My New Speed Queen
Our Samsung washing machine died. The lights still lit up and the silly thing acted like it was ready to do its job but would always give us an off-balance error message which could not be rectified by rearranging the clothes in the load. No matter how many times we tried to make it level and balanced and happy, we always ended up taking the sopping wet clothes out to the spinner in the dye shed.
I love my spinner. All it does is spin the water out of whatever you load in the top. We use it all the time for yarn and fiber we dye. The yarn then gets hung up on the clothesline and the fiber gets laid out on a sheet covering my husband's workbench in his workshop. With most of the water gone, the yarn and fiber both dry very quickly. The sopping wet clothes that come out of the Samsung washing machine get spun out and then can get hung up on the line or brought back into the house and thrown into the dryer.
The Samsung had gotten worse and worse and I finally called the repairman. Chris showed up and immediately checked the suspension. Samsungs are known for suspension issues so no big surprise that it needed replacing. I was thrilled to have it working again. We got one good load out of it before it started giving us error messages again. I called and had the repairman come back out. Apparently, Samsungs are know for cascading failures. I didn't know that but the repairman did. Yes, the suspension looked perfect now but the transmission needed to be replaced. Well, crap. I don't think so. We had already spent over $300 on the suspension and spending another $600 made no sense at all.
We asked the repairman which brands were a better choice. He suggested Kenmore or Speed Queen. We have had Kenmores in the past and loved them. In our ongoing attempt to buy local, Ron headed up to Columbus Appliance to see what they had. They didn't have any Kenmores but they did have a couple of different Speed Queens. OK. Decision made. He bought a mid-priced Speed Queen.
This is a commercial style washing machine - like the ones you find in laundromats. Our new Speed Queen is white so no fancy colors. It is short, so short that there is no way to raise it up to be level with my old Kenmore dryer. It has a smaller tub so no huge wash loads. There are no fancy chimes to let you know the cycle is finished. It just turns off when its done. And it is very simple. Hot - warm - cold. Small - medium - large. Heavy Duty - Permanent Press - Delicate - Spin Only.
Wait! Spin Only?!? That is so amazingly wonderfully cool! Spin Only means that when I wash out my newly finished shawls, either knitted or woven, I can spin them out here in the house and not have to take them out to my spinner in the dye shed.
I read all the small print in the instructions that came with the washing machine. This beauty has the water conservation options of any new High Efficiency washer but it also will fill the tub with water if you want it to. Holy cow. I'm in love.