Be sure you understand the changes in government regulations for washers that have come into effect since your 2001 washer: restrictions on water levels, redefinitions of water temperature (i.e. the new "hot" is warm), and all cold rinses.

There are proponents of both the new front loaders and top loaders. Front loaders use less water than the top loaders and have greater capacity, but, there are some downsides with the need to leave the door open and cleaning the machine regularly to avoid mold. New HE top loaders do not have an agitator and do not clean very well, in my opinion. Others will disagree. All machine lines have problems whether it's poor initial quality, poor construction, poor customer service, or non-available parts. It's important to get something that can be serviced locally.

The Speed Queen top loader is an old technology agitator type machine without an on-board heater. You won't be washing king sized quilts in a Speed Queen top loader, but if you don't need that, the new model (2015) seems to be getting good reviews. Check other posts on this forum.

Good Luck

Go to youtube and look up as many washers as possible. See if you can find the 2015 machines. If not, watch the 2014 videos. Also, go to manufacturers websites and see if they have videos. Read as many comments/reviews on websites as you can find. As for recommending a machine, I just bought Speed Queen, but it is not for everyone. My best advice ---- research, research, research and watch youtube videos.

And let me add, I just read on this forum( I believe) that the Speed Queen 2015 front loader is a great machine.

I recently got the 2015 Speed Queen front load washer and so far I have done 10 loads of laundry. The capacity is 3.42 cubic feet which is 2-3/4 bushel baskets of laundry, has plenty of cycles, has a very high spin speed which is selectable as is wash times. The 2015 model also includes a pre soak and pre wash cycle and you can add up to two additional rinse cycles. It does a typical load in 45 minutes but you can select to extend the wash time for really dirty clothes. The 2015 also dynamically balances the load during the spin and I experienced no vibration. This machine is excellent and has a 5 year warranty. I highly recommend it! It is pricy but worth every penny.

Steve,

Some questions on your new FL machine.

1) [PRESOAK] and [PREWASH], Are they mutually exclusive or can you select both at the same time? Same temp as the wash setting or forced cold?

2) [2ND RINSE] and [3RD RINSE], are they mutually exclusive or can you select both at the same time?

3) Does the final spin appear smoother/quieter than your previous model?

My dealer mentioned that the FL machines can rinse up to 9 times, if the suds kill routine is activated. Cool, if true.

MRB

Mrb6228 - The [SOAK] and [PREWASH] are selected by separate buttons and are added to the beginning of each cycle. From the manual: The Soak option adds a 30 minute soak to the beginning of the cycle and before the prewash if also selected. During the soak period, the wash basket will rotate every few minutes to tumble the laundry. The Pre-Wash option adds a second wash to the beginning of selected wash cycle. I have not tried these cycles yet but one or both can be selected. I think the water is the same temperature as the main wash load.

The washer normally does two rinse cycles and when you select the second rinse it adds an additional rinse. When you select the third rinse you are adding two additional rinse cycles. I have not tried the additional rinse cycles yet but the manual gives the indication that if you press both the second and third rinse buttons you will get three additional rise cycles, thus they appear to not be mutually exclusive. Finally, all rinses use cold water.

There is no suds kill cycle on the Speed Queen. If you need to rinse more than five times you can wash your clothes a second time selecting only the regular rinse & spin only cycle with the additional rinse cycle buttons selected. You can also choose to spin only.

You can download the manual from Speed Queen. The manual lists the wash cycle as 15 minutes but that can be extended up to 35 minutes by the soil level and wash cycle selections.

The final spin is smooth.

Steve,

The manual seems to allude that all of these options can be stacked together in the cycle, but the dealer says that it is incorrectly diagramed in the manual.

The manual also says there is a suds kill routine.

I am interested to find out if you can select all options together or if selecting one disables the other.

Here is the blurb on the manual.

MRB

MRB - I never saw that, thanks. I thought you were referring to a cycle that can be selected. I guess I will need to try it to find out the answer to your question. I have edited my previous post to add more details so you may want to re-read it. I will post my results sometime tomorrow. The moral of this story is don't over suds.

Thanks Steve. I am concerned that the dealer may have improper information and/or the documentation is incorrect. Both scenarios have happened in the past, so I shouldn't be surprised if it happens again.

MRB

sheilaaus122,

Your Calypso is, of course, an HE machine. It was the first HE toploader on the US market and IMO superior in wash performance to the HE toploaders on the market now. (Disclaimer: I have a Calypso. I have not used any of the current "impeller-style" machines but there are videos on YouTube.)

Going to from the Calypso to a Speed Queen agitator toploader is from HE to non-HE, which is fine if that's your intention.

I would choose a frontloader with onboard water heating if I was buying a new washer today.

P.S. -- The serial number of your Calypso is coded for the year and week of manufacture.

MRB - I ran a load last night with all the buttons/options selected. I selected [SOAK], [PRE-WASH], [SECOND RINSE], and [THIRD RINSE]. As the manual described it did the soak first using the water temp selected and the detergent that was put in the pre-wash compartment in the soap/bleach/fabric softener drawer, then drained the water with no rinse. Then the tub was filled for the pre-wash, using the per-wash detergent, but since the per-wash soap compartment was rinsed out during the soak cycle, no soap was added and the pre-washed used the residual soap left over form the soak cycle. Then the water was drained with no rinse and refilled for the main wash cycle this time loading the detergent from the main wash compartment of the soap/bleach/fabric softener drawer. The main wash went as expected. Finally having selected the second and third rinse options it did add three additional rinse cycles to the main/rinse(s) cycle.

A few comments. If you do use both the soak and pre wash cycles and you want more soap added to the pre-wash after the soak, you will need to refill the per-wash soap compartment after the water fill for the soak. Second, the manual recommends using powdered soap for the main wash if you use the per-wash or soak cycles. If you use liquid detergent, it will drain into the wash because of the way the detergent dispenser drawer is design and with power it will not drain until the water cycle begins whereby water will be used to flush out the detergent compartment.

Steve,

That is how I had hoped the behavior would function. Pretty damn flexible in my opinion.

Thanks for verifying that!

MRB

Sheila,

You're the first person I've heard that loved the calypso. We bought a Kenmore Elite caypso, probably in 2001 also, and it was a piece of junk. We spent $2000 (I don't remember if that was for just the washer or the dryer too) and it never cleaned our clothes. Clothes came out of the washer splotchy with wet and dry marks - after an entire wash, parts of the clothes were still dry! How could they be clean? This wasn't a one-time thing. It was every wash. It had many other problems too, but I don't even remember all of them. I know there was a recall once on something, and the repair guy was out several times during the warranty period. After 3 years or so, we bit the bullet and bought a GE front loader (which we still use, but the Speed Queen FL will be my next washer!). That calypso washer was in a friend's garage because I couldn't bring myself to sell such a piece of garbage to anyone, but I hated to through out such big money. If you or anyone you know needs parts, let me know! They're yours!

Debbi Branka,

I'm always amazed when people claim clothes washed in their Calypso have/had dry spots at end of the cycle. That has *never* happened in the 7+ years I've been using my machine (I bought it used at a garage sale). It's impossible for any of the items to not be thoroughly saturated wet through the course of washing and rinsing due to how the Calypso wash action works. I realize that very few users (at the time) were able to watch the machine during operation because all action stops when the lid is opened ... but there are numerous videos on YouTube that show Calypsos running with the lid safety switch bypassed so all the action can be seen. A strong recirculation stream sprays down over the clothes from the right/rear top of the tub while the wash plate wobbles to both rollover the load and rotate it counterclockwise through the shower stream (the drum also rotates at 60 RPM some of the time). The middle part of the stream is aimed at the center dome of the wash plate, off which the water splatters all around in addition to what hits the clothes directly as they move under the rest of the shower stream. With all that water spraying over the clothes for the duration of the wash and rinse periods, how can anything *not* get wet?

This is most interesting- the last repair (last week or so) the repair tech said that the piece which needs to be replace, not sure if I remember this correctly, but it is what moves the drum (as well as the drum) and it is not available anymore. It's strange because the machine works, but not properly and is not cleaning as nicely as it did. We both have desk jobs so its not like we get really dirty so I am satisfied that our stuff is clean, but in the past when we had a stain or something was really soiled, I could get it really clean. now, not so much. So I know a change is in the future. I latched on to the speed queen toploader because it seems to be so well regarded, is not as $$$ as the front loaders, and wouldn't be so much of a change. Now I guess it's back to square one. I do know I don't want to spend $$$. As for the calypso, I think so many people were disappointed, there had to be someone who got a good machine and I guess I was one- and Dadoe was the other!!

Sheliaaus122,

The part of question probably is the u-joint. PN 285927. I checked three of the online sources I use (there are several others), all have it in stock although the price is high. My guess is your tech (or his supervisor or company policy) is to discourage customers from having Calypsos repaired

Speed Queen top loaders are indeed great machines. However, there are a couple of minuses. They are not the best at rinsing and do a spin drain rather than a neural drain. You can wash more in a load than you would think. I can get 7 pairs of adult jeans (in my old Kenmore, xlarge capacity, only 4). My daughter washed a queen comforter and a full sized set of sheets and it did well.

If you think you are interested in a front loader, read sandiego_steve's post above about the 2015 Speed Queen. He just purchased one. He can tell you but I think the rinse on that model is good.