I just wanted to add my two cents' worth, since a lot of the comments come from people with fairly new machines. When we moved cross-country a year and a half ago, we left our 17-year-old SQ TL and dryer behind. They were still functioning perfectly. The only repair in those 17 years was the timer knob on the washer, which was inexpensively and relatively easily fixed by my husband. We replaced them with GE appliances at our new location. The GE TL washer needed repair within six months (wouldn't agitate or spin). At the one-year mark, I received the extended warrantee info in the mail but opted out of it, figuring an unreliable washer isn't worth repairing. That old SQ served me faithfully for 17 years, after all. This week, the GE washer broke again and I just replaced it with another SQ and I couldn't be happier (other than the financial pain of having to buy two machines in a year and a half). They are hard to find--mine came from 30 miles away. Use the SQ website and find a dealer in your area. There are some false leads in the website, but just keep making phone calls until you find one. Don't worry about service--you won't need it, and they're simple enough machines that it shouldn't require a "factory-trained" technician to repair one anyway. You can find a washer with more bells and whistles, but if it konks out on you, there you are at the Laundromat. And that, to me, is a fate worse than death. Buy a SQ.

There are mechanical considerations such as gearing ratios & "drive train" differences beyond how the motor interfaces to the mechanism. Frigidaire's unimatic mechanism coupled the tub to the motor on a 1:1 ratio for spin, thus the tub spun at the motor's full RPM of 1,140. Whirlpool/Kenmore direct-drive design runs the spin via the transmission with gearing reduction so the motor's 1,725 RPM is translated to the basket as 640 RPM. F&P couples the motor's shaft directly to the basket for spin (and to the agitator for agitation), the motor is computer-controlled variable speed. Calypso is belt-drive with variable speed motor, very small motor pulley with larger basket/nutator pulley.

Also, Yuna, FWIW, I bought my unitized SQ just as the model was changing over from analog to digital. I had special ordered it just in time to get the analog, as I really felt digital would be a problem. The remodel took three months, and by the time we were ready to take delivery on the SQ, it turned out my dealer had, of his own volition, changed my order to digital. It was quite a mess, in part because my cabinetry was already in, and the new unit was a lot taller than we’d planned for. (Luckily, my contractor redid everything no cost to me because I had used the appliance dealer of his preference.) However, when I complained to my dealer very loudly, he said that the machine I had ordered (analog) had only a one year warranty, and that to encourage people to move to the new machine (digital) Speed Queen was upgrading the warranty to five years. At least, that is what my almost 60-year-old brain recalls. It may not be correct. Perhaps you do indeed have a five year warranty. Another problem was the fact that as a part of the model changeover, Speed Queen decided that they would no longer warranty the unitized machine for second floor installations. I found it in the fine print AFTER my machine was installed and running! Oh, I was HOT. You can read more about this in the archives if it matters, but the short story is, yes, I got a full five year warranty. At least, I hope I do. I made the dealer and the distributor put it in writing, or I was going to make them pull the machine out. But a few years from now, who knows what they will claim?

TR3, TR5 and TR7 models have a different type of motor and no mechanical transmission/gears so they operate quieter. They have no spin brake (takes a while for the drum to coast to a stop if the lid is opened during spin) which is why the lid is required to lock (for safety). The TC5 model, which apparently is your new unit, has an old-style motor (noisier) and transmission (noisier) to drive the agitator, and a spin brake which stops the drum quickly if the lid is opened so it doesn't need to lock.