The main reasons for going with a commercial Speed Queen for people other than the few who can't manage to get consumer washers to clean their clothes are:
• They last a lot longer and are usually easier and/or cheaper to repair if they do break.
• They have more models without internet and apps. A basic commercial model will often be like the washer you might remember your parents had: something with a simple interface that just had a few basic cycles and washed your clothes well for decades. (Their fancier commercial models aimed to bigger laundromats might have internet and cloud based management, which can be very useful commercially for managing a fleet of machines).
And it cost under £400
Edit: Probably this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/comments/1jco8a1/recommenda... . Speed Queen, Whirlpool, LG, and other brands are recommended. Reading the reviews after you’ve purchased something is always painful! Have you heard of Consumer Reports? They at least used to be pretty reliable.
I don't doubt their integrity, but I no longer use them.
If a machine is working for the vast majority of people then it isn't usually the machine.
Washing machines fall under the same umbrella as dishwashers for me. They work amazingly well but there will always be a decent chunk of people who claim they just never get dishes clean.
It has nothing to do with the dishwasher. It has to do with how people use them incorrectly.
It sounds more like "i'm picky about a washing machine" has become a personality trait, or a sunk cost, so there's no abandoning it at this point.
Probably gonna find a decent washing machine, then 2 months later another issue crops up. "It doesn't tumble quite right, ugh my clothes aren't clean". It reminds me of old people who say "They don't make x like they used to. Can't buy a good one anymore!"
Again, if the vast majority of people are finding the machine to be adequate, then it's probably not the machine. It's probably the people who are struggling with it have unreasonable expectations.
Domestic chores are also rife with people who do things for no reason other than "i was taught this way". This means their expectations are, often, unreasonable. I'm not saying that's applicable here, but it's definitely something to consider in these areas. Lots of people do wild stuff with their clothes/dishes/cleaning and don't realize it until someone points it out to them.
(It's probably not your clothes, either).
Manufacturers make energy-efficient appliances because consumers prefer them over less efficient appliances, not because the government is forcing them.
I'm highly dubious of the $500b this program has claimed to save consumers. Almost without fail, efficiency improvements in home appliances has greatly increased complexity (less reliable), reduced common components across brands (higher cost to fix), increase purchase price, and compromised actual performance.
Free market evangelist people are out of touch with reality.
Energy Star is handy because it's a known quality with set standards. If there was no standard companies could start doing all sorts of marketing BS with meaningless numbers. With ES you know what you're getting and it's a apples-apples comparison.
Same with dishwasher: Energy Star means some specific, and if a unit has a sticker than it's at (at least) the same level as another unit with the sticker. An OEM has now go above and beyond that in features.
Contrast that with the MaP Test, which is voluntary in the toilet industry, which most manufacturers use if those it is voluntary:
If there was an ES-equivalent standard for laundry then perhaps Energy Star itself would not be needed at that point.
That said, your complaints about HE side loaders are not misplaced, they aren't very good.
Maybe the tree huggers at Reddit are spending a lot of time hugging pine trees. Pine sap is hard to get out.