I Have a Family of 7, and I Regret Buying a High-Tech Washing Machine (Here’s the One I’ll Go with Forever)

After my husband and I got married during college and started our family young, we were happy to accept any and all gently used household products — including a seemingly ancient, donated washing machine and dryer set that had been stashed in a family member’s barn. 

That washer and dryer served us and our laundry well for many years, but when it came time to buy a new set, I wanted a “fancy” version. I dreamed of glistening surfaces and gleaming buttons to press for what I imagined would be high-tech washing and drying. Imagine my surprise when the “high-tech” set we bought ended up lasting only a fraction of the time as the dusty duo from the barn. 

It was time to go shopping again, but this time I knew exactly what I wanted: an old-school washer and dryer, thank you very much. 

Sure, our new washer and dryer set’s apps, end-of-cycle music, and convection drying (what does that even mean, honestly?) had seemed cool, and the machines had looked sleek in our laundry room, but they simply could not handle the load, pun intended, of a family.

Plus, our first high-tech washer and dryer set was plagued with problems from the start (and it ended with it dramatically bursting into flames; it’s a long story, but there was a recall involved). Frankly, I also had serious doubts about how clean anything was actually getting in that thing. 

So when we walked into the appliance store, we told the salesman our woes (along with our needs as a family of seven), and he walked us over to the Speed Queen section.

“This is the brand that commercial daycares use, so maybe you’d be interested in one of these?” he posed.

Sir, say no more. Any washer and dryer set that is good enough for a commercial daycare is 1,000% something I want in my house. We invested in a pretty pricey set of a top-loading Speed Queen washer and dryer that day, nearly eight years ago, and I will forever sing their dutiful, long-suffering, ever-faithful praises because they have put in the work for me.

Along with never breaking down, our Speed Queen washer and dryer set has several advantages over the fancier version we previously owned.

Speed Queen makes both front- and top-loading washers, but, to me, top-loading washers are superior because you can fit a lot more clothes in them. Again, I have five kids who all play sports, so I do an average of three to four loads a day. Capacity is of the utmost importance to me.

On a related note, the steel drum that holds the dirty clothes is also larger than the one in our modern washer, which is vastly important because I am constantly washing sheets and blankets. One stomach-bug episode would have meant me schlepping comforters to the laundromat, but now I can safely stuff even oversized comforters into our trusty Speed Queen. 

Remember that tall, fin-shaped thing sticking up in the middle of your parents’ washer? That’s an old-school twirling agitator, and many modern washers — including my previous one — don’t have them anymore. That’s where my old washer fell short, in my opinion. My previous modern washer supposedly didn’t need the agitator because it was more efficient at cleaning, used less water (which means the agitator could potentially cause damage to your clothes), and could fit a higher capacity without it. But in my own experience, this has been the exact opposite — I feel like the clothes are cleaner with the agitator than without. I will say that we have a lot of very dirty clothes, because we have a farm and my husband is a woodworker (read: constant sawdust), so keep that in mind. But for constant, heavy-duty cleaning, our agitator washer has been wonderful. 

Our modern front-loader could technically “soak” or “pre-soak,” but sometimes, it used so little water that the soaking might not have been as effective as the old-school pre-soak. I personally prefer being able to pre-soak in our top-loader in a full amount of water when needed because of the sheer number of stains on my kids’ clothing.  

Speed Queen markets itself as an old-school company focused on making appliances the way our grandparents had them — durable, reliable, and long-lasting. Fortunately, that’s been exactly our experience. While my parents churn through modern washers and dryers, on average, every five years, our Speed Queen set has lasted eight so far, and it’s still going strong. 

Again, one of the company’s marketing taglines is commercial-grade quality. If it’s tough enough for a daycare, it’s tough enough for our home — even with five kids. Enough said.

The one and only downside that I will admit to with our Speed Queen set is that it’s definitely not as sleek as some of the modern washer-and-dryer duos. It’s commercial-looking — blah and boxy — and going into my laundry room to tackle the many loads that await me daily doesn’t spark the same kind of joy that a gleaming, gorgeous stainless steel pair might.

But this is one case where looks truly don’t matter, because I would still choose my ugly duckling over anything prettier any day of the week. Speed Queen, you have my heart forever, and I thank you for all your years of service. (And I do apologize for that most recent bout of norovirus that ran through each child, painfully and slowly, one at a time, because that was not fun for any of us. Because of you, we made it through.)