Product review (5 stars): We should have bought this years ago....
If you are looking through these reviews trying to find out if a Speed Queen is worth the money, in my family's case, we should have bought one years ago.  We tried an LG front load, and while it did okay, I repaired it a good bit, and the smell was an issue within months of using it new, even with leaving the door open.  When the motor finally died, we decided to try a top-load again.  We have a farm, and I handle all repairs in the evenings and weekends...vehicles, equipment, welding, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc.  My clothing reflects I am doing dirty work.  On the other hand, the wife and I have office jobs during the week, and need our work clothes clean.  So we bought a Whirlpool Cabrio since it was one of the few that offered a deep water option, and we started this year as our second year with it.  No matter what we did, soaps, settings, etc, the clothes smelled musty, anything heavy (canvas work pants, blanket, 1 pair overalls) made the machine throw an off-balance code, and the "heavy-duty" cycle was 78 minutes long...my wife was recently crying over her war with the laundry, so we took a SUV full to the laundromat and washed and dried EVERYTHING in 2 hours.  Watching those machines blow through a heavy duty cycle in 18 minutes (and my wife's tears) made me determined to "fix it", and research led to Speed Queen.  We are on our 2nd day of ownership, and its amazing...the heavy duty cycle is about 35 minutes.  With the quick wash, we did three loads in the time it took to do one in the Cabrio....we even re-washed damp loads that were done with the Cabrio, and the Speed Queen made the water dirty with the extra dirt it pulled out of just-washed, damp clothes from the Cabrio!  My wife is smiling over the fresh, clean smelling laundry, and that the Speed Queen just does not care if its washing heavy things...it's going to get them done.  Easily worth the price, considering the Cabrio barely a $100 less when we bought it new, and it gets the clothes done.  The smaller drum is not an issue, as it does the loads faster, and clean the first time.  If you are sick of the HE propaganda, and you actually do things that make you sweat or get dirty, this is the washer for you.