Product review (5 stars): Speed Queen replaced high-end Samsung
2 years ago we got a 5 cubic feet HE Samsung direct-drive top loader with what seemed like 462 presets. Very nice and very modern...at least we thought at the time. First year seemed to go OK, but the second year things started to (literally) fall apart. The first thing to go was the  top plastic door which rattled so much that the plastic shattered. Samsung was unwilling to cooperate or work with us so we had to fix it ourselves (Don't even get me started on how bad Samsung customer service is - that's a whole other post). Then we noticed that our laundry room was starting to smell like a fish hatchery - it was the disgusting Samsung. Even after we'd run a Pure Cycle our tub was left with little gummy bits of mildew and mold that stuck to our clothes. You could even see mold growing around the top end of the tub. My wife hated it, nothing got clean, and everything smelled like catfish. We eventually (luckily) got a Samsung notice that they were voluntarily recalling that washer because the tub could possibly spin out of the housing and cause severe structural damage or injury...lovely. We happily took the rebate option towards a new washer - the Speed Queen. It's been so nice being able to wash water-resistant items again, too (something you still can't do safely in a modern HE washer - heed my warning, moms, if your kids are still bed-wetting). Sure it uses water and it doesn't look nifty - but it works and works well. We kept the Samsung dryer as it seems to be fine (we actually had to exchange that too in the first 30 days).

Get this washer and just forget about it. It begs to be taken for granted. We haven't missed the large tub at all even with 2 kids. We got ours for 800 even from a local dealer (the 6 preset electronic model). You won't find a lot of reviews because of the amount of water it uses - but read what the people are saying in forums. You don't see any hotels moving to HE machines do you? They all still use these old workhorses. I fear the government will eventually regulate them out of business for water usage, so I'd get in while the gettin's good.

*edit* wanted to add that the new Eco mode is kind of...meh. Not really what Speed Queen is known for. It's fine for every day cleaning, but it's not that great for things like underwear. Use the Heavy Duty cycle for items like that as it is still an old-school wash-cycle and it only adds on 3 minutes or so.