AIBU - washing machine in bathroom -tedious post

[Rosevi]

We have a massive bathroom which I think we could put our washing machine in. Husband is mortified at the suggestion. When I lived in London it was a common sight in studio flats and I think it makes sense. I have no objections to it being in the kitchen but for me it would make more sense to have dirty clothes in the bathroom than near a food preparation area. Does anyone out there have a washing machine in their bathroom?
AIBU to think that this is no big deal?

I have never heard of anyone getting electricuted by their washing machine due to it being in the bathroom in Norway ever.

Surely that would only be an issue if you get straight out of the shower and stuck your finger in the socket? Which should be easily avoidable.

Correction to my post. I think you might have to hard wire the washing machine into a fused connector rather than using a socket and plug... but an electrician will be able to confirm and that's no harder to fit than a new socket.

I like Tinkly's idea of having machine IN the bathroom but the plug OUTSIDE

We have our washing machine in the bathroom and I hate it. Would much prefer it in the kitchen but our kitchen is tiny so in the bathroom it stays.

My push on/off light switch is 20cm from my mixer tap. I just measured it.
One socket is 30cm away, although inside the bathroom cabinet, and the other is 60cm away and is covered by a flap.
I'm pretty sure it's all legal; the house was built in 1986 and has changed hands, including at least two full structural surveys, several times since.

A structural survey won't check that electrics meet current regs. Only an electrician can do that. So although yours might have been legal when it was installed, baroness, an electrician wouldn't be allowed to install it like that now.

yanbu
but we looked into it when we redid our bathroom.
it would be legal if hard wired with switch outside. we couldn't find the room though.

I’m trying to work out If we can do the same thing in our bathroom. It would make a huge difference in our kitchen and fill a big dead space in the bathroom.

So very normal in Europe. And when you think about it, makes much more sense. Ours is probably only around 10cm from the bath, but the plug is wired inside a cupboard. It's also a top loader which is also more common here and so much more space efficient. I love being able to strip off dirty DC and throw their clothes straight in!

My neighbour has hers in her bathroom and I’m totally jealous of how it’s fitted in. She has it hidden within a cupboard with counter space over it. I’d totally do it like that if I could change the bathroom. Ours are dorma bungalow’s too.

Ah it's my dream to have my washer/dryer in the bathroom. Seem to spend my life hauling clothes up & down the stairs

It makes much more sense to me to have it in the bathroom.

I don’t think an electrician would fit a mains socket in a bathroom these days but some kind of hard wiring might be possible.

We had a washing machine installed in the bathroom in one of our old houses. It was installed by an electrician and think it had some sort of special circuit breaker hard wired in.

It complied with all the relevant legislation anyway.

I'd love this. Makes no sense to have the washing machine downstairs! I spend half my life lugging washing up and down stairs

I haven't read the full thread so apologies if it has been mentioned.

You need to check local building regs, if you are not compliant you will invalidate your home insurance.

In our old house, we had a down stairs toilet (upstairs bathroom) and the washing machine was in there.

In our new house, we don't have a down stairs toilet, so we have it in our shed (husband put electrics in) and I love it in there as I never hear it spinning etc, I would never, if at all possible have a washing machine in a kitchen

I live in the Netherlands and the overwhelming majority (me included) has the washing machine in the bathroom. I have mine built under in a cupboard next to the sink, I have a pull cord to turn the lectricity on and off. Whenever people come over from Blighty they’re always confused.

We have an open kitchen and thats the last place I’d want that thing rattling away while I’m getting my Netflix on. It really comes down to what your norm is, when I first moved here from London I was not keen because I wasn’t used to it but now it makes perfect sense.

Regs here (UK) are ridiculous. I hate pull on lights, but proper light switches have to go outside the bathroom. It’s ridiculous - countries all over the world cope with light switches inside the bathroom...and washing machines.

I had choice. Bathroom or kitchen.

I chose bathroom. Zero regrets. Works perfectly. Will never go back to kitchen.

We were planning to to this but our electrician friend talked us out of it. He says it is different in the UK because are electric is of a higher voltage or something

We had ours in our bathroom in our previous house and it was great - I found it very handy. However, the only thing that we found to be a problem was that when we had a leak, the water damaged the ceiling below, so if you do do it I think you can buy some sort of special tray to put the washing machine on to catch minor leaks

MissDuke if that's what your electrician friend actually said then I would seriously question using him! Voltage across europe, UK and indeed most of the world except US is 220-240V.

Pretty common in some countries (eg Germany)

I’d love an upstairs washing machine, clothes are taken off upstairs and kept upstairs so it makes logical sense BUT you have to be careful about where they’re placed on suspensed floors.