DANGER!!! Re. propane bottles and gas dryers: There are some technical differences between appliances designed for gas from the public mains, and those designed for propane. Consult a qualified appliance service shop or licensed plumbing & heating contractor BEFORE you try ANYTHING involving gas. Mistakes can be DEADLY, including risk of axphyxiation, fire, and explosion. As far as I know, bottled propane is intended for outdoor use such as grills & barbequeues, not for indoor use. If a valve has a slight leak outdoors, the gas will blow away on the breeze. Indoors it could accumulate and ignite.
Personally I would no more have a bottle of propane indoors than I would keep a crate of dynamite under my living room table.
Re. stacked machines: see today's picture of the day, the GE portable compact. Very clever design for a stacking unit, where the dryer is actually on a shelf at a height that allows the washer to roll in underneath. The dryer stays up on the shelf, the washer can be rolled out to the sink and rolled back in under the dryer when done. This could probably be done with any stackable machines, whether the washer is a TL or an FL.
Re. Haier: I've heard variable reports, ranging from "lots of trouble and can't get parts" (for machines a couple of years ago), to much more positive reviews of their current ones. In all likelihood they had some initial problems when moving into the USA market, and have been working through them to where the quality has improved. If you're thinking of Haier, the best bet might be to go to a place that sells them and look over the floor/demo unit carefully, including plugging it in and running the agitator or pulsator, and the spin cycle, to see if it looks & sounds smooth when it runs, etc. etc.
Generally, most of the machines made in China are more lightly built than e.g. European models, so they should be treated more gently in service, in which case they will probably last a good many years.
