"Thinking of Stacking a Laundry Dryer on Top of a Laundry Washer - A Warning"

 By Ron Stultz

12 March 2011

Summary: for those with limited space for a laundry washer and dryer, sales people might suggest you buy a front load washer and then stack a dryer on top of it. While this will work, maintenance of either the laundry dryer or the washer becomes a nightmare due to lifting the dryer off the washer. Consider a combo unit as it can be pulled out as one unit and then repaired-maintained.

Background:

Unmarried daughter bought a home with a new General Electric (GE) front load laundry washer stacked on top of a GE electric dryer.

No warranty on either washer or dryer.

GE units in a closet that has a 30 inch wide door opening and is only 31 inches deep.

Washer on top of dryer?

After a few uses, became obvious that washer too heavy for dyer underneath (washer actually denting top of dryer) and thus had to restack with washer at bottom.

Lift washer off of dryer. (2 man + job)

Move dryer out of closet.

Discover dryer vent to outside, located at floor of closet.

Connect flexible hose to dryer vent to be attached to dryer when it in place.

Place washer into closet and reconnect water hoses.

Lift dryer up on top of washer and attempt to connect dryer hose (3 man job to hold dryer while hose connected)

Find that 240VAC dryer power cord will not reach outlet when dryer on top of washer!!! Probably reason washer placed on top of dryer to begin with.

Dryer lifted back out of closet.

New 8 foot long dryer cord installed (not available at home improvement stores).

Dryer lifted back on top of washer and again juggled while vent hose connected.

Finally, all done.

No more problems, right???

Maintenance:

Could be appliances.

Could be my daughter overloads.

Could be closet not allowing enough air circulation.

Be for whatever reason, in 4 years, dryer has had to have drive belt replaced 3 times and each and every time, dryer had to be lifted off of the washer, repaired and then placed back on top of the washer. A service call requiring 2 technicians is way more expensive than where only 1 is involved.

And now, washer needs a new drive belt and so dryer has to be lifted off and back on again!!!

Solution:

You are going to buy a nice long extended warranty on your new front load washer and stacked dryer so no worries. OK, but I warned you.

A regular do-it-yourselfer (DIY)? Better be 2 of you to lift the dryer off the washer. Dryer not tremendously heavy but heavy enough that takes 2.

A combo unit. A combo laundry washer, dryer is available from several manufacturers and is most often sold for use in apartments that have limited space. With a combo unit, the entire unit is pulled out of the "closet" at one time making setup and maintenance easier for professional repair or DIY.

The drawback to a combo unit is that most do not have a wash tub the size of a full size front load washer, but this varies from brand to brand and model number to model number.

Finally, there are units made that are a laundry washer and dryer, all in one. Mostly used in Europe, this units have very small tubs and are only practical when there is hardly any space for laundry appliances at all.