Unless you have no other choice, an all-in-one, single-drum, washer-dryer combo is almost never the best way to do your laundry. We spent 10 hours looking into 13 models, and couldn’t find a model that works anywhere near as quickly as a separate washer and dryer. However, if a combo unit truly is your only option for washing and drying clothes in your small home, the LG WM3488HW is your safest bet. Show
Our pick Avoid all-in-one washer-dryers if you can. Otherwise, this compact, ventless, 120-volt model is the safety bet for reliability—or at least repairability. Buying OptionsIt’s the only compact, ventless, 120-volt model made by a brand with a reputation for keeping replacement parts available for more than a few years. Owners seem to be pretty happy with it, and it has better washing and drying features than any of its competitors. The researchWhy you should trust usSince 2013 I’ve covered appliances for Wirecutter, and have put in hundreds of hours of research into washers and dryers, including interviews with repair technicians from around the country, representatives from all the major washer brands, a major detergent company, and another review website. I’ve also read most of the reviews at Reviewed.com and CNET, and countless emails, comments, tweets, message board posts, and user reviews from our readers and pretty much anyone else who cared enough to weigh in on laundry machines. Why we’re skeptical of all-in-one combosIf single-drum washer-dryer combos worked well, they’d be the ultimate laundry appliances. They take up half the space of separate machines, and you don’t have to transfer clothes between them. But brand after brand has tried to make all-in-one laundry happen, yet decades later, the machines are still not popular. The washing aspect works fine, but drying takes a couple hours longer than a separate machine would, and that’s if you’ve loaded the machine to only half capacity. You can’t wash new loads while you wait for the dryer, either, so laundry day slows to a crawl. All-in-ones also have high repair rates and aren’t much cheaper to buy than separate machines, so they’ll almost always cost you more in the long run. Steve Sheinkopf, owner and CEO of Yale Appliance in Boston and one of the industry’s most prolific bloggers put it bluntly: “I hate these things,” he told us. “It’s really a product that should not be on the market. We do everything in our power not to sell them.” The problem, Sheinkopf said, is that the repair rate is sky high—over 70 percent within the first year, according to his service department’s records. “They seem to be the most repair-prone products we sell.” Chaim Shanet, a repair technician for Mr. Appliance of Park Slope in Brooklyn, services an area with many small apartments in mid-rise and high-rise buildings—a neighborhood where all-in-one combo units actually make sense in a lot of homes. He said that even among his space-constrained clients “people either love them or hate them. ...There’s no middle ground.” (He also could not confirm the repair rate that Sheinkopf mentioned.) All that said, the user reviews for all-in-ones tend to be pretty good. Most of the reviews we read seemed to be written by people with little space but plenty of patience. Donna Smallin Kuper, a professional organizer and cleaning expert, uses an all-in-one model in her RV and told us that she’s happy with it, and that most of her friends in the RV community own one and like it, too. We’ve also read a couple dozen user reviews from people who live in small homes and don’t mind the long dry times of an all-in-one, because they find it easier than hang-drying. Who should (and shouldn’t) get thisIf you have no other practical choice for washing and drying your laundry, you could consider getting an all-in-one washer-dryer combo. For example, if you live in an RV or on a boat, space is at a premium and hang-drying your clothes is not practical, so an all-in-one combo is probably the only good option. Or, if you’re in a very small home with very little space and you wouldn’t consider hang-drying your clothes, an all-in-one combo might be a good choice. But if you have the space for a separate washer and dryer—even a compact pair—skip the combo unit. It might seem like a clever way to save space and maybe even some stress on laundry day. But as far as we can tell, the downsides aren’t worth it for most people who can avoid it. How we pickedWe’ve put in hundreds of hours researching all types of washers and dryers, including full-size and compact models. For single-drum washer-dryer combos in particular, we did about 10 hours of targeted research into 13 models. However, we did not test any of them (Reviewed.com is the only major source that has, and even it tested only two models). So this advice is all based on research and interviews. Because our experts warned us that you should get a combo only if you have no other choice, we narrowed our focus to models that required the least space and the fewest special connections. The criteria include:
Our pick: LG WM3488HW compact ventless washer-dryer comboOur pickAvoid all-in-one washer-dryers if you can. Otherwise, this compact, ventless, 120-volt model is the safety bet for reliability—or at least repairability. Buying OptionsThe LG WM3488HW seems like the safest bet for an all-in-one washer-dryer combo, if that’s your only practical choice for washing and drying laundry at home. It has better features than other models, and though we can’t be sure it’s more reliable, it should at least be easier to find parts to fix it in a few years. LG is the best-known brand that makes a compact, ventless, 120-volt model, and its regular washers and dryers are some of the most reliable, according to Yale Appliance. Several repair technicians have told us that LG reliably keeps old parts available, so you should be able to fix this thing as needed for several years. Shanet, the repair technician from Brooklyn, specifically recommended LG combos above other brands for this reason. The WM3488HW also has a maximum spin-dry speed of 1,400 rpm, the highest of any combo. That helps wick the water out of clothes at the end of a wash cycle, so they may not need to spend as much time in the dryer. Our other finalists maxed out at 1,200 rpm. At 2.3 cubic feet, the WM3488HW also has a slightly larger capacity than its peers, which are all 2 cubic feet or smaller. That’s enough space to add an extra T-shirt or two per load. It also has more washing options than other compact combos, including a few useful ones like an extra-hot wash temperature and a steam-cleaning option. You won’t use them often, but they’re handy when you need to sanitize items. No other finalists have the internal water heater that’s required for those features. The WM3488HW has an average user rating of 4.1 stars (out of five) based on more than 400 reviews at Home Depot—that’s a solid score, especially in a category that’s supposedly bad. The consensus is that it washes well and is a surprisingly good dryer for a ventless, 120-volt model, though it still takes many hours to finish a load. The unit hasn’t been out long enough to know how reliable it will be over time, but so far so good. Flaws but not dealbreakers, and what to expect from your comboThe LG WM3488HW costs hundreds of dollars more than any of its closest competitors. As unsure as we are of the LG, we’re even less confident about recommending the cheaper models from the other brands—we think spending more to get a decent experience is worth doing. The other problems with the WM3488HW are the problems with any all-in-one washer-dryer combo. That is, you’re limited to washing and drying small loads, and they’re going to take a long time to finish. It’ll take around 3½ hours, maybe longer, to wash and dry a small load of two cotton bath towels and hand towels, or maybe two days’ worth of summertime street clothes. By comparison, a standard front-load washer and vented dryer can clean and dry about 20 towels in 2½ hours with the right settings selected. There are a few reasons why the loads are so small yet so lengthy. First, as a 120-volt appliance, it just can’t crank out as much heat as a typical 240-volt dryer. Second, it’s ventless, and . Third, although the drum capacity is about the same as any other 24-inch washing machine, it’s only half the volume of a typical 24-inch dryer. Dryers need bigger drums so that clothes can tumble freely. In a drum this small, a full washer load is an overstuffed dryer load, and clothes will dry even more slowly. The WM3488HW’s manual says that you can stuff the drum if you’re just washing the clothes, but should fill it only halfway if you intend to wash and dry in the same load. The competitionHeated tumble-drying is not the only way to dry your clothes. Before you buy a combo, think about whether you could be comfortable with a and . You’ll save hundreds of dollars, and you probably won’t lose much time relative to a combo. We dismissed our other compact, ventless, 120-volt finalists: The Haier HLC1700AXW, Midea USFC70DS12DSH, Summit SPWD2201SS, EdgeStar CWD1550S, and Magic Chef MCSCWD20W3 (again, the last three of which appear to be the same machine with a different label). We also dismissed the Deco DC4400CV, the convertible vented-ventless model (also sold under the Equator or Pinnacle brands). As Shanet warned, you may not be able to find replacement parts from these brands after a few years. They tend to have mediocre user ratings and limited availability compared with our pick, too. The LG Signature LUWM101HWA costs nearly $2,900, by far the most expensive combo unit and much more expensive than almost any separate washer and dryer. But this 2.8-cubic-foot, ventless, 120-volt, 24-inch model has arguably the best specs of any washer-dryer combo: It uses a rather than a condenser for its ventless drying, which speeds up the drying process a bit and saves some energy. The spin cycle can also crank at 1,600 RPM, the fastest we’ve ever heard of in any washer, which should also help cut down on drying times. The LG Signature is not a particularly popular product, but some owner reviews have trickled out. Reviewers who compare the LG Signature with other combo units seem happy that it works noticeably (though not dramatically) faster; reviewers who thought they’d be able to seamlessly replace separate washer and dryer units seem disappointed. Kuper, the cleaning expert and RV-dweller, told us the Splendide WD2100XC might be your best choice if your home rolls or floats. We didn’t consider it for our main pick because it’s a vented model, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem in RVs or on boats. The marketing materials specifically note that the Splendide is built with “heavy-duty springs and shock absorbers” for RV travel. LG used to make a full-size, ventless, 120-volt all-in-one combo, the WM3997HWA, but it's now discontinued. It has a 4.3-cubic-foot drum, an accelerated wash cycle, and 700 decent user ratings, averaging four stars out of five. Our stance is that you should get a combo only if you have no other choice, and if you can fit a full-size model in your home, you can probably fit two compact models, which will let you do more laundry faster, and will probably be more reliable. But if you’re the exception to our assumption, and think that the WM3997HWA is your best bet, we think it’s probably an okay bet—it has a lot in common with the smaller WM3488HW. Marathon Laundry (a startup founded by a former Apple software engineer) announced its first product, an all-in-one combo in January 2016 and began shipping some units in May 2017. Most of the press coverage and the company’s marketing materials focused on how smart the machine would be, but we were mostly interested because it’s a 240-volt model, so the dryer should’ve been relatively fast compared with other all-in-one models. But it’s hard to find much information on Marathon Laundry anymore. The company’s website is still up, and according to LinkedIn it still has some employees. But its Facebook page was taken down sometime between summer 2017 (last time we looked) and October 2018 (when we’re writing this update). The company is barely active on Twitter. It also does not list a phone number on its website and did not reply to an email from Wirecutter asking about its status. It doesn’t have any stock of its machines, so if you wanted to buy one, you’d have to wait for the next production run, and that date is not publicly available either. It’s hard to find reviews of how well the company’s product works. What about laundry centers?When some people hear the term “washer-dryer combo,” they think of the old-school, one-piece stacks, also known as laundry centers. They have a smallish top-load washer on the bottom, and a smallish vented dryer up top. Decades ago, they were the option for vertically stacked laundry in the US. But then front-loaders arrived and solved that problem, so we don’t think there’s a strong case for laundry centers anymore. The cheaper models are all agitator-style top-loaders, which use much more water and energy, are rougher on clothes, and don’t clean as thoroughly as high-efficiency (HE) washers. A few HE top-load laundry centers are out there, but they’re barely any cheaper than stacking a basic front-loader and dryer. They all need dryer ventilation, and they’re much harder to move in and out of your home, because they’re so huge. Meet your guideLiam McCabe is a former senior staff writer for Wirecutter, and has covered the wild world of appliances since 2011. After testing dozens of robot vacuums, he is neither worried about AI nor holding his breath for self-driving cars. He enjoys visiting factories and learning about regulatory loopholes, and has flooded our testing area only three times. What are the common problems with LG washing machines?However, like all washers, LG washers are still prone to wear and tear. The most common issues with LG washers relate to the washer not draining, wires breaking, or excess water caused by a defective water inlet valve. Read on to troubleshoot the top 3 LG washer problems. Is LG top loader a good washer?While this washer isn't as efficient as some LG front-load washers we've tested, it's a great option. If you like top-load washers and want a larger tub capacity, fast cycle times, and steam cycles, the LG WT7900HBA might be a good fit for you. Which brand of washing machine is best in South Africa?10 Best Washing Machines in South Africa 2023. Hisense WFH8014 Top Loader Washing Machine. ... . Whirlpool 8kg Front Loader Washing Machine FWG81284SBSEG. ... . Kelvinator 18kg Top Loader Washing Machine. ... . LG 4.5-Cubic-Foot WM3600H Front-Load Washer. ... . LG 5.2-Cubic-Foot WM9000HVA Front-Load Washer. ... . LG WKGX201H Front-Load WashTower.. Which is the best model of LG washing machine?The Best LG Front-Load Washers of 2023. Best Overall. LG WM6700HBA.. Best Wash Tower. LG WKEX200HBA.. LG WM4500HBA.. LG WM8100HVA.. LG WM4200HWA.. |
