Commercial washing machines for home use?

[Trifle]

Hello smart folks

So our washer and dryer (which came with our house when we bought it) are old and struggling, and we're going to be replacing them.  We value longevity, reliability, and repair-ability highly.  We're looking for simple machines -- nothing fancy needed.  No AI, WiFi, or the other bells and whistles being sold now.  My DH does appliance repair, and as long as parts are available he's able to fix most things. 

It seems that there's no such thing as buy-it-for-life with laundry machines, but we'd sure like to make them last as long as possible.  We got to thinking that maybe we should get commercial machines.  They have longer warranties than the ones sold for home use, and from what I can tell the parts seem to be available longer.  Price-wise they seem to run about twice as much as machines sold for home use.  We're good with that, if they last twice as long and are reparable.

Has anyone done this -- bought commercial laundry machines for home use?  Any wisdom to share?  Thanks!

[uniwelder]

We bought a Speed Queen about 6 years ago.  My mom was impressed because its the same brand used at the laundromat by her.  I think it was $800 at the time, including $100 discount because of a small dent.  Its just two of us in the house, but we never had any repairs to do on it.  It uses a lot of water and the eco-wash cycle wasn't worth a darn--- left streaks of soap stains in the clothes.

We recently moved to another house and left the SpeedQueen behind.  Our current washer is side loading and an amazing improvement in wash quality.  The clothes are dramatically cleaner, spin drier, and uses much less water.  I never knew with the SpeedQueen, because all my previous washers were the same style, but I would never go back to the old style top loading.

[Trifle]

Thanks @uniwelder!  I should have specified that we are looking to get a front loading washer.  Speed Queen and Maytag seem to have a lot of the market for front-loading commercial machines.   

[uniwelder]

Thanks @uniwelder!  I should have specified that we are looking to get a front loading washer.  Speed Queen and Maytag seem to have a lot of the market for front-loading commercial machines.   

Gotcha.  I don't know why we gravitated or were steered toward top loading.  Unfortunately, I have no experience with or advice about SpeedQueen's front load machines.

[Sibley]

Are the ones you have currently not worth repairing? I have repaired my 30 year old dryer repeatedly, and plan to continue doing so. Alternatively, find a set of older machines that are decent and repair them as necessary. They simply aren't made as well anymore.

If new is necessary, SpeedQueen is your best bet as far as I know. I've never seen anything other than a speedqueen in a laundromat.

[314159]

Wirecutter is my go-to reference for these things (you can ignore their reviews of non-Mustachian items).

Their review of the Speed Queen basically says they were famous for their top-loaders, and then changed the design in 2018. Fans didn't like the change. When the article was written, Wirecutter wasn't able to test the new front loader, but says there are other good options which are much quieter, much cheaper, and use much less water. See the general washer review.

If a Speed Queen uses hundreds of dollars of extra water/electricity a year compared to a washer that lasts half as long and must be replaced, you might not come out ahead financially, though you might still be ahead ecologically.

[Trifle]

Are the ones you have currently not worth repairing? I have repaired my 30 year old dryer repeatedly, and plan to continue doing so. Alternatively, find a set of older machines that are decent and repair them as necessary. They simply aren't made as well anymore.

If new is necessary, SpeedQueen is your best bet as far as I know. I've never seen anything other than a speedqueen in a laundromat.

Excellent comments @Sibley -- thank you.  DH has repaired both the washer and the dryer once or twice already.  He's kept them going the last few years.  I don't know the details, but I think he had a hard time getting a part for the washer -- some type of sensor I believe.  It drives him (and me) crazy that big expensive machines like this are made to be almost disposable.  Planned obsolescence and all that. 

We may be able to keep them going for a few more years, and that's a win-win.  But I really don't see these two machines lasting for much longer than that. 

[Louisville]

One thing to consider when buying commercial for home use: noise.
I bought commercial refrigerator and freezer once. They were so loud I had to get rid of them.

[Sibley]

Are the ones you have currently not worth repairing? I have repaired my 30 year old dryer repeatedly, and plan to continue doing so. Alternatively, find a set of older machines that are decent and repair them as necessary. They simply aren't made as well anymore.

If new is necessary, SpeedQueen is your best bet as far as I know. I've never seen anything other than a speedqueen in a laundromat.

Excellent comments @Sibley -- thank you.  DH has repaired both the washer and the dryer once or twice already.  He's kept them going the last few years.  I don't know the details, but I think he had a hard time getting a part for the washer -- some type of sensor I believe.  It drives him (and me) crazy that big expensive machines like this are made to be almost disposable.  Planned obsolescence and all that. 

We may be able to keep them going for a few more years, and that's a win-win.  But I really don't see these two machines lasting for much longer than that.

Then my suggestion would be to find the sweet spot of older machines that were built well but parts are still readily available.

[Trifle]

One thing to consider when buying commercial for home use: noise.
I bought commercial refrigerator and freezer once. They were so loud I had to get rid of them.

Thank you very much @Louisville -- excellent point, and I had not thought about that at all.   

[PMG]

I had friends who got commercial machines. They had a friend who was a laundromat service tech and he connected them with old machines and then serviced them. I think they took a fair amount of maintenance. I just remember that he couldn’t fully disable the payment function so they always had quarters to feed their own washer. They were loud but they lived in a huge house and had a separate laundry room. I think they were also harder on clothing, the dryer especially ran very hot. But that’s as much anecdote as I have! 

[Trifle]

Thank you @314159 and @PMG.  Very helpful!   

[Sibley]

Wirecutter is my go-to reference for these things (you can ignore their reviews of non-Mustachian items).

Their review of the Speed Queen basically says they were famous for their top-loaders, and then changed the design in 2018. Fans didn't like the change. When the article was written, Wirecutter wasn't able to test the new front loader, but says there are other good options which are much quieter, much cheaper, and use much less water. See the general washer review.

If a Speed Queen uses hundreds of dollars of extra water/electricity a year compared to a washer that lasts half as long and must be replaced, you might not come out ahead financially, though you might still be ahead ecologically.

FYI, one of the reasons why all the washers use so much less water is they use less water. Sounds great, right? Except that along with that I have heard lots of complaints that the clothes don't get as clean. Personally, I would rather use a little bit more water and power up front rather than needing to run the washer 2 or 3 times to get the clothes clean.

[314159]

I definitely agree that for a given washer, more water gets the clothes cleaner, but I want to emphasize that Wirecutter's tests didn't find Speed Queen to clean better than a consumer washer despite its heavy water use:

But even on the wettest, hottest, most vigorous setting that the TC5 offers—the Heavy Duty cycle with Hot water and Deep Fill selected, which uses about 50 gallons of water total to wash and rinse, almost half of which comes straight from the hot-water tap—it wasn’t any better than our favorite front-loader on its Normal cycle, which uses about a quarter of the total water and a small fraction of the hot water. The stronger Speed Queen cycles also caused quite a bit of fraying damage, as we expected from a washer with such a strong agitator. Other reviewers have found similar results with the TC5 and older versions of the same washer.

Spoiler for images:

Spoiler: show

To be clear OP is looking for a front loader, and Wirecutter hasn't tested the Speed Queen front loader, so it's not a fair comparison.

[zolotiyeruki]

Wirecutter is my go-to reference for these things (you can ignore their reviews of non-Mustachian items).

Their review of the Speed Queen basically says they were famous for their top-loaders, and then changed the design in 2018. Fans didn't like the change. When the article was written, Wirecutter wasn't able to test the new front loader, but says there are other good options which are much quieter, much cheaper, and use much less water. See the general washer review.

If a Speed Queen uses hundreds of dollars of extra water/electricity a year compared to a washer that lasts half as long and must be replaced, you might not come out ahead financially, though you might still be ahead ecologically.

I find it hard to accept that one washing machine can use literally hundreds of dollars more water or power than another.  If it averages 500W for a one-hour cycle, and you're paying $0.14 /kWh, you're only using 7 cents of power per load.  If you're paying 1c per gallon of water, that behemoth washing machine using 50 gallons...only costs you $0.50 per wash.  Do one load per day, and you're paying ~$200/year for the inefficient machine.

My dad's washer went out a few years ago.  His repair guy recommended a pre-2018 Speed Queen, and he's been satisfied with it.

[314159]

Thanks for quantifying those utility costs, they are indeed small, smaller than I thought.

[Beardog]

FYI, one of the reasons why all the washers use so much less water is they use less water. Sounds great, right? Except that along with that I have heard lots of complaints that the clothes don't get as clean. Personally, I would rather use a little bit more water and power up front rather than needing to run the washer 2 or 3 times to get the clothes clean.

My house came with an older GE HE top loader. I have found that I have to put everything through a second rinse in order to get things clean.  Frustrating but true. 

[uniwelder]

Wirecutter is my go-to reference for these things (you can ignore their reviews of non-Mustachian items).

Their review of the Speed Queen basically says they were famous for their top-loaders, and then changed the design in 2018. Fans didn't like the change. When the article was written, Wirecutter wasn't able to test the new front loader, but says there are other good options which are much quieter, much cheaper, and use much less water. See the general washer review.

If a Speed Queen uses hundreds of dollars of extra water/electricity a year compared to a washer that lasts half as long and must be replaced, you might not come out ahead financially, though you might still be ahead ecologically.

I find it hard to accept that one washing machine can use literally hundreds of dollars more water or power than another.  If it averages 500W for a one-hour cycle, and you're paying $0.14 /kWh, you're only using 7 cents of power per load.  If you're paying 1c per gallon of water, that behemoth washing machine using 50 gallons...only costs you $0.50 per wash.  Do one load per day, and you're paying ~$200/year for the inefficient machine.

My dad's washer went out a few years ago.  His repair guy recommended a pre-2018 Speed Queen, and he's been satisfied with it.

You're not including the cost of heating the extra water, so assuming its being used on a warm cycle wash and cold rinse, I'd suggest 15 gallons hot water used per load for the inefficient machine.  That would be another $150/year based on the one load per day usage.  Also, top load washers don't' spin out as much water, so if you're using a dryer, its going to run longer for the clothes.  I saw 3,000 watts as a suggested value for a dryer, so for 30 minutes usage per day, that's $75/year.  In all, an inefficient washer might cost $425 for the year versus perhaps half that for a front loader.  Again, not huge, but there's $1,000 to be saved over a five year period.

I want to mention again, that as a former owner of a pre-2018 top loading Speed Queen, it didn't have anything special going for it besides durability.  We were satisfied with it, but thats because we never knew how clean clothes could be until moving into our new house with a front loading washer.

[norajean]

I guess you could get them with the coin operation intact to defray costs….

[314159]

I guess you could get them with the coin operation intact to defray costs….

Haha!