With just the two of us in our family, we don’t do a lot of laundry, so it seemed pointless to spend money on any of the newer washer and dryer models out there. We don’t have a large family, so having large clothes-washing equipment that would unnecessarily be taking up space seemed silly. We looked into what our options at that point were, and we found out that washers and dryers were available that did not require a washer/dryer hookup. Both of us being reviewers, we looked into each washer/dryer that did not require such a hookup, and we mainly found tons of reviews of people bashing the products. I was about ready to give up altogether on ever finding the right washer/dryer for us, but he was diligent in his research, and so we found the LG WM3431 Washer/Dryer and almost immediately purchased it. Not only did we purchase it, but we love it too!

The machine fits nicely into almost any small space and does not take up nearly the amount of room that almost any other washer/dryer setup on the market would. Additionally, the Washer/Dryer plugs right into any three-prong outlet and the hose from which water is dispensed may be dumped into any drain (including the kitchen and/or bathroom sink!). The amount of water that is pushed through the drains is not too much for even the smallest sink or drain to hold, and so it will not overflow one’s home with water! The drying function on the machine does not require any sort of vent or outdoor outlet. It also nicely helps to heat one’s home without making it overwhelmingly hot or pumping dryer dust or air all over the house.

The Washer/Dryer comes in either white or titanium, and both have stainless steel door frames that surround the glass window at the front of the machine. The machine is a compact unit that measures twenty-four inches wide, thirty-three-and-a-half inches tall and twenty-five inches deep. The Washer/Dryer features a main settings dial, an assortment of pushable buttons, and a digital screen that is featured on the control panel. On this panel is a timer which allows one to load their laundry as well as detergent before they leave their home and to have the machine start running and complete its cycle just in time for when they arrive home again. This wonderful timer can be set for up to nineteen hours later! Additionally, because this machine is a two-in-one, one need not worry that their clothes will be sitting there wet; growing mildew, as they will immediately begin drying after the wash cycle is completed! This is really one of the most incredible products that I have ever owned!
In order to keep with our current décor and the décor we hope to have in any of our future homes, my husband and I went with the titanium version of the machine, and it very much compliments our home.

As far as effectiveness goes, clothes definitely get clean in this machine! The wash cycle agitates incredibly, so there can be no doubt whatsoever that clothes are being cleaned successfully. Additionally, clothes seem to dry faster as well. There is also a sanitary cycle that helps to clean clothes with incredibly hot water. I use this cycle to keep my white clothes incredibly white, to keep my dog and cat toys super-clean, and to wash anything that may have been badly soiled by the animals such as their pet beds.

However, I am careful when putting large items or potentially heavy items into the machine (such as pet beds) as the machine does seem to have problems with balancing itself. Carefully loading laundry into the machine perfectly is necessary, be careful to be sure that the load is balanced throughout! When the machine is unbalanced, it will continuously reset and try to balance the load, which is inconvenient. Normally the machine does a good job of re-balancing itself, and I have only ever had to re-balance it by re-arranging the contents myself a few times. There are some vibrations that come from the machine, and while I know that some have complained that these are fairly violent, I have had no such problems. Our Washer/Dryer sits directly on the floor, completely flat, and we have only had it vibrate uncontrollably when there were loads being washed that were not balanced. In addition, the machine does not emit much in the way of noise. Perhaps we just got lucky, as again, I have read that others have had problems with the machine being loud, but the one that we purchased is rather silent. Of course, any washer/dryer will make noise as it is going through its cycles, but this one makes no more noise than any other one that I have used and/or encountered.

Overall, I adore this machine. My clothes always come out of it perfectly washed and dried, more often than not, warm to the touch. I’ve had other washer and dryers in the past, and for a small family of two, it makes perfect sense to own the LG WM3431 as we don’t do nearly as much in the way of laundry as a larger family would. This new Washer/Dryer was a great solution to our problem, and can be taken with us to wherever we move to next. I most certainly recommend this machine to any small family that is simply looking for a quick, effective, space-saving way to do laundry.

Having said all that, I still love this appliance. It’s cheap to operate (less than $20/year in electricity) and doesn’t dry my laundry by cooking it with intense dry heat.
The drum is a bit small so you can’t pack it full of clothes or they won’t dry properly (or you’ll get wrinkled clothes).

While there are some cons (limited capacity – meaning more frequent loads, fairly loud operation – which can be mitigated by running the machine while away from home, and of course the long cycle time – usually about 4 hours to do a load), there are a lot of plusses for this machine. It’s very compact, and so great for someone with limited space. It has very easy controls, and a delay timer that allows you to set the wash to start up to several hours later. (I use this function all of the time by setting the wash to begin 4 hours after I leave for work, and so when I return, the clothes are ready.) For a ventless W/D, it manages to fully dry clothes, which is not what I’ve seen nor heard about other models that usually leave clothes fairly damp. Finally, as it is powered with a standard 110 V plug, it doesn’t use as much energy as a standard dryer using 220 V, so it is rather cost effective to run (even with the longer cycle time).

So, if you are looking for one of these units because of space limitations, or if you live in a place not designed for dryer ventilation, I highly recommend the LG. Yes, it’s more expensive than the others, but in this case you get what you pay for

The first load I did, I was concerned with the machine vibrating so much during the spin cycle. I chatted online with one of the help crew and the first question he asked was,, did we remove the 4 shipping bolts that are on the back of the machine… Well, no, we hadn’t. So by simply taking them out, it helped tremendously. We also, just for a little added stability placed a piece of dense foam under each leg. Now it doesn’t vibrate nothing like it did.

It uses very little water and the clothes are very clean when they come out.

If this unit continues to do this good, I would highly recomend this to anyone who has a small space and can not use a regular washer and dryer

I live on the second floor of an old building in Los Angeles and when we installed it under a table in our kitchen the spin cycle shook the building so bad that our neighbors complained and the people below us had their hanging lamp fall off their ceiling. Not good since we are trying to keep anyone from knowing we have it.

We played with the settings A LOT because there are a ton of them, and found even on the lowest spin cycle that it shook too bad. So after doing a ton of research I bought these vibraton pads from Kettle Ent. that came highly recommended [...] They helped enought to let us use the delicate cycle. The engineer at Kettle was great he gave us lots of suggestions and once we moved the washer to a more stable (a hallway with 3 supporting doorways to stabalize the floor better) if less convenient place we were able to run the machine on medium spin. We tried Extra High which is amazing since the laundry comes out almost dry, but Medium is the best we can get without complaints.

Settings:

Since I’ve played with the settings a lot let me talk about them. This machine is expensive, but the settings are worth it. I love Sanitary mode. It takes a long time to wash and dry (about 3:20) but everything is SUPER CLEAN.

My one major beef with the control on the settings is that many of the settings are limited in their options. For example if you want to wash on Normal and have it go automatically into dry mode you have to spin on High or Very High. Since I can only spin on Medium this is a pain in the butt. I have to wait for the machine to shut off and then set it to dry only.

My other beef is that all the settings allow you to set the spin on Low, but ONLY DELICATE cycle drains on Low (Low leaves items sopping wet BTW). Before I got the vibration pads and had to spin on Low I could only wash on Delicate otherwise it would spin the drain cycle on High and then spin the end spin cycle on Low.

Aside from those two things the settings are great. Lots of options and very powerful control over your laundry.

Size and Set up:

Size is great. It does do small loads and takes a lot longer to dry, but this is so with all portable units and dual units that are ventless.

Set up was pretty easy once we spent an hour at Lowes looking for the right adapter. You need a Y adapter and probably a standard sink adapter for the Y adapter to attach to. We also had to get longer hoses. It only comes with puney 5ft houses. We bought 6ft ones to reach our bathroom sink from the hall and then an extender for the drain hose. But we spent like $6 on the adapters so you may want to skip the ones they sell on this site….

Balance Loads:

You must put the laundry into the machine with care. If the load is off balance it will auto adjut, but this can take forever as it spins one way and then the other trying to toss the items into a better space. Just put the items in thoughtfully instead of shoving them in and you won’t have this problem.

Drying:

THE DRAIN HOSE MUST BE IN THE SINK ON DRY MODE. So the way this machine works is with water. So it drains water even while drying.

I recommend you just use cold water from the tap. To dry you can only use cold water and since the machine has its own water heater you might as well not risk forgetting to switch the tap from hot to cold for the drying cycles.

This machine has an auto sensor and all my laundry is usually dry. It feels wet when it first comes out, but once it cools down it’s dry. If the machine is overfull items will not dry. If I am doing heavy loads like towels or jeans I make the load even smaller. Think about weight with this machine opposed to how full it is.

There is an auto lock on the machine door for your protection. It’s annoying. You have to wait at leat 5 minutes after the cycle dings at you before you can open the door which is not only annoying but a beeach if you are like me and forget that your laundry is still waiting in the machine 5 minutes later when the door DOES allow you to open it. There really should be a ding only when you can open the machine!

I think thats about it so far. I’ll keep everyone posted if I learn mor

We’ve had it for a few weeks and are quite happy with it.

First off, I was able to install it without tapping into the apartment’s plumbing. In particular, I hooked it up to the faucet using: 1) a 15/16″ faucet aerator thread to 3/4″ garden hose adapter; 2) a 6′ washer hose with 3/4″ garden hose connectors at both ends; 3) a female-female 3/4″ garden hose adapter; 4) a Y-connector with one male and two female 3/4″ garden hose connectors; 5) the included hoses with the units. The additional hardware cost under $40 at the local hardware store.

As for how it works, it does take a long time: 3-4 hours is not uncommon to wash and dry a single load. However, this isn’t a problem, as loads don’t need to be switched between separate washer and dryer units, and because the unit is in my own apartment! No longer does my wife or I have to waste several hours sitting around reading a magazine at the laundromat. Vibration and noise are largely unobjectionable, and clothes come out clean. Sometimes they do need an additional run in the dryer, and if left in while moist they can get very wrinkled.

Overall I very much like this unit, and would make the same purchase again