Product review (5 stars): The Toyota Camry of Washing Machines
This thing is the Toyota Camry of washing machines.  The style is certainly not going to impress anyone, but this thing is solid, reliable engineering goodness that will run for decades. If you want to impress people with the looks of your washing machine, buy a Samsung or and LG.  If you want to, I don't know, CLEAN YOUR CLOTHES, then this washer right here is the thing that you want.  Add to cart is this-a-way -->

First and foremost, this is *not* a "high efficiency" or "HE" washer.  "Oh noes!  But the environments!" you say.  Here's the deal:  the standards to which High Efficiency washers are held are extremely tough.  Meaning it has to wash your cloths with very little water, and very little warm water to boot.  So the Samsungs and LG's of the world use a bunch of complicated methods to try to clean your clothes using a very limited amount of water and heat.  These methods include:

* Flinging your clothes around in all manner of directions, speeding up, slowing down, stuttering and flitting about, all in an attempt to dislodge that pasta sauce you dropped on your power tie right after telling Charise in accounting how you can never eat pasta without dumping it on yourself.

* Using special detergents that don't get all frothy.  Ever wonder why you have to have that "HE Compatible" detergent?  It's because the washer flings around the water so much, any normal soap would end up looking like a poorly poured bud light.

* Sprays water on your soapy clothes to rinse them, instead of submerging them in clean water.

* Uses cold or "cool" water to save on energy using fancy temperature sensors to mix the water to just the right temperature of "3pm salad bar chicken wings"

* Run for way longer, in an attempt to fatigue the dirt into submission

'Well, all that doesn't sound so bad!' you say.  'What's wrong with that? I want to be environmentally friendly.' Well, I'ma tell you:

* It doesn't clean clothes worth an onion.
* It takes forever and a day to not accomplish its charge
* The machines are so complicated in trying to do the above, they break all the danged time.

The Speed Queen works the same way that washers worked for years before all this "HE" nonsense.  Namely:

* Fill up a tub with a bunch of warm or hot water
* Add some nice frothy soap
* Agitate the snot out of it
* Drain it all out
* Fill it up with clean water
* Agitate the snot out of it
* Spin it all out
* Grab a beer, and reflect on a job well-done in half the time of those new fangled machines

And environmentally, here's the thing:  these new HE washers are so prone to breaking down, they are rarely lasting any longer than 3, 4, 5 years, where a good old-fashioned agitate-the-snot washer could easily last 15 or 20.  So we're dumping these giant plastic and metal machines into landfills at a greatly increased rate.  Which is worse, using some more water and heat energy, or regularly dumping an appliance the size of a small aircraft into the ground to be buried for some sad future archeologist to discover, and incorrectly identify as an "electric salad spinner."

There is one caveat you should know about this washer.  Because everyone is so obsessed with Energy Star ratings, Speed Queen was falling way behind on theirs, and getting terrible ratings in product comparisons.  So they adjusted their "Normal" cycle to be "Eco friendly."  Meaning, it doesn't use hot water, and doesn't do a full rinse.  So, if you want all of the benefits of having this machine, do not use that cycle.  Use any other cycle on the machine.

This thing also has a killer warranty that you will probably never need.  5 years parts AND labor.  If you've ever had one of those name brand washers, and tried to use the warranty, you know how important that "labor" part is.

So, for your next washer, you can buy a plastic, blingy money pit that does a terrible job of cleaning clothes, but might make the random overnight house guest think you really "have your stuff together" or, you can buy this machine, which will clean the everything out of your clothes, and do it for years.