I have been reading all the laundry threads with interest. I would love to do my luandry by hand, but have arthritis. I am looking at SMALL combination washer/dryers. I don't do more than one/two loads a week, and want something compact. Does anybody know anything about the "Automatic Mini Washer-Dryer" offered at http://www.laundry-alternative.com? It's pricey, but less than separate washer and dryer. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

-- Sue (toby1991@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002

Answers

I had thought of getting one myself, but the major drawback is if you're drying the clothes in it, you can't wash the next load until it is done. This may not be an issue if you only do one load say in the morning and one load in the evening.

Maybe better off to get a frontloader washer (which spins the clothes drier than toploaders do) and just hang out clothes. Only drawback to frontloaders is that because load tumbles through the water and isn't covered completely, you can't soak or bleach clothes properly (as you can in a toploader) unless you use a bucket or deep sink. Although some of the new toploaders are now supposed to be at least more water efficient, so they may be more competitive than they used to be.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 24, 2002.

I had those when I lived in England; they were a nigthmare. Mind you, I'm only familiar with European models, so my opinion is based on this. The major drawback is it took a long time to dry the clothes, and I often had to run the dryer twice to accomplish this. Therefore, the money I spent on electricity to run the dryer twice negated the money saved on water due to small capacity.

-- amy (acook@in4web.com), January 24, 2002.

My sister has one of those fancy front loaders, made in Italy I think. Cost in the $3000 range, somewhere. They apparently are put into fancy motorhomes (like hers) and big yachts. At first it was wonderful, but now she's having trouble getting parts for the unit. From what I understand the drying unit part of it, went kaput.

I still use my Mom's old Maytag with the wringer and sunshine works the best for drying. Winter is a problem, but clothesline inside the cabin works too.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

I have a frontloader, it's a Maytag. It's a water efficient model. I also had a frontloader when I lived in Europe, it was a German model. They are nothing alike. The one I had in Germany would fill up inside, and could literally boil water. Talk about clean clothes! My maytag works okay though, but they can't touch German engineering.

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), January 24, 2002.

The European ones all heat their own water, which is nice if you keep your hot water tank at 120 because of children in the house, or if the washer is a long way away from the water heater.... We usually wash in cold, so for us that wasn't such a big deal and couldn't see paying so much extra for one. We have a frigidaire.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 24, 2002.

it seems that the dryers of some of these stack units have a problem with getting lint and stuff inside the unit. i had a friend who bought one from a hair salon. and he was complaining that it took three hours to dry clothes. we took the front off the dryer and it was full of lint and hair. we cleaned it all out and it worked great. it was a wonder it did not burn down the house.

-- randy wybrant (rwybrant@coin.org), January 24, 2002.

Sue, I have also been looking for the same thing. Here in Wisconsin the big home centers like Menards have them. They are a LOT cheaper than those I've found on the net but I don't know a lot about them.

-- David Constantin in Wisconsin (cajundavid@hotmail.com), January 25, 2002.

I have a washer/dryer combo. Would I buy one again, probably not. It takes to long to dry the clothes. Usually everything comes out damp at best after 2 hours of drying. It is really inconvient to use the dryer and still have to hang everything up afterwards to dry. The washer does get the clothes cleaner than the top loading maytag I had some years ago though.

-- Terry Theckston (tterrym@hotmail.com), January 25, 2002.

A lot of the frontloaders are stackable, and unless you are truly space challenged I would advise against it.

If you ever have to have a service call done, either you will have to take the dryer down or the repair company will have to send out an extra person. That extra person will cost you money. The salespeople do not tell you that, they just tell you how great it is to be able to stack the units. I found out by chatting with the repair person when our water pump went out (luckily under warranty) and I mentioned that I wished they were stacked because while the dryer door is opposite-side reversible, the washer door is not (On a toploader, which side the washer is on does not matter).

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 25, 2002.