Product Review Washer Dryer Combo

By admin, April 7, 2009 7:24 am

Can you recommend a ventless washer/dryer?

I live in a 2nd floor condo, and so can’t have a separate washer and dryer (condo rules), and cannot have a dryer that requires a vent. I’ve looked online for reviews of existing ventless washer/dryer combo machines, and other than terrible reviews of the equator brand, I haven’t seen enough opinions to decide which one to buy.

If you’ve owned or used one a ventless washer/dryer, what was your experience? What brand do/did you have? Was it worth the purchase price?

http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/Hirundo_Washer_Dryer_Combo___Ventless__1__2_Cu__Ft_/itemID.11401/itemType.Product/iProductID.11401/qx/shopping/product/WDC1026.htm?mtcpromotion=NextTag%3ELaundry%3ECombo%20Washer%20Dryers%3EWDC1026

http://products.howstuffworks.com/washer-dryer-combo-reviews.htm

I have not personally owned and used one of these units. However, I work in appliance sales and have heard some customer feedback. Most commonly I am refering to an LG mode WM3677HW. You can check it out at

http://us.lge.com/index.jhtml

There are two major complaints that are made about these units. THe first issue is vibration. Most front loader style washers are designed to go on the first floor of homes. Upper level floors, being generally weaker, sometime allow the washer to vibrate even if perfectly level. This stems from both the high weight of these units and their high spin speed. This is somewhat ironic considering these units are designed for residences that do not have traditional laundry hookups (generally multi level apartments). Secondly, these units are designed to use 110 volts exclusively. Not using the 220 volts common to most dryers, they cannot produce a high heat dry. This results in long dry times typically of 150 min. or more! All that said, these units do provide you with the ability to do laundry at home. That alone may out weight the inperfections in the design of these units. If you do have 220V hookups you may want to consiter a initized spacemaker washers & dryers (more commonly refered to as a laundy center). It is a stacked washer and dryer housed in one appliance. While they generally has a lower capacity that the LG they have dry times between 55 and 75 min. and generally cost less. GE and Frigidaire both make variants of this design. Check them out at:

http://www.frigidaire.com/products/laundry/laundry_center/electric/productlist.asp

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=RESULTSPAGE&CATEGORY=CA0020&SITEID=GEA

Both these products do require a vent. I am not sure about codes in your are or condo rules there are stand alone lint catchers that are basically a bucket of water and a filter that takes accepts the exaust instead of an external vent. They are available at Lowes and Home Depot.

The LG certainly seems to be the most elegant solution to your problem. I just wanted to arm you with as much information as possible before you make a decision.

LG Washer/Dryer Combo