Washer/dryer buying for dummies
October 5, 2024 9:00 AM   Subscribe

I need to buy a washer and dryer for my home. I am the world’s laziest laundry-doer and have little experience buying household appliances, but am also an optimizer who gets sucked into online rabbit holes when trying to pick major purchases. What’s the most painless way to get this done?

My house came with no washer and dryer. I’ve been sending my laundry out with a service since I moved in, but always intended to get a washer/dryer at some point. Now that I have a housemate, I’d like to do it as a kindness to both of us. I have existing side by side hookups for both appliances.

Here’s where I’m getting stuck between my frugal/optimizer tendencies and my “just get it done” tendencies.

-I have lived in a wide variety of houses with a wide variety of appliances. Apparently I am the world’s laziest laundry person, because I developed zero preferences during any of that time. Top loading, front loading, agitator, no agitator, it’s all fine by me.
-The Wircecutter recommends various LG models, but I also see a strong undercurrent of “don’t get an LG” all across the internet, including some questions here. I am knee jerk skeptical of things with lots of computer parts and “smart” capabilities that seem designed for planned obsolescence, and kind of skeptical of The Wirecutter too, just using it as a jumping off point.
-When I’ve asked my local friends for recommendations, they’ve suggested going to local scratch and dent places for deals. I’m an experienced thrift shopper and it feels like this could be a way to get something vintage without breakable bells and whistles, but am I setting myself up for failure here as an inexperienced buyer? (Also as a woman, if that makes a difference—is this a situation where male sales people could try to take advantage of my inexperience?)
-If buying new, is there any advantage to going to a local store over just ordering online from Lowe’s and being done with it? Is there an agreed-upon best “no bells and whistles just does your damn laundry” brand, whether buying new or used?

My budget for this whole endeavor is about 1600-1800 dollars. I could be convinced to go as high as 2000 for something really rock-solid, but probably not much higher.
posted by ActionPopulated to Home & Garden (30 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Honestly the cheapest in-stock washing machine at home depot is probably a top-load agitator machine like your folks had and it's fine. I'm convinced all the other features -- high efficiency, front load, the little songs they sing when finished, the surfeit of buttons and settings -- add zilch to the desired experience, which is clean clothes. If money's no object, Design Mom made a pretty good case for the Askos a few years back.
posted by shadygrove at 9:10 AM on October 5, 2024 [5 favorites]


I bought the Wirecutter LG recommendation a few years ago and it's been great. I also overthink things like this and it's nice to sometimes just let go.
posted by Nelson at 9:30 AM on October 5, 2024 [1 favorite]


+1 to the LG Wirecutter pick. I bought them ~5-6 years ago and they have worked without any problems other than you have to clean the gasket on the washer once in a while to stop it from getting smelly.
posted by Mid at 9:45 AM on October 5, 2024


Agitators are pretty much dead these days. Brands aren’t the useful metrics they used to be, either — I have a truly awful Maytag, something that wouldn’t have been possible in days of yore. Where I live, Lowe’s delivery and installation is spectacular, but that may vary. Measure before buying, including making sure the lid can fully open in your space. If you get a ‘smart’ anything, you don't have to use that feature.
posted by sageleaf at 10:20 AM on October 5, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Go to your local appliance store and buy from them. My experience has been everything is included and they will have professionals deliver and install your machines, often the next day. I got GE models, in white with dials, at prices that matched Home Depot with better service. I didn't choose the most basic model, maybe the next step up, and am pleased with my choices. And I didn't have to agonize over the decision.
posted by XtineHutch at 10:21 AM on October 5, 2024 [7 favorites]


Get a top loading no agitator model - the front loaders all smell moldy in a hurry and are more prone to breaking. Don't bother with a steam dryer or internet enabled nonsense. I've been told that LG stuff has tanked in terms of quality in the last 6 months - I have had multiple LG appliances with no trouble but this is a new unwelcome thing apparently. If your local appliance place has a scratch and dent sale room check that out for sure - who cares if a washing machine has a ding?
posted by leslies at 10:28 AM on October 5, 2024


We had a top-loader agitator model that worked fine for a long time, but when it broke we discovered that it was basically impossible to find the part we needed, despite a great appliance tech giving it a real effort.

We upgraded to, yes, the Wirecutter's LG model and it's been working great for several years now. We still have our ancient dryer, but when it dies, we'll upgrade it as well.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:34 AM on October 5, 2024


We just replaced an aging LG front loading washer/dryer combo (a washer with a drying cycle in the same tub; I do not recommend this style at all) with separate units, but the new appliances are also LG and they are GREAT. Our laundry room is interior and unvented, so we needed a ventless dryer, but I also wanted to upgrade to a heat pump dryer because I believed in the increased efficiency (and it made us eligible for a local rebate). And the old combo washer had been great at washing things even though it was terrible at drying them, so I had no problem buying another LG.

Compared to the Wirecutter picks our appliances (washer / dryer) are upgrades, but I’d make the same decisions again. I’m a bigger fan of the detergent and fabric softener reservoirs with automatic dispensers than I thought I’d be, so that alone was worth the extra $50 over the comparable model without the reservoirs.

I generally agree with the mindset that appliances shouldn’t be on the internet, but the push notifications when the cycle finishes are great. And since I have done networking stuff for years, I put the devices on a segment of our network that I can more easily limit and monitor, and I haven’t found the traffic to be anything like what we get from our TV or Chromecast (which is APPALLING).

FWIW: we also bought pedestals because I’m tall and didn’t want to stoop that much when doing laundry (and I do most of our laundry). They offered a crazy discount on the matching pedestal washer that made it basically the same price as the basic storage pedestal, so we bought one and paired it with one storage pedestal. It seemed ridiculous but we use the pedestal washer all the time. Your height, needs, budget, and laundry room capacity may vary.

PS: we leave the washer door open when we’re not using it, and neither the old machine nor the new one have ever smelled moldy. The new one, in fact, has a notch on the latch that props it slightly open to help with this.
posted by fedward at 11:01 AM on October 5, 2024 [2 favorites]


This is strictly word-of-mouth but I see a lot of chatter that if you can get it in your budget (no idea) the brand to get is Speed Queen, who used to only make commercial washers.

I have lived in 14 different short-term-rentals in the past 2 years and THE primary take-away advice I have is: get the format that fits your body with regard to the space you have for the equipment. My husband and I are tall, wide-shouldered, and middle-aged. We're okay with a front-loader washer if it's up on a pedestal and there is space to get the door all the way open, but in a tight space inevitably 2-4 items of clothing will stick to the back of the drum after spinning and I'm forced to use my grabber-reacher or get on my knees and get in there like I'm midwifing a cow, with my face pressed against the machine controls. Strongly dislike.

I may go "oof" reaching down into a top-loader, but I am much less likely to need recovery time.

I also have ADHD and I will start a load of laundry and push GO and immediately find 9 other pieces of dirty laundry that need to go in, and just being able to put those items in without a similar effort to reprogramming the Mars rover is probably the second most important feature.

Also check that the washer and dryer you're purchasing do the actual thing you want them to do. I've encountered several front-loaders that do not have a single-select setting that matches exactly how I want my clothing washed, so again it's Mars rover time for 90% of the loads I wash.

If you're getting front-loaders, make sure the doors can be flipped around if they're not in optimal opening position.

I've also met a fair number of front-loader goo dispensers that sometimes don't really work. But then again I've also noticed that every detergent product and cleaning booster I use still wants me to put it IN the drum and not in the dispenser.

Something I had no real experience with before but have found surprising in the past 2 years: actual stacked-unit washer-dryers might be quality sleepers, maybe because most of them are built for commercial purchasing - apartment complexes and maybe hotels. They're not show-offs, they're not there to broadcast your wealth on instagram, they're just there to fit in a closet and wash your damn clothes. I don't know if they're difficult from a maintenance perspective, like what happens if the dryer dies? Do you have to get a surgeon in there to separate them? Also I don't know that they come in super-load size but we use scandinavian-style separate comforters, so we do not have anything the size of a king comforter that needs to be washed and I don't wash super-loads of clothing because it's too hard on the clothes. The stacks have been very good at washing clothes, better than I expected, and the config of top-loader on bottom and dryer up top is the most efficient use of my back and arms.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:04 AM on October 5, 2024 [1 favorite]


If you have a local independent appliance place/small chain, do check them out. Do they offer long warranties? Are those affordable? The one I like always has a “pretty good not fancy” pick and those have done us very well for reliability.

That said, for various geometry reasons we have a set of Speed Queen which were not the cheapest though they are very low on features. The only thing I was unhappy about was the energy use for the drier, so we work harder to line dry what we can. Probably heat pump driers have improved since we looked which might have changed our decision.
posted by clew at 11:31 AM on October 5, 2024


Best answer: The Yale Appliance Blog can be helpful, because they have a repair operation and thus have reliability stats.

...personally, I recommend going for a purely electromechanical unit whenever possible -- everything is done with simple relays, timers, and switches, so there's no motherboard to fail in an unrepairable way. A guy from 1965 could repair my (3yr old) washer & dryer with relatively little difficulty.
posted by aramaic at 11:49 AM on October 5, 2024 [4 favorites]


If you want to be able to wash and dry a comforter/duvet insert at home, the size of your bedding can help decide the size of your laundry machines. We’ve got front loading ones specifically because at the time they were the ones that would wash a queen size comforter thoroughly and actually get it dry, with only a little extra fuss. King sized bedding would not fit though and the models we have are pretty big so be sure to investigate.
posted by Mizu at 11:57 AM on October 5, 2024


Just as one data point: We replaced our aging appliances 2.5 years ago and bought: LG WT7400C (5.5 cubic feet) because we wanted to run a few large loads per week instead of several medium loads, which meant that we also bought a Samsung 7.4 cubic foot Gas Dryer DVG50R5200W so it could dry whatever size load the washer washed.

As suggested above we bought both from our local Lowes and got their Service Agreement, as well as delivery from them.

Samsung does not have a great reputation for appliances, but we rationalized that all it has to do is tumble some clothes and make hot air. Both appliances are still working fine.

I also agree that many of the buttons and special features are not useful (or at least we don't use them).
posted by forthright at 12:43 PM on October 5, 2024


If you don't have many people in your household, the front-loading washer/condenser dryers are great. While our 2017 LG unit has just required a couple of repairs, it's been solid otherwise. It's so quiet and uses about ¼ the energy and even less than that water that our old Maytags did. All runs from one standard 120 V outlet

Things about front-loader condensers, which I've used for about 30 years:
  • See that fill line? Obey it! Otherwise, slightly damp laundry is yours
  • Clean the filter every month or so
  • Tub clean cycles are your friend
  • They wouldn't smell like a moist raccoon if you'd only use the half-latch thing on the door like you're supposed to.
I mean: put clothes and detergent into one thing, press button, time passes, completely clean and dry laundry ensues. No mucking about with transferring heavy wet stuff from one device to the other. No damp loads to forget and turn mildewy.
posted by scruss at 1:43 PM on October 5, 2024 [2 favorites]


That sounds very nice, scruss. They need a drain, right?

Re. giant comforters: maybe you don't wash them more than once or twice a year; there's a worse thing than an annual trip to the laundromat next to the classic diner.
posted by clew at 2:07 PM on October 5, 2024


Scruss and I may have the same machine. If you use the dryer as opposed to hanging most if your laundry AND plan on having many loads of laundry, I don't recommend one. I'm not sure I've *ever* done two loads back to back. If you wanted to, and wanted them dried, you'd be looking at ~6 hours. The condensing dry function is much slower than a regular dryer. I found it fine for two though, and would get another in a heartbeat. My favourite thing about it is it's hidden behind cabinet doors in my kitchen.
posted by kate4914 at 2:16 PM on October 5, 2024


They need a drain, right?

They use the same drain hose as the washer
posted by scruss at 7:16 PM on October 5, 2024 [1 favorite]


I HATE front loaders. I doubly hate front loaders with dryer combos. Very inconvenient and slow.

I’ve never had a front loader that didn’t smell like moldy ass. I am allergic to mold, mildly but still, and it smells nasty. If you have the room for a top loader which it sounds like you do that’s what I’d go with.

Some people don’t have this issue with front loaders and that’s great but as someone who prefers super low maintenance appliances, I really can’t be bothered to deal with an appliance that requires you to coddle it or else it starts smelling nasty.
posted by knobknosher at 8:12 PM on October 5, 2024


Also, with a roommate the combo washer dryer is a particularly bad idea because, as mentioned above, it takes forever to do a single load. it causes unnecessary friction. For example, imagine your roommate planning to do a load before they go out for the evening and realizing they have to wait for 4 more hours for yours to be done. Not a huge deal but when I had roommates it was basically always a point of minor annoyance for us.
posted by knobknosher at 8:15 PM on October 5, 2024 [2 favorites]


To start with, you should determine what kind of machine your living space will support.

Besides the obvious issue of size and how much physical space the machines will take up, you also need to know whether the space where you plan to put them has utility connections to support them. A typical setup in an American household may require:
  • hot and cold water feeds for the washing machine
  • an electrical power connection for the washing machine (which may work on a 120v circuit)
  • a drain pipe for the washing machine to get rid of water after use
  • an electrical power supply for the dryer (usually requires a 240v circuit if it is an electric dryer)
  • possibly a natural gas line if you choose a gas dryer
  • possibly a water feed for the dryer (usually it is possible to use a splitter cable and piggyback off the washer supply line) if you choose a model with steam features
  • usually an air vent to vent high-moisture air from the dryer into a space outside the conditioned living space of the house (unless you choose a "ventless" model, which will then need a connection to the washer drain to purge water extracted by its condenser)
Do you have all of these (or can you add them) in the space you want to use? Then great, you can choose your laundry equipment freely. If you don't then you may be more constrained - for example if the space you want to use is in a central part of the house or other location where you can't easily vent the dryer, then you would have to select a model that does not require venting. If you don't have a 240v circuit to the laundry room or a natural gas connection then you might have to similarly restrict your choice to something that can run with the connections you have..

Once you start looking into individual models of machine, the type of machine you want will affect what manufacturers you should look at. I have front-loading machines from Whirlpool, they're about 6-7 years old, and I have been quite pleased with them.

Finally.. if it were me I would avoid, or at least never connect, any washing machine that wants to be connected to your home internet or controlled by an app because seriously, why?
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:13 PM on October 5, 2024


Also.. regarding the combo units (not in the sense of an up/down stackable unit, but the newer style machines where washing and drying occur within the same drum.. earlier generations of these machines did take forever to do a single load and you should listen to people who are warning you about that because it seriously affects the laundry workflow. If you are considering a combo machine at least be sure you read up on how much time a whole cycle takes.

However, there are a new generation of combo machines that are much faster. I've bought one to put in my downstairs rental but it hasn't been used yet so I can't say how well it works. I will mention that the ones that use heat pump technology for drying may qualify you for a rebate or a tax credit. They're kind of expensive to start with but the credit brings the cost down.

However unless you are very constrained on space, don't have a 240v circuit available, or need to install in an area that will be difficult to vent I think you're probably better off with traditional separate machines, especially if more than one user will be using them.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:21 PM on October 5, 2024


Best answer: If you have room -- related to the advice about machines that fit your body type -- I bought an attractive little velvet stool on caster wheels with a sturdy chrome base for about $50 on Amazon two years ago solely for sitting on when I transfer laundry from the washer to the dryer or take clean laundry out of the dryer, because I have a variety of dysautonomia that makes me get really dizzy when I bend over a lot, especially if I'm hot (like, with hot laundry). This was a fantastic purchase and is great even if you don't get dizzy. It makes things easy to reach. Totally recommended laundry accessory that makes the body type thing moot.
posted by verbminx at 4:20 AM on October 6, 2024 [1 favorite]


I agree to buy, or at least try shopping at, an appliance store. They probably give better advice and service, especially with warranty issues. They are the ones to ask about power, water supply and draains.

We recently bought a GE top loader. The salesman said EVERYONE has odor and mold issues with front loaders. The extra features on premium models are insane, and they tend to be bigger.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:20 AM on October 6, 2024


Anti recommend for Midea washer/dryers. Very finicky to use--for example sometimes the washer just doesn't engage the lid safety lock properly, even though the lid is down, so it throws an error and has to be coaxed into trying again. Way more emotional labor than I personally want to expend on an appliance.

Also, be aware that a lot of newer top-loaders don't let you set load size/fill level but instead use a sensor to determine the "right" amount of water for the load. Which, assuming the sensor works and is programmed properly and you're only washing normal loads, is fine probably, but if you ever want to do things like soak woolens or dye fabric it's a real hassle.
posted by radiogreentea at 6:57 AM on October 6, 2024


Just here to advocate for one "bells and whistles feature" that I've used a lot: delayed start. I use that a lot, to time a wash load so it is just finished when I get home from work, and doesn't sit around damp. Also, the "little song" is a joy and a thousand times better than beeping or buzzing.

Something else to consider (may have been mentioned above): surge protector. These appliances are all basically computers now.
posted by bluesky78987 at 7:23 AM on October 6, 2024 [1 favorite]


The salesman said EVERYONE has odor and mold issues with front loaders.

I am extremely sensitive to smells and our front loader has never, ever had an odor or mold problem. We just leave the door ajar after a load, and err on the side of too little laundry detergent rather than too much (buildup from washing products in unreachable areas is something mold loves to grow on). We like our front loader because it uses less energy and water than a top-loader.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:48 PM on October 6, 2024 [1 favorite]


We have a front loader in the basement, and we follow the directions of leaving the door open. We don't have any mold or odor problems.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 8:37 PM on October 6, 2024


Some climates have a lot more trouble with mold than others in houses or out, and I bet building norms matter too. That seems like a local specialist/local paper/ neighbors kind of knowledge.
posted by clew at 8:31 AM on October 7, 2024


The salesman said EVERYONE has odor and mold issues with front loaders.

We went to a local appliance specialist when we hadn't yet made our minds up, and the salesman said nothing of the sort. The only bad thing the guy said about any brand or style was to back me up when he asked me what we wanted and I said "all I'm sure about at this point is 'not Samsung.'" He said their customers seemed to be happy with a particular Electrolux front loader and its matching dryer, but they were also the largest things in their showroom and I didn't think we'd have room for them in our laundry room.

(FWIW, and this isn't superstition at all: stacked front loading units get VERY tall these days, at least in the US where capacities are large by default. The Electrolux units the salesman recommended wouldn't have fit with adequate ceiling clearance in our laundry room, and the doors to all the dryers in every stack in the showroom (even the shorter ones) were just at the limit of my wife's reach. If you're short and you get stacked front loaders, you may want a step stool. Sadly we couldn't compare the stacked height of the smaller Miele washer and dryer they had, because not only did they not have them displayed in a stack, they had them displayed side by side on a raised platform unlike anything else in the showroom.)

Anyway I feel like the often stated problems with front loaders are a little bit of superstition about things that are new and different, a little bit of received wisdom that people repeat without really questioning it, and a lot of how people are the weakest link in this process, so they don't wipe down the seals and/or let them air dry before latching the door closed, and then they complain about mold.

Some climates have a lot more trouble with mold than others in houses or out, and I bet building norms matter too.

Our laundry room is in an interior room in the basement of a 100 year old rowhouse in Washington, DC. DC isn't as muggy as, say, Charleston or New Orleans or Houston, but it's not not muggy. I might imagine that some place like England where houses tend to be under insulated, drafty, chilly, and damp might contribute more to a mold problem, and if I lived in England I guess I'd be looking for solutions to that problem. I'll say again, though, that we haven't had mold odor or mildew spots on the door seals of our front loaders in 11 years of living in this house.

But to come clean about my own superstitions about appliances: (1) I distrust "wash towers" that combine a stacked washer and dryer in one physical unit because you'd have to replace the whole thing when one half of them fails and can't be repaired (either practically due to unavailable parts, or cost-effectively because of parts and labor costs; one of each of those failure modes happened to a series of machines in an old apartment); (2) relatedly I kind of distrust stacking separate units, because if you have to repair the washer on the bottom you probably have to unstack the dryer first, adding to complexity and labor cost; (3) I'm not a super duper fan of connecting appliances to the internet, but I did it anyway with ours and I actually don't regret it. Our new dryer has a "pet care" mode that works with a second lint filter you use instead of the regular one, but in order to enable that mode you have to download an update. I don't care as much about the ability to change the tunes the appliances play when cycles are done, but I did take advantage of it just to differentiate between the main washer and the pedestal washer.

Oh, also I guess 'not Samsung' is superstition #4, but it's also maybe not.
posted by fedward at 9:31 AM on October 7, 2024


Response by poster: Thanks for all the help everyone! I ended up going to the best reviewed local appliance store I could find, and it was great. Knowledgeable sales guys, fewer models than the big boxes so less analysis paralysis for me. I initially went with a set of mid-range LGs, but even though I thought I measured correctly they ended up not being able to fit through the basement door—apparently this is quite common with older houses in my area. They let me put the money I’d already spent towards new machines that can break down to fit through smaller doors, and now I have Speed Queens coming in a few days.
posted by ActionPopulated at 4:30 PM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]


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