Product review (5 stars): I. LOVE. MY. SPEEDQUEEN!!!!!
This summer, my family moved to a new home with a laundry room with a washer/dryer.  The washer that came with the house was a GE, but it was one of these new-fangled "high efficiency" machines that have been coming out and dominating every appliance showroom these last few years.  It was a bin, didn't have the familiar agitator in the middle, and the machine's water supply shut off prematurely--leaving my clothes barely damp.

It was an absolute piece of junk.

It wasn't broken; it wasn't a lemon.  It was a top loader that wouldn't get my clothes clean at all (the top clothes stayed dry).

So, I did research.  I found out that government regulations have recently forced washing machine manufacturers to all make these high efficiency washing machines that use little power, little water, and do not work to get your clothes clean.  But, I knew that these regulations exempt commercial machines.  So, I asked around, and seriously spent about 3 weeks comparison shopping, researching, and looking into whether a machine existed today that would get my clothes clean (the only thing I care about in a washer).  I even looked into installing a coin-op machine and having rolls of quarters handy!!!

My criteria were:

1) top loader, not front.
2) must have agitator.  This is a must, for clean clothes.
3) the machine does not determine how much water is enough for a load--I do.

Voila!  The speed queen.  It's not cheap, and with the plain way it looks, you think--why am I paying so much?  But it is a tank.  Speed queen uses commercial parts, and I know that the laundrymats all use it.  speed queen doesn't really go after the retail market.  I bought mine from a commercial appliance dealer, the only one in my city to sell speed queens.

It met all my criteria.  The Speed Queen nowadays, to comply with the regs, will only fill up 3/4 of the bin maximum, but I just do slightly smaller loads.  I still control how much water to use (up to the 3/4), and there is even an override, apparently--you just keep the knob turned until the water fills up to the top.

My clothes are vigorously swished around in a lovely pool of water, and rinsed out clean.

Oh, another thing.  The speed queen's plainness is as asset.  No high-tech computer board to break.  they kept it simple, and focused on the one important thing--clean clothes.

THANK YOU, SPEED QUEEN!  I LOVE YOUR WASHER!!!