Gas clothes dryer

[Daniel]

Agreed!

To be clear, I wasn't thinking about it being gas. Sorry.

What I read is that the commercial clothes washers are sold by some appliance stores to residential customers.

I'd like to be corrected by Steve if I'm wrong because I'm considering this option.

[kluurs]

Have you tired other dealers for the SQ home-style dryers? Grand Appliance and Ferguson also supposedly carry them. It's probably the same deal as Abt. Or check SQ's website for dealers in the 'hood.

[wtg]

@kluurs I hadn't considered that; thanks for the suggestion. I looked into Grand and Ferguson (I know of both but haven't bought anything from them) and learned a bunch of stuff. Grand has the unit in stock and could deliver in a day or two. Ferguson's lead time is a bit longer but shorter than what Abt quoted to me.

I might get delivery faster but Abt has some things going for it that the other two don't. Don't know if any of what follows is of any usefulness or interest to other folks, but here goes....

Grand does delivery and installation but I don't see a service department, so you're going to the manufacturer for customer service on warranty work and you're stuck with their authorized repair shops; sometimes those aren't the greatest. Don't know how Speed Queen is, but getting warranty work done on my Samsung washer I bought from Best Buy was a total nightmare. Home Depot is the same.

Ferguson seems to be drop shipping from the manufacturer. Freight delivery, no offer of installation, and no service department. I think they're more geared to projects where you have a contractor doing a remodel and the contractors do the install. No service department means the same issues with warranty work as places like Grand, Best Buy, Lowe's and Home Depot.

Abt is the whole enchilada. I'll get a 10% discount on price, and they are an authorized servicer for Speed Queen. Their service department is not the cheapest by any stretch but it’s a huge part of their business. They're a 15 minute drive from my house, so an easy hop to go look at the SQ and any others I might consider. They're very old school with respect to customer service and will bend over backwards to make things right if there's a problem. Plus they have the really cool attractions in the showroom. Like this thing:

https://foursixty.com/abt-electronics/261058640/

Some of the others:

https://www.abt.com/help/attractions

A month is a longish time, but our laundry is in the basement and we already air dry a lot of things on a routine basis. Towels and sheets are the exception, but my friend Susan lives a block away and I can take those over to her house for a few weeks if the lead time on delivery is really out a month. Not ideal, but doable.

Anyway, I appreciate the suggestions! I learned a lot about those other major appliance retailers in our area. Definitely good choices but their services don't quite match my needs.

[Steve Miller]

From what I can tell there is no physical reason not to install a “commercial” dryer in a house. The difference between their resi and commercial lines appears to be mostly dealer protection and perhaps energy efficiency regulations. Maybe warranty differences.

Dryers are pretty simple, and while SQ washers are a lot tougher than other brands I’m not convinced that the dryers are worth the extra $ or a long wait. The two I had at the Huron house worked fine but no better and were noisier than other dryers I’ve owned.

If you’re going to go with a new unit you might like this video. Chip seems to be a straight shooter and I’d trust his advice

Link to video

He has new vid on freezers as well.

Link to video

Dryer noises are usually pretty easy and cheap to fix. If you have the time you might want to check a few YT videos to see how yours comes apart and how to change what are probably a couple of nylon rollers.

Barring that it would probably be worthwhile to bring in a tech from an independent shop to have a look at it. If you have a neighborhood Facebook group or Nextdoor you can probably find recommendations there.

[wtg]

Thanks, @steve-miller !

I didn't watch the whole freezer video yet, just the beginning....but....we have an upright freezer that's in the basement. A very undemanding environment. Had a chest freezer years ago and gave it away to a friend. I know chest freezers are much more efficient and run like tanks, but not having to unload twenty things to get to the bottom where the one you want is located is the huge advantage for us and why we switched to uprights. We had a manual defrost upright and got tired of the whole defrosting thing so replaced our old upright with a frost free. Have been really happy with it in terms of function. Reliability, not so much. The one that died is 4 1/2 years old. Abt does extended warranties. A five year costs $175. If the thing craps out again, it's cost me $175 to use it for five years. Oh, and the warranty lets you claim $200 of lost food. I hate the concept of throwaway appliances but try to make up for it in other ways. We drive our cars for 20 years!

Thanks for the info on the dryers. Between you and Claude, you've convinced me it's worth having it looked at before buying new. We do indeed have a local guy, George's Appliance CPR. Turns out he started out at Abt. My neighbor has used him and said he's great and reasonably priced. I got his number and texted him. We'll see what he says!

Thanks much. Will keep you posted!

[wtg]

And the diagnoses are in....the freezer is a seized compressor, so it's a goner.

Dryer is suffering from arthritis of the rollers and an ancient belt. Worth repairing; he has those parts on the truck. We don't want one of those newfangled electronic wifi dryers....

edit: He didn't charge for diagnosing the dead freezer; it only took him five minutes.

[Mik]

OK. I was going to chime in with "If you have an old Maytag, repair it if possible. Even if it's near the cost of new you'll likely get more use out of it.".

Incidentally, I was in Maytag's hometown this week, Newton, Iowa again. Sadly, Maytags are no longer produced there but there are a lot of spaces and magnificent old buildings that the Maytag legacy built. We stayed a block from this dining/entertainment area utilizing the courtyard and buildings by the old Maytag HQ and factory.

https://yoursourcenews.com/2023/03/new-mission-for-maytag-hq/

[wtg]

@Mik said:

OK. I was going to chime in with "If you have an old Maytag, repair it if possible. Even if it's near the cost of new you'll likely get more use out of it.".

Cost me $250 to have it fixed. Definitely less that a new one.

[Mik]

Good decision. Long may she run.

[wtg]

The Bermuda Triangle phenomenon continues...last Friday the car wouldn't start. I thought I had noticed beginning a month or so ago that the battery didn't have as much "oomph" when I started the car, but shrugged it off. It was installed last December. I jumped it with the little portable jumper (those things are cool) and took it over to the mechanic. He checked it out and said it was fine, and that we need to take it out for longer drives occasionally to charge it up. He charged the battery, but didn't charge us. These independent guys are the best.

And this morning, our vintage Melitta electric drip coffee maker that we got from Gevalia in 1990 (remember those deals?) gave up the ghost. You can still buy these units NIB on ebay. People must have gotten tons of them and stashed them away. Thing is, they last forever so they sat unused in someone's basement and now they are getting rid of them. The weird thing is that earlier this week I commented to Mr wtg that the Melitta electric was pretty amazing, but that I was going to keep one of the three Chemex pots that we have, just in case the Melitta crapped out. Prescient, I am.