Modern household washing machines, at least in America, tend to be infuriating. They are bogged down in horribly confusing interfaces; take a look at the control panel of the one that came with our house, which we just happily got rid of:
At first glance it looks like it might not be the worst, but if you actually try to do laundry you quickly discover how annoying it is. The four axes on the right (temperature, rinse, spin, soil), that seem like they should all operate independently, are actually dependent on which cycle you're trying to run, and certain options are restricted on certain cycles. Why? It's completely incomprehensible. Furthermore, let's say I want to do a larger load of laundry which isn't particularly soiled. I would pick the normal cycle with the deep fill option. But the deep fill option won't turn on if you have the normal cycle selected! If you read the sticker on the top right, which they clearly slapped on after doing user testing too late, you can see that you only do a deep fill with water on a subset of the options, and some of the options listed on the sticker aren't even available on this machine! Why? Who knows? They are simultaneously trying to appear as if they are offering more options to users while also adding invisible guardrails, which only results in frustration.
Okay, we get past the irritating selection process and start the cycle. The time estimate is something like 42 minutes for a normal load of laundry. Fine. Walk away and come back 42 minutes later, and the time left is 30 minutes! What the hell happened? Well, it turns out that if you dare wash something entirely unreasonable, like a few bath towels, or pairs of pants, then those items absorb more water and cause this low quality piece of shit to immediately become unbalanced and freak out when it spins faster than maybe 1 rotation per second. This washing machine's brilliant solution to this is to repeatedly fill up the basin with water, jiggle all the clothing around in a lame attempt to rebalance, and try once again to spin water out. This fails repeatedly and your simple load of laundry is now stuck in an infinite loop of stupidity.
Oh, did you drop a sock on the floor while putting laundry in, and you want to add it? Too bad. The top is locked tight. You have to press pause, and then stand there waiting for a year while the spinning slowly stops and then wait an additional year for some built-in buffer time to pass, before the lock unlatches.
Let's say that by some miracle, your load of laundry finishes. I don't know who started this awful trend in washers, but it then plays a cheery minute-long vapid jingle in an attempt to soothe you after you tore your hair out trying to use it, maddening you even more. Fortunately, they must have known how annoying this was because you can turn it off, which we did immediately upon hearing it the first time.
Why do modern washing machines suck so bad?
I'm pretty sure I googled that exact phrase in frustration, after the 10th time that an attempt to wash my clothing extended into an hours-long saga.
This is how I discovered the Speed Queen washer: specifically, the TC5. Its website advertises: "Remember the classic washer at grandma’s and the great results it delivered?", which I believe reflects a simple sentiment shared by everyone: a washing machine should just work. Behold, the control panel of the TC5:
- How hot should the water be?
- Do you want to extend a specific stage of the wash cycle?
- Do you want extra water?
- How aggressively should your clothing be spun?
You look at it, and you just know how it works. You have control over the few axes that matter, and it does exactly what you ask it to do. Is that so hard to achieve?
We just got one of these, after suffering with our old washing machine for a year, after getting through various higher-priority tasks around the house. It has been an absolute joy to use, because it is so low-drama. Every single pain point I had with the old machine has been resolved:
- Configuring a specific load of laundry is easy.
- The normal cycle takes 27 minutes every time.
- If I forgot to add a sock, I can immediately open the unlocked lid at any time and toss it in.
- It buzzes once for a few seconds when it's done.
I cannot recommend the Speed Queen TC5 enough. Unlike everything else in America which is actively getting enshittified year after year, this washing machine is an elegant shining beacon of simplicity and functionality. If you are looking for a new washing machine, just get it. Don't even look at other options; there is nothing else like it. I guarantee you that your quality of life will improve over whatever it is that you currently have.