
Have a small kitchen to outfit or want to add a ventless washer/dryer combo to your apartment? Here's a great place to start...

Have a small kitchen to outfit or want to add a ventless washer/dryer combo to your apartment? Here's a great place to start...
Compact Appliance has an 18" Haier Slimline Convertible, Portable Dishwasher for only $270--which would likely fit into all but the most cozy kitchens. They also have a built-in model by Haier for $380. If we had need for a dishwasher like we did in our last place, $270 with free shipping would have been a small price to pay for the luxury!
Also available are a number of ventless washer/dryer combos, including the one on the left, by Haier as well, for about $850.
The site runs many specials for 5% or more off (the prices here are figuring today's special of 5% off), as well as free shipping, and changes the sales every few days.
BTW, we first heard of Compact Appliance in the last issue of Blueprint Magazine, where the editors had sourced appliances for the kitchen renovation featured in the issue.
Is this little washer/dryer too good to be true? Would love to hear from anyone who has one!
view SMM's profile
i have the danby brand version of it... it is AMAZING. this is a gross story, so bear with me...
work was stressful and i didn't wanna wash dishes when i got home, so they began to pile. and pile and pile and pile. after at LEAST a month of not washing any dishes (i did prerinse a bit, but some of them were NASTY and dried), i put a load into the danby, and ran it. it took about an hour and a half to finish a normal cycle, and i was scared to pull it open... knowing i'd probably have to run many cycles to get those dishes clean. well...
ONE cycle seriously spotlessly cleaned three horrible loads of dishes (that is to say, i didn't have to repeat cycles to get them clean). it didn't criticize me or make me redo them. it didn't require me to prescrub. and it has wheels on the bottom, so it can roll right into my pantry. now i run it about once a week, and put the dishes in as i go. no more dishes stacked on the countertops. and i'm much more inclined to wash just one or two dishes by hand, after taking care of the bulk of them.
the only problem i had was attaching it to my faucet... that required a $5 part from home depot, which i have to change out with my regular faucet aerator nozzle (but you can elect to leave it on the faucet, just not as pretty and causes the water come out in one solid, steady stream rather than softening the flow).
anyway, that's my input. AND i got it off of craigslist, secondhand. then again i've heard completely polar reactions from people about it, stemming from repair issues. i haven't had any problems yet, though, even with it being secondhand!
view lizkid's profile
I used to have an LG washer/dryer combo. When it worked, it was brilliant. But it often broke and the maintenance on it was nearly constant.
Strangely though, I sort of miss it now that I have larger, more conventional stackables. The smaller size and programmable features made it easy to almost never have any dirty clothes.
view techgirllaura's profile
Laura, I'm sorry to hear about your experience with the LG. I've been thinking about getting one. Does anyone have any experience with Haier combo washer/dryer?
view Jen (SLC)'s profile
Check Sears, too. They sell compact dishwashers as well. I got one from them, a Frigidaire. Works pretty well, it's portable (a kit to have it built-in is available, too), and it was really cheap. And Sears delivers.
view sunspot42's profile
I would love to hear from anyone else on the LG combo unit. In most cases, LG appliances get raves. From what I'm told, this one just has a lot of parts/functions. Therefore there is just more to go wrong.
I got mine in 2002. Maybe they've improved. But it wasn't cheap.. close to $1,400 at the time.
view techgirllaura's profile
They say the washer/dryer combos take 5 hours to dry a small load. I would love one of these, but who has one of these combos to report to all us wanting to know your experience and brand. Thanks all!
view wild-er's profile
They take a long time to wash and dry. But because it's just one unit, you can put in a load in the morning, go to work and it's done when you come home. The LG model I had could be programmed to start up to 24 hours in advance, and timed to end close to when you'd return home so it the clothes wouldn't wrinkle.
It's not right for everyone, but if you don't have space for full size or stackables, I think they're a good option. Even if they require more maintenance than I would have liked.
view techgirllaura's profile
Danby owner here - its about 1.5 hrs for a load, and it does them VERY well. been working for about a year now, no problems. (knock of wood :) )
view olya's profile