Combi washer dryer or separate?

hpsauce86

poppellerant said:

Buy separates, you won't regret it in the long run, especially when you have little feet running around causing chaos!

As you've already said, and rightly so, combi machines do take longer to dry and use more electricity in doing so.  So you have potential to spend the savings elsewhere.

I hope you don't mind my saying so, but I'm surprised you still even use a dryer given today's energy prices and they are very probably going to rise again in October.  I've hung clothes on the line and on days like these (warm, dry and windy) a full load of washing can be dry in less than an hour.  I bet most household tumble driers couldn't dry a full load in only a hour.

Thank you, yes I’m aware of the costs, we are in a city centre flat at the moment so have little choice, I air dry as much as I can do (even hanging sheets over doors) and intend to carry on doing so, but there are certain things I’ll dry in short small loads. Like towels because I like them fluffy and not like sandpaper 😊 it’s another reason why I’d rather just a combi, but for practicality reasons and because we want to redo the utility to be more functional, I don’t want to have to do the job twice and waste money on decorating and fitting cupboards and storage if we have to rip it out to eventually fit a dryer when we have kids. 

hpsauce86

jennifernil said:

Our utility is 2.1m  x 3.2m, we have a door to the hall, a door to outside, a small window, a wall hung boiler, an airing cupboard with large HW cylinder, floor space for up to 4 appliances, an 800mm sink base unit, a free standing shelf unit with space above to hang things to dry, and 7 wall units of varying sizes.

2.5 x 1.8m does not sound that bad !

Thanks all for your replies. I’m still torn between having a nice bootility with storage or being practical and having two separate washer dryer and no space for making it a nice entrance. Our house hasn’t got the hallway we wanted so I want to try and use the back door as much as possible, which at the moment is just a utility. We have a small puppy and go on lots of muddy walks so the idea of having a boot room sings to the clean freak in me. But having kids in the future perhaps means I should be more practical in terms of the washer dryer situation. Once we are in I might see if there’s a way of configuring it to have both but it’s only a 2.5m x1.8m space as it is.

I need you to come and design mine in that case 😂 I’ve been trying to plan it and things but I need to get in and measure everything properly really. It’s got separate washer dryer at the moment under a window, then a door in to the kitchen and another to the garden, as well as the electrics and boiler. So it is quite tight. I’d like a bit of a bench with storage for shoes under it, and storage above, but because of the doors opening in to the room it’s very hard to fit it in. Will keep trying though! Thanks for your reply! 

jennifernil

I think once you move in you will find it easier to plan a good layout.

We had the advantage of a blank canvas as we planned the house ourselves, then had it built, but even so the utility space was pretty much what was left over when everything else had been fitted in.

if I was doing it again, I think I might make a small change to the layout by swapping the window and outside door positions,  but  it still works for us as it is.

Over the 34 years we have been here, we have had quite a few different appliances in different positions, starting with a chest freezer, 2 washing machines (my mum lived with us and had her own one) and a tumble drier.   Then we had an upright freezer, 1 WM and a TD, with more worktop and some empty spaces where we had a dirty laundry basket unit.

Next we had an under counter freezer, and now we have a new worktop and sink,  no freezer (it has moved elsewhere), a WM, a TD, the dirty laundry unit, and are storing a "spare" dishwasher for our daughter!    The only base unit is the one where the sink is, so plenty of floor space for appliances, and 2 unused corners for storing other stuff that is rarely needed.

spo2

I would always go for separates rather than a combi. I first used one in a flat I rented with limited space and found that as others say, it can only take around half the amount the washing machine can, so we ended up having half the load sitting in the washing basket while it waited for the first half to dry. Washing bedding and towels was the worst.

That was quite a while ago, and when I stayed in a holiday home with a more recent model I found that they had not improved much. My main problem this time was that everything came out completely creased and the creases were almost impossible to get rid of!