My friends … this is our magic machine. It’s a washer … it’s a dryer … it’s a thing I used to get wrinkles out of clothes so I don’t have to iron … It’s half man, half amazing.
Well actually it’s the LG WM3988HWA but we don’t have to get technical. Let’s just say it’s our washer and dryer combo.
Our history with washing machines has been all over the map. Our first rental in Lincoln Park didn’t have in-unit laundry so we had to take everything down the service elevator to the ground floor laundry room. The only good part was the price – 50 cents to wash and twenty-five to dry. When we bought our condo in Lincoln Square we had a washer dryer hookup so our first major purchase two days after moving in was our stackable unit. On the day we checked out our current home the unit owner had just discovered the stackable he purchased would not work in this place and was going to donate it to charity and buy something else. Well he decided on this crazy machine and I am glad he did.
Why the excitement over a washer dryer? Probably because I do all the laundry so it’s a big deal to me. Other than that, here a few things we have come to love and hate about our futuristic clothes machine …
- It’s nice to put one load of laundry in and call it a day – no need to move wet clothes into the dryer
- Clothes come out much cleaner than a conventional washing machine, at least we notice this with sheets and socks
- If you don’t take clothes out right away they will become damp, and that sucks kids
- It takes a long time to dry a regular load of laundry.
- It’s an HE product and uses less water than a normal unit. It also doesn’t require a ton of laundry detergent or fabric softener
- Goodbye Bounce, hello aforementioned fabric softener
- It just looks cool from the outer appearance to the digital display to the little song it plays when the cycle is complete
- There are a million settings and quite frankly I can never decide what I should use.
Here is the link to the product page at LG if you are curious.
Wow- I have never heard of such an animal- kind of cool, not sure if I’d invest in one (when I had my house I bought pretty cheap, full-size washer/dryer for like $600 delivered, I believe, that worked amazing- and this is $2000???)
But definitely having in-unit washer/dryer is important- when I was looking at renting that was one item I was always looking for and sometimes forgot about until I got close to signing a lease. I’m done with “dorm room days” and having to leave unit to do laundry.
I do like the time-saving feature of the LG- I’m sure I’ll be asking for a “follow-up opinion” after you’ve used it awhile.
I have one of these, they come with the units at the Rosslyn Lofts. It’s small, and it takes a long tome to wash and dry, but I really like it.
The building also has a laundry room downstairs for bigger things like sheets, blankets, and larger loads. But I still use the all in one unit for most things.
Yeah it’s a lot of cash for a washer and dryer, and I am glad our guy went the extra mile for the unit.
Bert: We have washed some bigger things in there, you just have to do them by themselves – such as blankets
We have one too and we had to buy a drying rack from Ikea since our clothes never come out completely dry. We do a lot of laundry because of our baby, so this isn’t the most practical option but at least I don’t have to go to the laundromat.
Li – The one thing I have noticed is you can’t put in a huge load of clothes, you really have to space out the amount you have and do medium sized loads at best to get better drying results.
Still beats the laundromat though.
I have the same washer/dryer combo, or maybe an earlier model. I don’t mind the long drying times. The only problem I have is that my jeans always come out wrinkled , especially on the pant leg below the knee. It is annoying having to iron jeans! Any suggestions?
2 things you can do. 1) Don’t dry them completely, let them go about 90% and then take them out, shake them and lay them out to dry the rest of the way. Annoying, but it works. 2), ALWAYS use liquid fabric softener. There is a good brand at Ralph’s with no scent that I use.
Great tips Bert!
I have the same issue with jeans and usually I will throw them back in on the steam cycle for 20 minutes/1 item. It takes enough of the wrinkles out that I can get by wearing them right away.
I just realized you have the newer LG model and I have the inferior previous model. i don’t have the steam option on mine. Time to upgrade to a new one now..! Thanks for the advice…didn’t know that liquid fabric softener will work..
[...] Detergent – Because we use this fancy machine, I need to buy high efficiency (He) laundry detergent. I’m fairly brand loyal and Tide has [...]