Did more troubleshooting this morning, the washer had water in it from testing yesterday evening, tried running the unit to drain it, but it wouldn't work. Had a devil of a time spinning the tub by-hand from underneath, took the belt off, tried running the motor with no load, it still tripped the overheat device. Pulled the motor out, it's seized-up.
My folks came over to watch the baby in case my wife and I had to go buy a new one, we started discussing our options
- Cheapest, buy a new motor. We guesstimated around $300.
- Upside, the machine has been reliable up to this point (and for twenty-two years) and in a nutshell, Raytheon's ownership of Speed Queen and Amana in the nineties plus Amana's lack of their own washing machine meant this Amana is basically a Speed Queen with Amana badging, and the based on my research over the past several days, Speed Queens are the Volkswagen Beetle of the laundry world, they're dead-simple, durable, and easily repaired, and parts have remained fairly similar and mostly interchangeable up until the new 2018 whole-redesign.
- Downside, It's 22 years old, and while it's been reliable, it's a gamble that it will remain so.
- Next Cheapest, buy a low-end washing machine, around $400-$600.
- Upside, machine would be new, wouldn't necessarily cost a whole lot more than the motor for the current Amana. Also could have the machine today, delivered, depending on what's bought and from where.
- Downside, warranties are pathetically short, one year. Given the changes that have been made to major appliances, it almost certainly would not last more than two decades.
- More expensive, track down a remaining 2017-era Speed Queen and order it, approximately $1000
- Upside, another of basically the same as what we have now, it would very likely last well past a decade, possibly well past two. Speed Queens are often used in commercial settings, and while the new TR-series that came out in 2018 basically aren't worth buying, there are some of the older LWN-series still in the supply chain.
- Downside, expensive, it'll have to be shipped inter-state, long wait time. Minor concern of being "upgraded" to a 2018 model by a warehouse that simply assumes it's an upgrade when in fact it's not.
- Most Expensive, buy a high-end model of any other kind available locally, $1000+, probably closer to $2000.
- Upside, might have a warranty greater than a year, and Consumer Reports has some decent info on what's currently on the market including things like cycle-time. Also could probably have it today if bought from the right place.
- Downside, expensive, no guarantee that it will be reliable, and with the way new appliances are designed, probably will be a technological terror to service. Plus our laundry nook in the bathroom is tight, only 32.5" from the back wall to the trim around a door that needs to be unobstructed, and that essentially eliminates front-loaders entirely, and many high efficiency toploaders too.
In the end, before the parts stores open on Saturday all closed we decided to make a phone call. Turns out, the motor was only $225 and the parts place was literally two miles from home. We decided that even if it didn't pan-out we were willing to risk the $225, and we also bought a new, proper belt and a set of the brakes as well. Out the door was $260ish.
I cleaned up the inside of the machine where the 22 year old belt had abraded and where some kind of greasy substance from the dying motor had left its mark, reassembled, and it tested on an empty cycle on small just fine. We've done four loads of laundry since and it ran through those just fine too. So at least for now the $225 was not a waste. I didn't install the brakes yet, I needed to run the motor in order to drain out the water from the tub which would be necessary in order to disassemble to install the brakes, but it doesn't seem to especially need them at the moment. For the $20 the brakes cost I'm not going to sweat it. Maybe someday I'll dig into it again and change them if they start to squeak or something.
We're also going to keep an eye out for used Speed Queens with manufacture dates within the last few years. I had found a CL ad claiming to have multiple plus a few other brands, but apparently the seller didn't bother to update his ad that he'd sold the Speed Queens. Mildly annoyed at that, but I'll still look from time to time, because I frankly don't know how long until I need a more significant repair.
