Home planning advice

[ciphergoth]

Everyone says "don't get a washer-dryer, they always break too soon".

If we get a separate washer and dryer, can we put the dryer on top of the washing machine? They'd be backing on to a 100-year-old outside brick wall, so we could screw the dryer to the wall if need be. What's involved in making such a setup work? Has anyone done this before? This Channel 4 website seems to suggest it's a viable plan, as does this stacking kit from John Lewis.

We also have no idea what washer or what dryer to buy or who to buy them from, though I'm currently looking at this washing machine and this condenser tumble dryer from John Lewis.

Did I mention that we moved? We moved. Thank you so much to the cast of thousands who helped us move, clean up the old flat, and celebrate in the new.

Comments

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I think dryers are usually on a shelf above washers, rather than sitting directly on them - I doubt sitting on a washer in its spin cycle would be very good for the dryer.
Do you have a hole or window where the dryer can be vented to the outside?

For washers, I recommend getting one with a timer so you can put stuff in it late at night and have it go round the next day, with the fastest spin you can get. For dryers - we use ours about twice a year and wouldn't have bothered buying one - I guess look at the eco rating and cost to run. Dryers eat electricity.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

We'll get a condenser dryer so we don't have to worry about venting.

We can hang clothes outside in the summer, but our bathroom is so small that we won't have anywhere good to dry clothes in the winter so I think some sort of drying solution is essential. We can put off buying one for a while, but we need to know if a solution like this is possible so we know if we need a washer-dryer or whether we can get a washing machine now and get the dryer later.

[juliet]

Our clothes go in the kitchen or living-room to dry. This may be suboptimal depending on size of rooms.

(Bathrooms always seemed like a very damp place to dry clothes, to me.)

We got our fridge & washing machine from John Lewis & found them to be generally v good.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

Oh Gawd, get a dryer. Having livingroom perpetually festooned with damp washing is just vile.

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Yup - I should imagine that as long as you do it properly, and have the dryer on a suitably strong shelf, beneath which is a (small) gap before the washing machine, then everything will be fine!

[adjectivegail]

In several of our flats in Hong Kong, our dryer was stacked on top of the washer inside a cupboard. Door might rattle a bit when the washer was spinning, but it didn't seem to harm either machine.

Would strongly agree with those saying get separate machines for the two jobs!

[gingiber.livejournal.com]

Have you thought of putting up a dryer on the ceiling, so you could hang your clothes out of the way to dry?

http://www.daysgonebyshop.co.uk/gnuairers.htm

Congrats on the new house btw.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

sorry I didnt help with the moving but i'm crap.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, we had plenty of help!

random

[felishumanus.livejournal.com]

your striped 'punk'/dennace menace jumper...I heard it was knitted for you? true? if so who? as I am wnating to knit one for myself

Re: random

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

purplerabbits knitted the first one for me over a decade ago, and its replacement a year or two ago.

Re: random

[felishumanus.livejournal.com]

ta :)

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Make sure that the fluff trap is user-accessible. My Hotpoint is turning into an expensive hobby, as it clogs with crud every year or so and the trap is only accessible to maintenance technicians with the special tool. Maybe this is a marketing ploy for those extended (distended?) warranties.

[lovingboth]

That's what we have - dryer straight on top of the washing machine.

The vibration doesn't seem to be a problem, but they're in their own purpose built doorless 'cupboard' in the bathroom.

[calum]

Some washer/dryer combos are designed for stacking - some arent... You should ask/check websites..

Washer-dryers are incredibly convenient, but also annoying. Generally the dryer can only handle a half-load from the washing cycle.. so unless you do half-loads all the time, you end up having to take stuff out and do two dryer cycles..

And they do break down more often.. I've yet to own one that made it 3 years without breaking down.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Strong advice: if you can afford one, buy a Miele washer-dryer.

They're about half again to double the price of normal washer-driers, but they're worth it. Five year warranty as standard, twenty year design life, and a whole bunch of unusual design features. The drum isn't ballasted by a concrete lump, it sits inside a cast iron casing instead: much less vibration and noise. It does the condensing thing, naturally. It also has a whole bunch of high efficiency settings -- result is, it washes and dries in about half the time of our old (and unlamented) Zanussi, and uses less electricity, and it's so close to silent you might be unsure whether it's working at first.

German domestic over-engineering at its finest. And you can see 'em in John Lewis's and Comet (as their high end Rolls Royce model -- probably near the bottom of Miele's range).

(Ignore their vacuum cleaners, though -- they're pants.)

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but at a grand a pop, I think we may have to pass!

[conflux.livejournal.com]

Given Hessie's parents spare Bosh washing machine is better than this one and free, do you want to see if they would like to give it to you? They are very keen on freeing space, as we are, but you would have to pay for transport.

Oh and as I said on Monday, you would be very welcome to our spare tumble dryer as a temporary stop gap until you get a good one if you like, if would mean shoving the vent pipe out the window when you used it though.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I'll check with my parents and see if they still have that practically new washer and dryer to get rid of. It might have been a washer/dryer though, I can't keep up with their laundry facilities.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Wow, that would be fantastic - thanks!

[biog.livejournal.com]

Many congrats on the house move. Hope the new home works out well for you both.

[hughe.livejournal.com]

we used to have the dryer bolted to the top of the washing machine.
they vibrate like crazy. however i wouldnt recomend screwing the whole thing or the top one to a wall because the vibrations will probably pull the plaster off the wall

[barakta]

Condensing driers are crap[1], for certain values thereof. Basically, they take much longer to dry the clothes, on account of the condensing gubbins not doing a particularly good job of drying the air, but conversely the heat isn't wasted by venting it to outside. YMMV.

My parents used to have a matched pair of Hotpoint washing machine and drier, with a stacking kit. Basically, the lid of the washing machine was replaced with a set of brackets that mated the feet-holes or something on the underside of the drier. Given that washing machines are 80% concrete, and driers are mostly hot air, this was a lot more stable than you'd expect. It did amplify the vibrations of the spin-cycle such that it really shouldn't have been used as a shelf for spider plants and other soil-scattering triffids, though.

Alternatively, a nice sturdy shelf should do the job, perhaps with one of those ratchet-tightening strappy things to keep the dryer from wandering, if you're worried.


[1] I'm only slightly prejudiced from having one of them leak several litres of water[2] on my feet while investigating a "faulty element".

[2] I didn't realise that it was condensing before this point, otherwise I'd have emptied the water tray[3].

[3] Thereby restoring the heating element to life (there was a water level interlock) and saving my feet.

[barakta]

Oops, I'm not barakta, I'm kimble. This sharing a computer malarky is unnatural. Blame BT.

[cillygirl.livejournal.com]

Bosch are apparently reliable... apparently. If you get one and it explodes after three weeks, it was the squirrels what said it.