in person ...)
 
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The band Queen briefly came out with a line of appliances.

They were endorsed and signed by Freddie Mercury and the alarms were the songs like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".

They got into a trademark dispute with the Queen of England over the use of the name Queen for appliances and they had to stop using the name Queen.

They sold the company to Ozzy Osbourne and he now makes custom appliances in his spare time.

Then, the band Queen decided to get into music and the rest was history.
 
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Congrats on your purchase. That’s the brand I’m likely to go with when my old school GE set (also with knobs) left to me by previous owners go kaput. I almost thought it was go time yesterday, but it turned out my husband “half turned” a dryer knob so it was a human issue rather than a machine issue. Let us know if you love them!
 
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They also have “residential” models (the R series) that look a little nicer with digital displays and membrane panel controls. I went with the classic series because I honestly could care less about “looks” and don’t mind the knobs/dials at all.

The real engineering of these machines is on the inside. If you look at the washer there’s a front metal panel. That panel easily comes off with two screws and the entire top flips up on hinges at the back. Opening it up that way reveals the insides where all of the “major components” are right in the front - drive motor, serpentine belt, transmission, belt-driven water pump, and the inverter/power/control board. You can literally get at everything standing in the front of the unit; no need to move it out, prop it up, tilt it, jam your arm underneath to blindly feel for leaks. There’s a hot and cold water input on a mixing valve at the top. The water goes into the tub one way at the top and drains out the bottom. One input, one output. And the real gem - the outer wash tub is porcelain coated steel, not plastic, so the tub resists corrosion, mold and mildew.

My wife commented on it like this - “It was obviously built by an engineer because it’s ugly as sin and does exactly what it’s supposed to do with no frills!” I wear her disdain for engineers as a badge of honor :salut:
 
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