Until they invent self-cleaning clothes....

I've owned this machine for over a year (as of the writing of this review) and I still recommend it! I've had a loooong time to think about every minute aspect of this machine, so here goes...

In 2006, I had just moved back to the United States after having given birth to a beautiful baby girl about 6 weeks earlier, when I was faced with the great ordeal of taking care of this child, furnishing my apartment, getting day to day chores done, and preparing to begin law school. My apartment building actually has a laundry room in the basement (which is only one floor down from me) with washers and dryers. But, guess what? I felt waaaay too burdened with everything I already had to do that I simply could not work up the energy to get out of my pajamas and lug my newborn and a bucket of laundry downstairs 3 times a week. (Parents know that babies create an insane amount of laundry.) Add to that the expenses of using the building's small machines and I was ready to buy my own washer dryer.

After some initial research into the matter, I found out that you would need a special hookup for either a washer or a dryer. The majority of machines that were designed to perform in an apartment without such a hookup had review after review complaining of poor cleaning, high energy usage, breaking down, noise, super small load capacities, and leakage. But further searching found this LG WM3431 Washer/Dryer with mostly positive reviews. It was the answer to my prayers.

The Pros
It's one of only a few machines on the market that's designed to work in a small space without a traditional washer or dryer hookup. That means that the electric plug goes into any three-prong outlet in your house and the water input hose can be connected to your sink. The water outlet hose dispenses into any drain and does not dump a huge amount of water so as to overwhelm your sink or bath pipes. The dryer also doesn't need a hot air vent out a window or anything. Of the machines of this genre, I've found that the LG delivers superior performance.

First, the front-loading washer gets your clothes cleaner while using less water. Because the clothes are more vigorously agitated, I've found that stains come out more consistently than with top-loading washers. Also, the LG WM3431 has a sanitary cycle that cleans clothes with super hot water and has kept my whites gleaming--every time I pull my husband's shirts out of the laundry, they look brand new (albeit wrinkled).

Second, it'll save you money and time over the laundromat. I calculated that at $1.50 per wash and $1.50 per dry, it would cost me $312 a year to do 2 small loads weekly and $468 a year to do 3 small loads weekly. Assuming that the LG would cost about a grand, the machine would pay for itself in two to three years. That's not to mention that even if we were only to live in this apartment for a few years, we'd surely be able to resell it (probably to one of the new neighbors) and fetch a high price once we moved into a house. (I'd surely recommend looking for this machine on CraigsList, if you want it used and for cheaper. Moreover, my machine came with a 10 year parts & service warranty from the seller-Compact Appliance-which was transferable in the event that I resold it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will contemplate reselling it.) You'd be making money, practically. And I don't even have to tell you that you'd be saving the time that you would spend driving to a laundromat and killing time there while you waited.

The aesthetic of the machine is beautiful. It looks like most of the modern front-loading washers that you would see today. Some of the under-the-sink, top-loading washers that you can find for apartment dwellers are downright ugly. The buttons and knobs are easy to read and use. You can choose to use LG's preset cycle values for: your normal loads, towel/sheets, speed wash, sanitary, etc. With a flip of the knob, it automatically sets up the spin speed, water temperature, and soil level for these loads. But you can also customize according to your own preferences and needs. There are also buttons to allow your laundry to soak, rinse and spin, spin only, and dry only.

There is a timer which allows you to load your laundry and detergent before you leave for work and to have it start running and complete its cycle just in time for when you come home. The timer can be set for up to 19 hours later. And since this is an all-in-one machine, you obviously don't need to be home to switch the load from your washer to your dryer.


The Cons
The biggest drawback to this machine, BY FAR, is the length of time it takes to dry your laundry. It can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to dry a load, depending upon the size of the load and the thickness of its contents. Towels, jeans, sweaters, and sheets will obviously take longer. But even a medium load filled with cotton/polyester baby clothes (which are small) will take 1.5 to 2.5 hours to dry.

The wash cycles are typically 1 hour long, depending on the soil level you choose and how many extra options you add. Soaking will add another hour. The speed wash cycle only takes 1/2 an hour. The sanitary cycle takes 2 hours.

The spin cycle can add a lot of extra time to your laundry cycle if the machine has trouble balancing the load. As other reviewers have stated, you have to take pains to be mindful of how you load your laundry and trying to place the linens and clothing into the machine in a way that it will be balanced throughout the cycle. (i.e. don't throw two heavy beach towels on the bottom of the drum and put a pile of socks and pantyhose on top of that. Put one towel on the bottom, some clothes in between, and another towel on top.) If the machine is imbalanced, it will reset and reset and try to balance the load. During this time, the timer on the machine will not be counting down, so think of this time as "extra" time added to the cycle. If the machine never manages to balance on its own, you may have to open it up, take out its contents and rebalance on your own. In the year that I've owned the LG WM3431, I've regularly washed my queen sized fitted sheet, duvet cover, and four pillow cases in a single load and have only had to once yank them out and rebalance manually. Admittedly, at other times, the machine took sometimes an extra 30-40 minutes to rebalance the load, but it did usually manage on its own. I've found through trial and error, that if you use only the low spin cycle with the sheet and towel loads, the items will still get sufficiently dry, but the machine will start spinning a lot faster.

Others have complained that the machine vibrates violently when it has gone into spin. I have never experienced this problem. I do not have my machine on castors, it sits on its four feet. (The feet can be adjusted by turning them like a screw so that it rests flatly on the ground.) I also placed a cheap doormat from Target under the machine to absorb the vibration. I don't know if this really helped or if it would have been fine without it, but the machine really does not move or jump at all, even if it's on the very high spin.

The LG WM3431 model has a relatively small capacity if you are accustomed to most full sized washers and dryers you might find in other people's houses. But it's about the same size as the washers in my building, so I haven't lost out on anything. I can fit a queen fitted sheet, duvet cover, and 4 pillowcases in there, though it's a bit snug. I probably do about 2-3 loads of clothing a week (for a family of 2 adults and 1 toddler), plus an additional load every other week for sheets, towels, and tablecloths. (My husband also doesn't generate that much laundry since he wears suits and dress shirts all week, which are sent to the dry cleaners.) I wouldn't recommend this machine for a much larger family, but I think that there is a larger capacity model similar to this one available from LG.

The machine is also noisy. It's actually stealthily quiet during the wash and spin cycles, humming at no louder than your air conditioner. However, the mechanism the machine employs to expel water for your rinse cycles and throughout the long drying cycle is really very loud. Sounds as loud as a car (but maybe not a motorcycle) revving its engine very loudly. If you're awake and if the machine is not in the same room, it's not very disruptive. But I certainly do not run it when my daughter is taking her nap.

Another major problem is that the way the machine dries, using a condensation method rather than hot air, leaves clothing feeling sometimes damp and often wrinkled when taken out of the machine. My clothes always feels damp when taken immediately from the machine, but 95% of the time, when you spread out the laundry on the bed or table to fold, the steam dissipates and the clothes are actually dry. (Sweaters, jeans, and large items may still be truly damp, unless you've run the machine for very long. I usually just hang these items and allow them extra time to air dry.) Also, you should be cautious when taking clothes out of the dryer as the damp steam can cause burns. My solution to the wrinkle problem has been to cut my losses and bring extra large items (sheets, tablecloths, dresses, and whatever else must be wrinkle-free) down to the basement and just pay to dry it in a regular hot air dryer. My other loads, mostly consisting of t-shirts, pajamas, underwear, and baby clothing has fared well in the wrinkle department so long as you fill the fabric softener tray to the max with fabric softener (I use a non-scented one for this reason) and if you take the clothes out of the dryer as soon as the dry cycle ends. (The dryer continues to run on a "cool-down" mode after it's finished drying, I guess in an attempt to prevent wrinkles, but I find that if I'm late coming home and the cool down cycle has run for any significant amount of time, the clothes are very wrinkled and may as well have sat in the machine packed and jammed together.)

A minor annoyance of the LG WM3431 is the door latch. It keeps the door locked and waits 1-2 minutes before releasing it if you stop the machine mid-cycle and after it's finished drying. So you have to actually wait to pull open the door. It is sort of irritating when you run once you hear the bell signaling the end of the cycle, but you still can't pull your clothes out for another couple minutes. And I've had instances where I just started the machine and noticed I dropped a sock on the ground and have had to pause the machine, wait 2 minutes, then open up the door and to throw the sock in.

If you have the same water input system as I do, you may find it annoying to have to be around to turn the dials on the sink. I do not have separate hot and cold water faucets. In my bathroom sink, where I have the LG set up, I have the typical modern set-up where there is a single faucet spout and two knobs--one for cold water and one for hot water. I went to home depot to get a Y-splitter attachment hose so that I could connect one end to the single faucet spout and the other two ends were connected to the machine's cold and hot water input hoses. So, if I wanted to run a hot water cycle for sanitary loads, I would only turn on the hot water of my sink. If I wanted a warm load, I would turn on both. But the LG WM3431's drying mechanism is with a condensation method which requires cold water in order to work properly. So, if you're running a hot or warm cycle, you have to turn on the hot water spigot while the machine is pouring water into the drum for your wash cycle. Then, you have to remember to go back and turn off the hot water and leave only the cold water spigot on for the rinse and dry cycles. Sometimes, I've forgotten and have left the hot water on for the duration of the entire wash and dry load; the clothes came out fine, but I'm sure that this is not preferable.

The child lock on this machine is stupid! Whoever invented it obviously didn't have children around. Normally, when the machine is running all the buttons and the knob are disabled, except for the power button and the pause/start button; the door latch is also locked. When the child lock is activated while the machine is running, everything is the same, except the start/pause button is also disabled. Thus, a child cannot pause your machine, mess with the cycle settings, and restart it. However, the power button still works and the child can turn the machine off (though with the child lock still on, the machine will not turn back on). I cannot tell you how many times my toddler has run over to the washer and turned off my machine mid-cycle by pushing the oooooh! shiny blue colored power button. And I've had to restart the machine (but only after holding down and turning off the child lock) and have the washer begin at the start of the cycle where it left off. It takes extra time this way. And boy is it annoying. You would think that the least a child lock would do is keep the door latch locked so that a child cannot climb inside the washer drum. Nope. If the machine is powered off or if it has just completed the washing cycle and is not set to begin a drying cycle, the door latch will unlock automatically and the door will open and close regardless of whether the child lock is on or off. Essentially, the child lock only disables one button on the entire machine. It's pretty much useless otherwise. I wish LG could improve upon this.

Bottom Line

You have to do laundry anyways. Until they invent self-cleaning clothing, this will be a fact of life. So, if you live in a place where there's no traditional washer/dryer hook-up available, and you're looking to buy, the LG WM3431 is the best choice on the market.

However, there are many drawbacks to the machine. If you can possibly buy the traditional separate washer and dryer units, by all means, do so! But if you can't, this machine comes highly recommended.

Update March 2008
The machine is working just as well as it ever has. It's gone for a year and a half now and I have not had the problems that other reviewers complained about. Fearing an imminent breakdown, I've looked into the hoses but have found no lint/hair clots. I would like to point out, though, that I do not own pets. It is possible that if you do, the extra hair on your clothing may put a strain on the machine. I still recommend this machine for apt dwellers, versus using a laundromat.

Update October 2008
Two years old now and still going strong.  No clogs, no break downs.  Machine is wonderful.  Of course, I have been living in my apartment now for a lot longer than I had hoped, but I feel like I've definitely got my money's worth out of this guy.