Product review (5 stars): There are not enough stars in the heavens to express my satisfaction with my Speed Queens
If you are looking at this review it is probably because you have an HE machine that makes your clothes smell like mildew. I went through the same thing. I got a set of front load HEs thinking that they were the best thing since sliced bread. They were quiet, saved energy and were supposed to clean far better.

The first thing I noticed is that the collars of my dress shirts were getting tattered. Then I started noticing ring around the collar and deodorant stains on my clothes. I didn't think much about it at first other than I needed to buy more clothes. Then the smell started. I knew that i needed to leave the door open and run sanitizer tablets. Even though I was doing this, I noticed that if I didn't get my clothes immediately from the washer to the dryer that they would smell like mildew. If I waited even 15 minutes I would have to rewash my clothes.

I then started noticing that if I was doing yardwork, my cloths would start to smell like mildew. Sweat just caused them to reek. I live in a desert. It's really dry here so humidity is not much of a problem. This changed when I went on vacation in the Caribbean. My clothes started to stink so bad that the maid started bleaching the room. It was disgusting.

Thats when I started to really notice the smell. The closet no longer smelled like fresh clean cloths. It smelled like someone tried to perfume a corpse to cover the smell.  If it rained, I could smell the mildew coming out of my cloths. I found myself having to bring a change of clothes if I knew I would have build up a sweat. I started buying clothes more often because I couldn't stand the way my clothes smelled after I washed them a few times.

I felt dirty all the time.

I started researching new washers about a year ago. I began typing the model number and the word "smell" into Google and Amazon. Every single new washer that had been on the market for any period of time had complaints of a mildew smell. I gave up until I stumbled across the reviews for Speed Queen. Everyone loved them. Other than a few repair issues, there were nothing but glowing reviews, and not one person complained about mildew. I ponied up the cash and bought myself a set. I went for the electronic control panel.

The change in my clothes was instantaneous. My laundry room instantly got that old fashioned fresh, clean laundry smell. My cloths were definitely cleaner. After one load my cotton t-shirts smelled significantly better. I could do yard work for a couple of hours before the mildew came back. They weren't good enough though. I didn't want to ever smell mildew again. I soaked all of my t-shirts in a sink with about a cup of vinegar. This killed the mold and the speed queens were easily able to get the vinegar smell out. I can't believe how much  better my whole house smells because of the speed queens.

If you are here because you hate smelling like mildew, then these are the machines for you... Oh, and by the way, my washer still fills all the way up with water.  The only thing that I don't like about them is the ECO feature, it can be turned off though.