[hga]

As I understand it, Speed Queen bought a Whirlpool factor making old fashioned, electrical-mechanical controlled washers (and dryers, I guess) for the consumer market, and they have a great reputation in the field.

Unless one has a major fault, which is of course especially likely before it gets to you due to shipping damage or a mistake in the factory. In that case, they effectively refuse to service your machine, because they pay their 3rd party repair crew per incident, not accounting for the work required for one. So if one of those electro-mechanical control units fails, as they were eventually prone to do in the bad old days, you're all set, but ... well, after finding this out, I ended up paying > $200 for a major repair to my 2007 GE washer, and plan to continue doing that as long as possible, it was designed and manufactured before these machines went completely to shit.

Note also that in the US the Federal government pays companies to make their washers steadily do a poorer job in the name of energy efficiency (there are limits to other appliances, e.g. no one would accept a fridge which won't keep food in the safe zone, but not for washers). Whirlpool, which is essentially a pure play in appliances, didn't pay any taxes for a couple of years or so because of these credits they received from the Feds.

[nickpsecurity]

Tedu's other question was, with price comparisons, whether washer or dryers were seen as luxury items back in the 60's to 80's. Today about anyone can buy them for a grand tops. Was it the same in those time periods or lower but at same purchasing power? Has cost cutting put them in reach of more people?

You're a bit older than most of us in this sub-thread. I figured you might have an idea.

[hga]

Errr, as a member of the middle class rapidly becoming "upper middle class" during that exact period, I don't think I have much visibility into this.

I have the strong impression that white goods like your three or four basic appliances, fridge, washer, dryer and maybe freezer, were major things, and that purchases were made with care and perception of reliability key (how Sears' Kenmore brand did so well, but there was of course the reality of reliability plus good service behind their stuff as well), but then again my parents were from the Silent Generation, who's formative years were in the privations of the Great Depression and WWII. And finishing on impressions, a freezer might be considered something of a luxury (but also a money saver, especially for a big family), but not the washer and dryer.

One approach would be to get statistics on laundromats in suitable areas (i.e. don't including college towns), how have their numbers and capacities changed, if by very much at all? Also correct for family size and sex ratios, my 2 brothers plus one sister and I certainly created more dirty laundry than a smaller or more female family.

[hga]

One other thought: were disposable diapers a luxury back then? (Are they today?) My mother certainly didn't use them, and dealing with a bin of my youngest brother's used cloth diapers was nasty enough inside a private house, hard to imagine opening it inside a laundromat....

[nickpsecurity]

Lol. Maybe. Add that to our long-term list of stuff to figure out.