Many years ago, when I lived alone in a third-floor walk-up apartment, I decided I was tired of schlepping my laundry to the seedy, dirty, damp, theft-prone and yet expensive laundromat in the basement, so I got a hand-crank washing machine and strung up an indoor clothesline. Because the load size was so small and because it required hot water, I got in the habit of doing laundry every night after washing the day's dishes. As a result, my clothes were always clean, and so I didn't need as many clothes. After a couple of years of living this way, I had a much reduced wardrobe, which came in handy when I lived out of a bike trailer for a year!
I mention this because we bought a combination washer dryer last fall (2025), and I expected that it would change the way I do laundry compared to the conventional washers and dryers Jessie and I had for the previous 15+ years. I'll be speaking for myself and not Jessie, because I do most of the laundry for both of us, because she has a tendency to forget to take laundry out of the washer! That was part of the appeal of a combo unit for us: no more forgetting!
How I used to do laundry with conventional equipment:
- wait until I have at least one full load, or until the laundry chute fills up, or until I run out of things to wear, or until it's a nice day to use the clothesline, or until I will be home all day to change loads
- sort my clothes out since I like to hang mine outside and Jessie wants hers in the dryer
- start my clothes first thing in the morning so they'll have time to dry on the line
- estimate the amount of detergent appropriate for the load size
- wipe the measuring cup so it doesn't drip detergent all over
- wait to run a second load until Jessie has showered so the washer doesn't steal all her water pressure
- hang my clothes on the clothesline and hope they will finish drying during the few hours of direct sunlight they get
- rebalance and restart the washer if it gets unbalanced and shuts itself off during the spin cycle
- leave the washer door open so it doesn't develop halitosis
- clean the lint filter before every load goes in the dryer
- hang up Jessie's bras and bathing suits so they don't tangle in the dryer or degrade from the heat
- put Jessie's load(s) in the dryer as they come out of the washer every 30-45 minutes, using dryer sheets if I remember
- silently curse the amount of electricity the dryer uses and the amount of conditioned air it blows outdoors
- run the dryer a second time because it rarely gets everything dry the first time
- take the laundry out, full of static if I forgot a dryer sheet
- take my clothes down off the line and put any that didn't dry into the dryer after all
I used to do home energy audits, and at the time there was no better technology available than conventional clothes dryers (aside from clotheslines). A gas dryer is more energy- and cost-efficient than an electric one, but they both pull air from your house, heat it, run it through the clothes once, and then blow it out the side of the house without reclaiming any of the heat, which is just ... dumb. But without a better alternative, I had to tell clients — and myself — that we'd just have to live with the inefficiency.
It's worth mentioning that although they use far less electricity than electric dryers, natural gas dryers are a carbon monoxide hazard that is often overlooked. A few years ago, we stayed at an Airbnb where we had to open the windows to keep the carbon monoxide alarm from going off every time we ran the dryer. Without the alarm, we would have had no idea we were being poisoned!
When heat-pump dryers became available, they got my attention with their dramatic energy efficiency — they just need a regular 120V outlet! — but they were expensive and slow and hard to find. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included tax incentives for heat-pump dryers, but the equipment we had bought in 2019 was still new enough I couldn't justify replacing it yet. But it was a bee in my bonnet, and by the fall of 2025 I'd heard enough positive reviews that I decided to go ahead and buy this GE model when it was on sale.
A laundry robot
Now, the thing you need to understand is that this machine is really a robot that does laundry. Much like your dishwashing robot will dry as well as wash your dishes if you let it, but can't load or unload itself or pre-soak the dirtiest dishes, a laundry robot will dry as well as wash your clothes, using the appropriate amount of detergent and softener for the amount of water; remove pet hair and prevent wrinkles when told to do so; and notify you when it's done, but it can't pre-treat stains or fold the clothes for you. It also can't clean its own lint filter, which is a pretty significant oversight I hope will be addressed someday.
It's got a lot of sensors and electronics that will definitely stop working if we ever get an electromagnetic pulse or something. But honestly the previous equipment did too, it was just hidden behind clunky push-buttons and dials. I weighed the pros and cons and decided I was ready for a laundry robot. At least it doesn't require the Internet to run!
Will it pay for itself? Probably not. As I recall the conventional machines were about $1000 apiece, and the new one was almost $3000 after taxes and a protection plan. It uses about 1/3 the electricity (~1 kWh per load) and doesn't blow conditioned air out of the house, but as it turns out, those changes don't make much of a dent in our bills. But the question isn't really fair — most of us Americans don't ask whether a car will pay for itself, or a house, or a TV, or a pet; we ask whether it will bring us joy and contentment, and whether it will save us frustration and stress. If something improves your quality of life directly, whether or not it saves you money directly isn't all that relevant.
Does it change the way I do laundry? Not as much as I thought it would, but that has a lot to do with our house... we have a laundry chute to the basement, so that disinclines me from doing a load every day, as I might if we were putting laundry directly into the machine. When something is soiled and needs to be washed right away, it's very nice to be able to start a load right then, even before bed or as we're headed out the door, without worrying about how it will get dry.
It's worth mentioning that the convenience of the laundry chute means that my laundry gets mixed with Jessie's unnecessarily. I could save the step of sorting if I used a hamper instead. But then I'd have to carry the hamper of dirty downstairs, and well... the laundry chute is just nicer.
So how I do laundry with a robot?
- sort my stuff from Jessie's since even if it's not clothesline weather, she prefers fabric softener and I don't
- turn the machine on and clean the lint filter if it asks me to, about every 5th load
- select the appropriate cycle: normal is best most of the time, but sometimes we have a load of bedding or athletic wear or jeans, or something covered in pet hair that needs the "pet hair" feature
- turn the fabric softener feature on or off: it will automatically dispense, along with detergent, from their respective tanks in the machine, in amounts appropriate to the size of the load
- disable the dry part of the cycle if I'm hanging my clothes on the line
- start a load whenever it's convenient: it runs water only for 5 seconds at a time, so it doesn't interfere with showering
- hang my clothes outside when I get a notice on my phone app; they are spun so thoroughly that they will dry in just a few hours
- do nothing if the dry cycle was left enabled; it will start drying automatically
- leave Jessie's bras and bathing suits - the machine doesn't get hot enough or tumble hard enough to harm them, and it tumbles both directions so they don't tangle; mesh bags are also an option for delicates and small items
- enable the "more dry" and/or "wrinkle care" features via the app if I'm not going to be there when the dry cycle completes (this can also be done in person if I remember while I'm still downstairs)
- when notified that the laundry is dry, remove clothes; unless I enabled "more dry" they will feel oddly damp but are usually not in fact damp; this is literally the first thing the manual warns users about, because it is confusing
- fish out any socks or other small items that have landed in the door gasket, and set them out to finish drying
- close the door fully after use, since the machine is dry inside
- fold laundry without being troubled by static
In addition to letting us know when to clean the lint filter, the machine also lets us know when to clean its pump filter (conveniently located in front, but less convenient if you don't have a floor drain nearby for the water to flow into) and when to run a self-cleaning cycle ("UltraFresh™"!) to prevent mold or bacterial growth. All these maintenance tasks can be deferred if it's not convenient to do them right away.
Now, I should mention that, in addition to the door gasket catching socks, this specific model has problems with lint bypassing the filter and getting into the coils. There are lots of videos on YouTube where owners have investigated the problem and proposed various complex solutions. I've chosen to ignore them and just use the machine as directed and keep an eye on the lint buildup — the extended warranty will come in handy when it needs fixing. For a few weeks clothes were coming out damp, but the machine seems to have corrected itself over time — it is a robot, after all — so that's no longer happening.
Is a laundry robot right for you?
After seeing our laundry robot, my parents ran out and bought the same model! I didn't have a chance to go over with them whether I thought it was a good fit for them or not. I asked them for their feedback, and they said,
Gordon: The GE Profile has a "look". It is large, hulking, and dark gray. The transparent circular door in the front is tinted dark gray also. I'm a practical guy. So that "look" doesn't impress me. I'd like to be able to see inside to watch the clothes being tossed. I'd even like to have the top cowling of unit be transparent! That would make it easier for me to see where the lint needs to be cleaned out.
Fran: The GE Profile does an excellent job of getting clothes clean — without tying them in knots. I hung over half the loads outdoors to dry, but the ones it dried came out nice and fluffy. My only complaint is that the lint filter is tedious and fiddly to clean. And Gordon complains that the wastewater filter is very messy to access and clean (we were grateful that the vendor did not press us to buy the exorbitantly priced pedestal, but neither did he explain its advantage).
I would recommend a combo washer-dryer if:
- you don't currently have hookups for a conventional dryer (240V or gas, and a vent to outdoors),
- -- or you have an all-electric house and are hoping to tighten it up,
- -- or you have a gas dryer and want to reduce the risk of combustion gases,
- -- or you frequently forget to take laundry out of the washer;
- and you have a space within reach of hot & cold water,
- and that space is also within 20 feet of a drain that can handle a surge of water: either a washer drain pipe or a utility sink, or even a bathtub,
- and you don't stress out about getting the laundry done quickly, since a load can take 2-3 hours.
I would not recommend spending thousands of dollars on a laundry robot if:
- your current laundry system works well for you,
- and your equipment is in good repair and under warranty,
- and you have a carbon monoxide alarm in the room with any gas appliances,
- and you rarely forget to take laundry out of the washer.
This technology has the potential to really improve some people's lives, but it's worth considering whether you're the right fit! I had fully expected it to change the way we do laundry, and for us, it was more of an incremental improvement.
- Log in to post comments