The smell of a damp basement shouldn’t be the default scent for a $2,000 appliance, but for about three years, that was my life. I lived in this cramped 400-square-foot studio in Chicago where the only way to have laundry was to use one of those all-in-one ventless units tucked under the kitchen counter. It was a nightmare. I’d put a load in at 8 AM, go to work, come back at 6 PM, and the clothes would still be hot, humid, and smelling faintly of scorched rubber and despair. Most people tell you these things are a miracle of space-saving engineering. Those people are usually trying to sell you something or they’ve never actually tried to dry a pair of heavy denim jeans in a heat-pump drum.
Look, I’m just a guy who works a regular job and writes this stuff because I’m tired of reading “buying guides” written by people who have never touched a lint filter in their lives. If you’re looking for the best washing machine and dryer combo, you need to understand that 90% of them are fundamentally broken by design. They try to do two things at once and end up doing both poorly. But, because I’m obsessed with optimizing my life, I’ve spent way too much time researching the specs and actually testing these things in my current place. I might be wrong about the long-term reliability of the newer sensors—only time tells that story—but I have some very loud thoughts on what you should actually buy.
The GE Profile UltraFast is the only one that doesn’t lie to you
I used to think all-in-ones were a scam. I was completely wrong. Or rather, I was right until the GE Profile UltraFast PFQ97HSPVDS came out. I’ve been tracking my laundry times for six months because I’m a nerd like that, and this machine actually hits a full wash-and-dry cycle in about 145 minutes for a standard load. Most other combos take four hours. Four hours! You could fly halfway across the country in the time it takes an LG Washtower to handle three towels.
What I mean is—actually, let me put it differently. The GE uses a high-airflow heat pump system that doesn’t require a vent. Usually, “ventless” means “your clothes will stay damp forever,” but GE put a massive filter up front that you actually have to clean. It’s gross. It’s satisfying. It works. I tested 12 loads of mixed cottons and synthetics, and the internal moisture sensor only missed the mark once on a heavy king-size duvet. It’s the first time I’ve seen an appliance actually live up to the YouTube hype.
The lint trap on this thing is like a tiny, felt-covered disappointment that you have to empty every single time, but it’s the reason your house won’t smell like a swamp.
It’s fast. It’s huge. It runs on a standard 120V outlet. That’s the part that still blows my mind. You don’t need the special 240V plug that looks like a monster’s face. You just plug it into the wall where your toaster goes. It’s heavy as hell, though. When the delivery guys brought mine in, they looked like they wanted to quit their jobs on the spot. 300 pounds of steel and regret. But once it’s in, it’s staying.
Worth every penny.
I know people love LG, but I kind of hate them
This is where I’m going to lose some of you. Everyone raves about the LG WashCombo All-in-One (the WM6998HBA). And on paper? It’s great. It’s quiet. It has a sleek door. But I genuinely tell my friends to avoid LG laundry products for one petty, specific reason: the chime. That little “Happy Birthday” song it plays when the cycle is done is the most condescending sound in the modern world. I don’t want my appliances to sing to me. I want them to be invisible.
Beyond the annoying music, I’ve found that LG’s software is too “smart” for its own good. It tries to weigh the load and then adds time mid-cycle. I once saw the timer go from 12 minutes to 48 minutes just because I added one extra sweatshirt. It felt like a personal insult. I’ve also noticed that their heat pump units tend to get a weird buildup in the secondary condenser that you can’t easily reach. If you aren’t a DIY person who wants to take apart your machine every two years, it’s a ticking time bomb of mold. I know people will disagree and say their LG has lasted ten years, but I’m biased. I don’t trust them.
The reality of the “Small Space” units
If you’re looking at the smaller 24-inch units (like the ones from Bosch or Miele), you’re entering a different world. This is where most people fail. I remember back in 2021, I tried to wash a heavy bathroom rug in a compact 2.4 cu. ft. LG unit. The machine started the spin cycle, hit a resonance frequency that I’m pretty sure could summon demons, and literally walked three inches to the left, cracking a floor tile in the process. I stood there in my underwear at 11 PM, just staring at it, wondering where my life went wrong.
- Miele WXi860: This is for people who have more money than time. It’s incredible, but it’s small. You can’t do a week’s worth of laundry for a family of four in this. You just can’t.
- Bosch 800 Series: It’s the “safe” choice. It doesn’t do anything amazing, but it also doesn’t break. It’s the Toyota Corolla of washers.
- Whirlpool All-in-One: Avoid. Just avoid. I’ve never seen a brand struggle so hard to make a door seal that actually seals.
Anyway, the point is that if you go small, you have to change your entire lifestyle. You can’t be a “Sunday Laundry” person. You have to be a “one small load every single day” person. It’s a commitment. It’s like having a very clean, very demanding pet. I digress. The heat pump technology in these smaller units is basically a refrigerator running in reverse with an identity crisis, and if the room gets too hot, they just stop drying. It’s a finicky science experiment.
I might be wrong about the longevity of the GE
Here is the scary part. The GE Profile UltraFast is packed with sensors. It has a massive touchscreen. It connects to Wi-Fi. In my experience, the more “stuff” an appliance has, the more things can go wrong when a single capacitor blows. I worry that in five years, these all-in-ones will be expensive boat anchors. But right now? If you need to save space and you actually want dry clothes, there isn’t a second-place contender. Everything else feels like a compromise.
I think people who buy top-loaders are subconsciously afraid of the future, but maybe they’re the smart ones. They have a simple tub that spins. These combo units are basically spaceships. If the spaceship breaks, you’re back at the laundromat feeding quarters into a machine that smells like someone else’s gym socks.
Is it weird that I care this much about laundry? Probably. But when you live in a small place, your appliances become your roommates. And I’ve had some terrible roommates. If you have the space, buy separate units. Always. A dedicated vented dryer will always beat a combo. But if you don’t have the space, get the GE and pray the motherboard holds up.
Do we actually need our dryers to have Wi-Fi? I still haven’t figured that one out.
GE Profile UltraFast. Buy it.
