Combined washer dryer or separates ?

[littleoldme]

We need to replace both our washing machine and our drier. Dh is quite keen on getting a combined washer-dryer . Just wondered if anyone culd share their experience of them and had any suggestions .

We have a combined washer-drier but don't use the drier very often. I think if you tumble a lot, seperates would be better as you'd have to wash and then dry one lot before you could wash the next. Also, the amount you can wash in a combined machine is a couple of kg more than you can dry, so you wouldn't be able to fill it up and set it to wash then dry, without it coming out ridiculously creased.

Separate, my mum had a combined and it was crap.

We have a combined one too (Zanussi). The tumble-dry works almost as well as a stand-alone, but it seems to take a little longer, probably because the drum is smaller.

It is perfect for us as we don't tumble very much (sheets and towels only, mainly in the winter). If you tumble lots of stuff it won't work for you, as Knitter says - i.e. it might take 6 hours to wash three loads before you can even start with the tumble-drying; there wouldn't be enough hours in the day!

Another vote for separates, we had a combined and it was a nightmare to keep up, with separates you can still wash a load whilst another dries.

Get separates - our combined effort is always breaking and we live in an estate where the kitchens are all small and everyone has combined and the engineer who comes to sort ours when it breaks (roughly every 3 months) says he spends most of his working life on our estate because everybody has the same type of machine with a young family (therefore lots of washing and drying) and they all break. All of the time. If I had the space I would definitely buy separates.

He says 90% of his owrking life is spent repairing these machines - reckons they're not 'man enough' for the job!!

Thanks for the advice. Keep it coming !

id say separates every time. you can be washing one load and drying another at the same time. also less to go wrong.

Separates, every time if you have the space. The time constraints of using the same machine to wash and dry are awful. And if one half of the machine breaks, there's a good chance you can't use the other half.

Cheers folks. just showed this to DH and you have managed to convince him that separates are the best decision after all. (ie I was right again !)

Creda tumble drier every time and I have a Miele washer which is great as you can open the door during the wash to add those forgotten items as it is so economical with the water. Both do an excellent job. My Creda is the second one I have had and the 1st lasted 20 years and this one is 8 years old and I ahve never had a problem with it. Washer is about 4 years old, but was VERY,VERY expensive, but worth the money in my opinion.

Separates. The holiday cottage we use sometimes has a combined and it's a pain in the arse, takes all day to do a wash & dry (it always rains in Devon, I've discovered)

Separates. We have an all-in-one and it's okay but not wonderful. You can only effectively dry half a load of washing at a time in ours. If you need to do lots of washing on wet days it's a pain because you can't wash and dry at the same time.

Washer dryers break down more often than separates too, according to our appliance repair people (who've often been out to fix ours).

Glad you won the argument debate! :)