Turns out dryers are pretty simple and mostly all decent. It’s the washers that are more complex and you should choose wisely.
I spent like 4 days looking at videos about dryers anyway. It’s like, the most exciting thing to happen this month.
At least my clothes come out dry in one cycle now.
Speed Queen for washers. Don’t fall for gimmicks.
Edit: originally, I recommended Roper, but it seems the empire has fallen. If you can find an old one, and you’re in need, go for it.
Roper is just Whirlpool now. Their current machines are rebadges of low end Amanas, which are in turn rebadges of low end Whirlpools. Compare the Roper RED4516 with the Amana NED4655EW.
As a matter of fact, compare their parts diagrams.
They’re the same machine. But the Amana has a lower MSRP. Define gimmick how you like and make of that what you will.
Whirlpool makes everything: Themselves, Maytag, Amana, JennAir, KitchenAid, Gladiator, Roper. Even Affresh cleaning products are made by Whirlpool. It’s Whirlpool all the way down. Speed Queen (Alliance Laundry) is at least still independent.
I didn’t know that about Roper, thanks. I guess my main point was just keep it simple. Little musical tunes and shit are just distractions from the fact that you spent 4x what you should have on what’s essentially a wet bucket in a box.
Yeah, there’s really not a whole lot going on in a dryer in particular that actually makes it dry. If you can do without the Wi-Fi and the zillion cycles (which most people probably don’t use to their full potential anyway) a simple machine does the job and has a lot less in it.
I think the basic models from the lower brands are probably pretty solid- less flash but less to go wrong and economically repairable.
We got a Speed Queen washer and dryer and are happy with them. I’ve also heard that Maytag Commercial is decent but don’t have experience with them myself.
I will say, the Speed Queen appliances have needed someone to come out to service them (something happened with the washer that I can’t recall, and the heating element on the dryer drooped and shorted and then fell apart), but at least the warranty is long enough and there haven’t been any issues with the repair technicians. That’s all I really want - a device that if (when) it has an issue, it’s worth repairing.
The heat pump all-in-one washer / dryers are compelling. A friend has one (I believe it’s LG but may be GE) and he loves it except that one of the pumps fails almost yearly and he has to replace it. I guess he would rather do that than admit defeat and the pump is relatively cheap. Maybe he saves enough time washing and drying his family’s clothes overnight while he sleeps that it’s worth a multi-hour annual surgery.
There’s not much real world time savings to be had with the all-in-one machines except for the potential (or perhaps inevitable) gap between remembering to shovel your laundry from the washer to the dryer. If your life works like mine where you’re doing something else and not paying attention to the laundry machines – riding motorcycles, wrenching on engines, taking obsessively detailed pictures of pocketknives – that slack time can indeed be significant.
The major thing is that the heat pump dryers, including the ones in the all-in-ones, are significantly more energy efficient than a traditional resistive element dryer. Like, up to 70%. (Mind you, “up to” includes a fairly wide range depending on which two models you’re comparing.) You can do your own math but figure that a traditional full sized electric dryer probably uses about 5 kWh per cycle. If you live in one of those trendy areas of the country where electricity is north of 40 cents per kWh, chopping whatever it is you use in half might be appealing.
Yeah I think the all in ones are good for 1-2 person households. Add a few kids or relatives and the ability to get two loads processing at once with a traditional setup is indispensable.
My next one will be a used commercial washer
If you have any friends that work in assisted living facilities, you may check with them. So many times people pass on and leave appliances behind.
But I can play Skyrim on THIS one!
Rhyno you’re looking at your fridge again