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teun95 t1_j41d8yu wrote

These old Speed Queen washing machines should not be used. I will explain.

I often see people mention here that it is more environmentally friendly to keep using these Speed Queen laundry machines and dryers than to purchase a more efficient new model. For many products this is true. But these devices here are EXTREMELY ineffecient compared to an energy efficient model.

A Speed Queen AWN432 model uses 0.96 kWh per cycle^(1) while a Miele with the new A label uses 0.493kWh^(2) per cycle. Additionally, the Speed Queen uses more than twice (!)^(1 2) as much water. Taking the CO2 emissions of water purification and wastewater processing, the Miele only produces 49% of what the Speed Queen produces. This adds up to more than half a tonne more CO2 emissions over 10 years of use. See my spreadsheet ^(6).

Of course we have to look at manufacturing and transport too, but this barely changes the picture. A washing machine uses so much energy that the production and disposal are hardly significant compared to the energy consumption during its use^(3). This paper mentions that the usage of a washing machine accounts for around 80% of its CO2 emissions^(4).

Laundry represents 18% of all emissions in the US and 3% of national Co2 emissions^(5), so it's worth paying attention to this!

1: https://images.webfronts.com/cache/frysbageflai.pdf. I picked this particular washing machine for comparison because it's from a brand that lasts long and does up to 9kg per load. There are slightly more efficient washing machines, but picking a less brand would not be a fair comparison. 2: https://eprel.ec.europa.eu/screen/product/washingmachines2019/295205
3: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig-2-Life-Cycle-Assessment-of-a-washing-machine_fig2_235679049
4: (table on page 5, in Japanese) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jie1992/75/12/75_12_1050/_pdf

5: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19438150903541873#:~:text=The%20emissions%20from%20residential%20laundry%20care%20%28water%20supply%2C,of%20the%20national%20carbon%20dioxide%20emissions%20in%202005.

6: The 220 washing cycles per year is based on the EU average. For families it's likely more.

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JollyBodkin OP t1_j41kkd9 wrote

I hear you, but $1500 for a new Miele washing machine isn't in my budget unfortunately

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teun95 t1_j41oj3n wrote

You don't have to. There are decent brands that produce even more energy efficient machines.

If you simply want to find an energy efficient laundry machine that's available where you live I'd just check the webshop that people tend to use for this and short on energy efficiency. I guarantee that some cheap and decent washing machines will pop up.

If you want to find the most energy efficient laundry machines available, you can use the product database of the European Commission for this. It contains all products that are required to have an energy efficiency label. See their page for washing machines and sort on energy efficiency. Among the top results are Electrolux, AEG, Hoover and Candy. I'm not an expert on this, but I believe some of these brands are known to be decent and affordable.

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OhJohnO t1_j41yns8 wrote

Personally, even though I understand that the efficiency isn’t the same as newer machines, I find that reliability to price is unbeatable. Knowing that for the next 20 years, this thing will be a tank, and I won’t have to mess with it, (and when I do, repairs will be simple and affordable) beats out the day to day efficiency issues. Efficiency isn’t necessarily the primary concern for all consumers.

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daymanmustache t1_j4q1dqg wrote

For reliability to price you’d have to consider the extra cost of electricity and water over that 20 year period. Even if you get 20 trouble free years, I think you will be paying a pretty substantial premium and using more resources.

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