Washer dryer. All in one or stackable?

[gnlandrus]

Looking for a washer & dryer. Trying to decide between a washer/dryer or the separate stackable washer & dryer.
I'm looking for input from those of you that have one or the other. Do you like your setup? What made you chose what you have ? Would you do it again ?
One other question. Can you use your washer dryer while traveling down the road ??
Thank you in advance !!
Greg


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[Mr_D]

No, they should not be used while traveling, but some do. They have concrete weights in them to help keep them balanced and they are mounted with springs.
There have been reports of the springs being permanently stretched by hitting bumps at the wrong time.
We had the single unit in the Dutch Star, never used it. Have the stacking units in the Magna, have not used them yet. Just haven't been out more than a couple weeks at a time or we stayed at friends and used theirs.

[Dutch Star Don]

I'm a gadget guy and had room for an all-in-one in my previous coach, but never bought one. We didn't particularly need one in that coach and I wasn't interested in using one that did such small loads and took so long. I know many like them, because they have one, but I'm guessing if they had a choice they would rather have a stackable unit.

Our new coach has the stackable unit and we love it. It's a little smaller than our home unit, but I'm very impressed at how quickly the 110 volt electric dryer dries. We wash all of our clothes the night before we head home. No wash to do after the trip.

[96 Wideglide]

I've never had an all-in-one, but would stick with the stacked Whirlpool units.
I know you have room, because I have the same coach !

[Sky_Boss]

All kinds of opinions but we are glad we went with stackable for our full time use. Pros and cons on either way. If you have enough storage space I think you will like stackable better. If you need as much storage as possible, then combo works.

As to running them while going down the road....

I wouldn't recommend the washer or a combo in the washing cycle be run at all. The bouncing around might screw up some parts of the cycle and if you happen to fill up your grey tank it will be a mess.

Personally, I don't see any real problem running a VENTED dryer or combo in dryer mode if you happen to be running your generator.

[Wryly Blithe]

We love our combo unit that came with the coach. It's a 12-year old Splendide and it works like the day it was new... it's even an HE model. We've used it many times for a wide variety of loads and it's always worked far better than we ever guessed it would. My wife used it mostly for my clothes because she doesn't dry 90% of her clothes in a dryer - until I showed her the setting that runs just the washer without the dryer cycle.

Load size is a major factor. As you can imagine, combo units are typically smaller so you have to plan your loads / wash day accordingly. As an example - top sheet, bottom sheet and pillow cases is one full load in our combo. By comparison, we can do all our bedding plus a week's worth of towels at home... and then some.

It might be modestly more convenient to have a stackable set because you could run two loads at once, cutting your wash time by quite a bit, but there's something to be said for the set-it-and-forget-it for the combo unit.

If we were full-time I think I'd lean toward a stackable set if/when this unit ever breaks down. Then again, the space above the combo unit makes remarkably convenient linen closet and it'd be tough to give that up.

I wish I could give you a more definitive answer, but there are just too many variables of personal preference to take into account. In a nut shell: Stackables are convenient and a little bigger, but they take up valuable space and energy. Combos are compact and energy efficient but require some planning so that laundry day doesn't take up your whole day. I honestly don't think you'd be sorry with the performance of either one.

And no, we don't use ours while driving... there are just too many moving parts to be jumbled around like that.

[vsheetz]

We have had combo and stacked. Go stacked for sure, IMO. Capacity is much larger. We seldom used combo. Often use stacked set.

[Bruce C]

I've got the all in one, but would prefer stackable if I had the room. Much faster. The combo is better than nothing but very slow.

[mrfix]

We have stackable and use them all the time, We don't run them when moving.
Mrfix

[HD4Mark]

Some questions. Our coach was plumbed and wired for a washer/dryer but I would think due to it's age for a combo unit. I can't tell if the PO had one or not. There are shelves in there now. Can someone give me a model number for the Whirlpool stackable or the dimensions?

Secondly, for a vented dryer, how would you decide how and where to cut a hole for the vent? It kind of looks like there may be a cut out inside the rear cap for one that is not all the way through. I can see it by looking in the access door where the plumbing for a unit is. A frustrating call to Winnebago might answer that question.

The park we are in for the winter is small and has one (free) washer and one ($2) dryer. No hot water to the washer and the dryer looks like it is on it's last legs. DW is not thrilled with the cold water only wash and if you can believe it the town we are in has no public coin op laundry.

The obvious easy solution is and all in one non vented unit. Plug in, hook up the hoses and make sure it is fastened down. If we go with vented or need to re-do cabinets the project waits until returning to the sticks and bricks house. TIA.

[tedgard01]

This is just MHO, not meant to be too critical of the combo...

We used a combo and it did not work for us. My wife hates to have to iron even the no-iron clothes, and with the combo everything came out wrinkled. It seemed to take much longer to dry, etc...

We now have a stackable, and love it as much as in the s&b. It has a smaller load capacity, but it is just the two of us. We take long trips, and will be Camp Hosting for months at a time, so we use it all the time.

[bigben]

We only had room for the combo unit. It is vented and that makes a huge difference. I believe that if we had room for the stacked units we'd stay with the combo.

Two reasons:
1. Convenience - on laundry day we will do two loads. It is great to be able to start the load, then go and do whatever. When you get back to your coach pull out the clean - dry cloths and start #2. This is a very handy feature. The only time we notice any vibration is when the clothes start up in spin.

2. Half the space - we all know that space is always at a premium and the combo unit uses just a little over 1/2 the space.

We have the Splendide 2100c and have zero problems. Had an issue - called Splendide and it was a self-inflicted issue. Good news - the CSR are real and reachable.

On occasions we've started a load before leaving our site and left it running while we were moving. Haven't had any issues but I am going to research this some before we continue.

[normandlegra]

Originally Posted by Bruce C

I've got the all in one, but would prefer stackable if I had the room. Much faster. The combo is better than nothing but very slow.

Same here !

[MCJones]

We have had two rigs, one with a single unit and the other with the two stackable units. They both worked pretty well but the single unit load size was small. But what was nice was that you would go to bed with dirty clothes running in the washer and wake up with clean dry clothes. The single units just change over to a dryer after washing. A little wrinkled maybe, but so are we, and it worked fine. The stacked units we have now have a little bigger load capacity but you have to change loads to the dryer. wouldn't have a rig without a wash/dryer of some kind anymore. Loads are smaller and run times are longer than the house appliances, and, you better have your grey valve open during operation. Hope this helps. mark