Have you been and looked at this dryer? If not I would check it out and feel of it to see how smooth it is or isn't. The ones that are painted can chip and rust so you have that to deal with too. The Speed Queen has a lifetime warranty on the drum so they must be pretty good. You would think they wouldn't put anything in there that would tear up clothes but then who knows. I would ask a dealer about this and go from there. Also if you know anyone with this type dryer ask them if they have had any problems. Check out the Fisher/Paykel top load dryer at Lowe's. They have a stainless steel drum that is nice,so does the Bosch dryers. The stainless steel is really smooth and wouldn't snag your clothes.

Love my AWN432 as for the delicate cycle, it does mostly soak, but that's ok with me,,I have found thru the years soaking can do a good job cleaning, the whole point to delicate cycle besides slower agitation is to wash as gently as possible, soakimg is a very gentle form of cleaning. If possiable increase water temperature and use a good detergent to help make up for lack of mechanical action. Also decide if the garments really need gentle, I know people here that wash very pricey work out clothes that the manufactor recommends gentle wash cool water..yet they get washed in very hot on normal cycle with great results. As for the king size sheet set, those should fit fine, as Maylingsmom said hit the reset to add more water. When I bought my SQ 3 weeks ago it filled to the top row of holes, for some reason it doesn't anymore, very strange, but I hold reset it doesn't take long. I know you can't load and go this way but there is no other washer that will come as close to your older maytag as the SQ.

Hello, Abby We recently had new Speed Queen commercial washers installed in our apartment building. I was folding a dry load while the washer was filling for a new load for which I had selected the "hot/normal" setting. About a minute after the water started, I heard the pressure change, and opened the washer to see what was going on, and discovered that it had switched to cold. I thought it was just a glitch, and pressed "hot" again. The water then started to come out hot once more, but quickly reverted to cold, so I had to stand by the washer and repeatedly press the "hot" water selection again. And of course, the same thing happens when "warm" is selected. I called Speed Queen to ask if we could get a technician out to fix the problem, and was absolutely stunned I was told that it wasn't something that could be repaired, as it was intentionally programmed to switch to cold. This is an exact quote from that Speed Queen tech: "The only way we could find to meet the energy efficiency requirements for the washer was to have the water revert to cold." Huh? There's a lot of talk about the "death of American expertise," and this is just one sad and astoundingly ridiculous example. I was assuming Speed Queen did this just for their commercial washers. If I were a homeowner who had purchased this machine for private use, I'd be doubly furious. The Speed Queen technician said I might be able to find an independent repair person who'd be willing to see if they could override the internal computer programming, but so far I haven't been able to find anyone with the expertise. Our machine takes a full six minutes to fill, so every time any of the tenants in our building wants to wash with hot or warm water, we have to invest extra time to standi at the washer, repeatedly pushing the water temp selection of our choice to be sure we get the temperature we originally selected. We had the building owner call Speed Queen as well, and he was told the same thing I was told about this being their ridiculous attempt to make the washer more energy efficient. All I can say is I feel your pain!

After 7 years of using my same model Speed Queen I all of a sudden have an issue with Stand Pipe overflow due ot the Reqular and Perm-Press cycles pushing a significantly higher volume of water / sec out of the hose vs. handwash or soak cycles. Had a plumber out also and confirmed there is no blockage in the pipe. This is so strange. Had a appliance repair pro look at it and he was shocked by the rate of discharge on these settings with the issue. This issue started after I had work done to fix an out of balance tub. We love the washer but this issue starting up out of the blue seems is really frustrating.