I wouldn't get a FL if it was to be used by others ...

You could look into buying a Speed Queen TL !

How well do the tenants take care of the current machine?

If your tenants put in too much soap it will be a foaming mess. I guess you could get around that with supplying the soap along with dispenser instructions. Then maybe going in every other week and putting in a washer cleaning product, such as Affresh.

But Regus probably has the best answer, there is not too much they could damage on the Speed Queen. Plus it's built to take the abuse.

Yeah, I thought about that: supplying the detergent along with instructions. Just seems like such a hassle, and there's no assurance the tenants will comply. The tenants are not that bad towards the machine (i.e. it still works), but they certainly won't take tender loving care of it.

I guess I'll stick to a TL. Any recommendations for a GENTLE top loader? That's my biggest beef with top loaders -- they shred my clothes. Any loose thread or elastic will unravel for sure in my washer.

Speed Queen is quite expensive. I live in Canada, and these machines are pretty high-end.

Thanks so much for your advice.

One of Speed Queen's advantages is the 210° agitation stroke which is quite gentle on clothes. Often clothes only get "shredded" when they're not loaded correctly although certain short stroke machines with a rough agitator can have troubles. You need to know how to use ANY machine you're using.

Cynic, how do you load clothes correctly so that they don't get shredded?

And what is considered a rough agitator? I currently have an Admiral, which has a corkscrew-like agitator. Almost every machine I see has a corkscrew agitator.

Whenever I had trouble with clothes damage it was when I wrapped the clothes around the agitator. Now, even the 7' long bath sheets get dropped in in a lump and I try to go across from it with another comparable sized one then two more. The big thing is don't wrap it around the agitator. It'll still get plenty of agitation to clean I've found.

I'll have to look to see if I can find some of the pictures & videos of what some called a Shredmore. I have an agitator that can best be described as similar to the "old fashioned" wringer washer agitators. It looked much like my folk's old wringer Maytag and I can't really describe it. Maybe someone else can describe them a little better while I look.

"Shredmore" is a reference to the Whirlpool-family toploaders of the direct-drive transmission design with a fast, short agitation stroke (120 to 180 SPM). Many people assume that having the corkscrew/auger assembly at top of the agitator is what makes a Shredmore, but that's not really the case. In fact, the corkscrew "Dual-Action" agitator was initially marketed on Kenmore belt-drive machines, which had agitation speeds of 68 and 46 strokes per minute. The early direct-drive machines did not have a corkscrew agitator.

Although some reported complaints of rough action are legitimate, these machines DO work perfectly fine for hundreds of thousands of consumers. Cases of clothing damage are typically due to improper use such as overloading, improper sorting, using high agitation speed on delicate items, running excessive wash time, etc. The ONLY cases of clothing damage I've ever had in a topload washing machine was in a Maytag Neptune TL ... and that includes many years of washing in Whirlpool & KA direct-drive machines, Fisher & Paykel for 9+ years, and a Whirlpool Calypso for approx 1 year.

Note that GE FilterFlo toploaders for many years had a fairly short arc of 100 stroke per minute at normal speed.

I wouldn't rule out sharing an FL with tenants. It's not the same as providing one for their use only. You'd know what's going on with it, and you could regularly run a sanitary cycle to help prevent mold. You've already found that owning a TL isn't a guarantee against mold. My old TL got moldy (judging from how stuff smelled when it came out) even though I routinely ran hot washes with chlorine bleach.

FL cycle times are generally longer than traditional TL, which could be an argument against an FL when it's to be used by more than one family. OTOH, the higher spin speeds lead to shorter dryer times, which can partly offset the longer washing time. And, in my experience at least, clothes washed in an FL produce less dryer lint, so the vent doesn't clog as quickly.

Re agitators, I've also read that the Speed Queen 210° stroke is supposed to be more gentle (probably in the same places you've read it, cynic :-), but don't know if that's anything more than opinion. With a bulky item like a comforter wrapped around the agitator, I can also imagine the long stroke doing more damage.

BTW, my mother lives in an apartment building with a very busy laundry room that's equipped with coin-op Maytag Neptune washers. They've been there for 9-10 years, and seem to do the job. Granted they're probably somewhat beefed-up to handle the continuous use, but still they're FL's, HE as far as I know, and they've survived being shared by 100+ apartments. I'm sure plenty of people use the cheapest detergent they can find. And note that the Maytag Neptune has one of the worst reputations for mold.

My grandma had a whirlpool TL washer (shredmore) for years and I NEVER remember anything getting damaged in it. If it did, it was rare. I would get a whirlpool TL washer, put a nice sign up saying (please do not over load machine). These are pretty long lasting machines. I don't think the design has changed much for years. I think they are around $350.

I would recommend a Coin Operated Speed Queen frontload stacked washer and dryer.

Built like a tank
Made for multi users
You can set the price at what ever you want. Even a token amount like 25 cents if you want.
Uses less power and water than a top load.