Wow you totally reminded me of this building I managed several years back now, and they all had washing machines with that only filled a few inches, maybe 8 at most.

It was explained to me by my appliance tech, perhaps he's not entirely correct on somebody may inform me better... But he said they were built to some water savings standard from california, and rather than making different models for different markets, they just foisted the low water ones on people.

I remember endless grieving from residents. I also remember a very common complaint of the person above them using their washing machine for 9 hours a day. Well fucking yeah, try having two working parents and three kids and seeing how much laundry you can get done in those pieces of shit!