Talk to me about your washer Dryer Combo

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Are they any good? I'm moving to a house with a small kitchen with no room for a dryer. It has plumbing for a washing machine, so I assume I could put a washer dryer combo in there. Do let me know if you think there's any reason why I wouldn't be able to.

Can you put a wash on and then take some stuff out and then put it on again for the tumble dryer?

How does it compare to a having them separate?

Thanks

I’ve always thought washer dryers were a bit rubbish. But currently I don’t have space for separate and no outside space to dry clothes so I got a washer/dryer. It’s actually really good! It’s a ‘ neue’ one which is basically Electrolux. Thought it works be rubbish as it was the cheapest one but actually it’s really surprised me.

I can't vouch for it yet, but after doing a lot of research, I've just ordered this one. It's cheaper that separate ones, and is £60 cheaper on A0. Good reviews on 'Which' and AO:

www.which.co.uk/reviews/washer-dryers/aeg-l7we74634bl

I’ve had Neff and Bosch ones (which are basically the same brand). They work ok - definitely not as good as a big tumble dryer, the drum just isn’t big enough, but fine for drying undies and pyjamas. I do use my heated airer (winter) and washing line (summer) more than the tumble dryer.

And yep you can either have it run from a washing cycle straight into a drying cycle, or have it stop after washing so you can take out delicates/things you don’t want creased up, and then set it off again to dry later. Or just dry by itself, if something has line dried and isn’t fully dry, you can pop it in for 20 mins to finish off.

My new hoover one is excellent, the key is not to overload it. Wash is 9 kg but dryer is 4kg so do need to take unnecessary things out, take out anything that does better line dried and leave in all school uniforms, socks and pants go on dryer cycle.

Excellent thanks everyone

I've never had one but have heard the disadvantage is that if one function breaks down (washer or dryer) then the whole machine is out. Is this correct, do people with washer/dryers think?

We have recently bought one for rental property and taken a 5 yr guarantee on it given its likelihood of braking down.

Here goes

We’ve got a Zanussi one, it’s been in our kitchen for 11 years, we’ve lived her 10 and it’s just broken. Find out tomorrow whether it’s terminal or not! But overall I love being able to dry stuff, even if you can’t dry as much as you wash, we don't have room for a separate dryer.

I had a large-ish capacity Bosch one in my old house, and I still miss it. As someone that works long days I really liked being able to set the machine on a timer overnight for both the washer and dryer facility, and then in the morning I could just put away the dry laundry- it was a godsend for towels and bedding in the winter! Yes, in answer to your question, you can use the two functions independently, so you could just dry a load of laundry if you wanted. It probably wasn't quite as efficient as the separate washer and dryer I have now, and the combined wash and dry function took quite a long time, but I thought it was actually pretty good- to the extent that when I eventually replace my washing machine I'll probably replace with with a washer dryer.

@Blusky2 oh yes! I could do all the towels one night and bedding one night on the wash and dryer setting. I hadn't thought of that.

I have a Zannussi. I got that and a dehumidifier.

It is ok on the drying, I don't use it much for that.

Realistically what choice do you have if you don't have the space ? Either take a chance on the washer dryer or just go for a normal washer and then accept that washing will be strewn over the house to dry in winter.

If you have a good dehumidifier and a lot of space in the house and not much washing then you should be ok so long as you don't get through 3 pairs of jeans and 4 woolly jumpers a day. But I am glad I got the dryer just for contingency in case I every need something quickly. The price won;t be much more than the washing machine + tumble dryer anyway.

One more thing, spin speed on washing machine helps quite a bit. I would recommend 1600 rpm. This pulls a lot of extra water out of the clothes over say a 1000 rpm machine. A lot of my stuff out of the 1600 rpm spin comes out almost dry. Most of the machines available today have I think have high speeds but be careful to check. I am not sure that there are many that go over 1600 rpm, but this generally isn't worth it anyway unless you go to spin dryer type speeds (a big jump up in rpm).