Best Combo Washer/Dryer?

June 25, 2012 10:57 AM

What's a good combo washer-dryer available for purchase in the US?

To save space, my wife and I are looking to purchase an all-in-one clothes washer/dryer combo. I'm not talking about a stacked washer/dryer, but instead we're after a small washing machine that is also a condenser dryer.

It looks like the Miele WT2780 is a well-regarded model, but I can't find it for sale in the US.

Has anyone had a good experience with other manufacturers' combo washer/dryers?

posted by jacob to home & garden (8 answers total)

They're not commonly used in the US, but here's a link to some. I asked a few people here at work if they'd ever seen one, and they all said only in Europe.
posted by mareli at 11:16 AM on June 25, 2012

Compact appliance is where we got our LG. Loved it, however it took forever to dry as it was ventless and electric.
posted by iamabot at 11:23 AM on June 25, 2012

Miele is by far the best, but haven't seen that particular type of washer in the US. My second choice would be the LGs, it worked really well for washing, but drying them made them way to wrinkled to wear. I opted for hanging most clothes to dry and it worked really well. I read that the reason why they don't work so well in the US is because of the difference in voltage. The one I had came with an adapter for US voltage conversion.
posted by i_wear_boots at 11:38 AM on June 25, 2012

Here's some general info about washer/dryer combos:
http://www.consumersearch.com/washer-dryers/review.
posted by cnc at 11:45 AM on June 25, 2012

LG used to sell one through big box retailers in the US, but I don't know if they still do. The really long drying time made them unattractive, however. It was long because dryers use one of two things to dry clothes: heat and/or air movement. Without a proper dryer vent you can't get air movement, and without a gas hookup or a 220 volt electric connection you can't get proper heat. (FYI - heat is hard on clothes, so I usually recommended dryers that provided more air movement to my customers).
posted by postel's law at 11:48 AM on June 25, 2012

I looked into these units a couple of years ago and found that nobody really liked their condenser dryers. They use more energy, take longer to dry, and generally just don't work that well. The bright side is that almost all front-load washer/dryer sets are stackable. I got the higher end Frigidaire set for about what I was looking at for a combo unit, they fit in the tiny closet I had available, and still manage to be "full size" in the capacity sense. IIRC, the width of my door was 28.5".
posted by wierdo at 11:54 AM on June 25, 2012

We have the LG washer dryer combo, our second in 8 years. We love our machine. It does take a long time to dry, but you get used to the schedule. The new machine with a regular load takes about 4 hours to wash and dry. We love being able to do a load overnight -- my kids often wear the same things day after day because it's so pleasant to put on warm clothes in the morning after an overnight load.

The one issue, a flaw in the machine, is the ventless system isn't perfect. When under warrantee you do need to have someone come and clean it every year or so (the dryer stops working well), afterward, use the extended warrantee. These types of machines also don't last forever apparently because they are in use so much. We got 7 years out of the last one.

Good luck!
posted by mamabear at 12:05 PM on June 25, 2012

I'm in Germany and bought a washer/condense dryer from Siemens (or Bosch - they're identical inside because one company belongs to the other) fifteen years ago. It still works perfectly well and cost only about half as much as a similar machine from Miele would have cost.

Caveat: Our machine can wash a whole load, but try only a half load, so you either have to split a washing load into two drying loads or do a wash-dry-cycle with what you would consider to be a half-load. Also, we don't dry everything, we hang most clothes to dry and only use the dryer for towels or when the weather is too humid.

I wasn't able to find out if they sell these in the US, sorry.
posted by amf at 1:42 PM on June 25, 2012