Advice needed on combo washer

[launderess]

Laundry Facilities

According to persons we know in the RS trade things are getting better laundry wise. An example is shown below at the "Writing Room" apartments above the former Elaine's restaurant/bar in Yorkville.

Quite honestly the upper middle to high end customer is demanding laundry appliances or at least hook-ups so they can install their own. That and or the property not having restrictions on same. Washing machines and dryers are becoming what dishwashers were a decade or ago; less a luxury than a mod con which must be had.

According to one's sources properties without in unit W&D and or that do not allow sell/rent for less in many cases. Even the UES "white glove" buildings from Lexington to Fifth Avenues are starting to realize this and allow washers and dryers to be installed.

Part of what is driving this is all that shiny new construction below say 34th Street and especially downtown and of course Brooklyn. More often than not such properties *do* have washer and dryer connections if not units already installed. This means if you want to sell or rent your unit it will be at a loss without.

Other force driving this trend is the explosion of families with children moving into or living in the City.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/06/13_renovated_rentals_debut_above_the_nowclosed_elaines.php

 

[launderess]

P.S.

If you look closely at the W&D hookup in the apartments linked above it is a Bosch washer with condenser dryer. Today it is around 65F to 70F in Manhattan with very high humidity, which means an air cooled condenser dryer is all but useless. Well suppose if you crank down the AC to make the place cold and dry...

 

[NYCWriter]

Unfortunately ...

"According to one's sources properties without in unit W&D and or that do not allow sell/rent for less in many cases. Even the UES "white glove" buildings from Lexington to Fifth Avenues are starting to realize this and allow washers and dryers to be installed."

Unfortunately, it's not a matter of simply "allowing" washers and dryers to be installed.

Older buildings, particularly prewar (which is what most of those "white glove Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue" buildings are), were never designed to handle the water loads demanded by washing machines.

I dealt with this in my own prewar building, until we started cracking down on "illegal" washers and dryers, forcing tenants to give theirs up; drains backing up into other units, and a marked decrease in water pressure, particularly during the daytime hours when people were using them.

At one point, it was so bad that there were days when NO water came out of my shower faucet because of the demand from the apartments below and their illegal washers. I found out one woman was even running a $%^& laundry SERVICE from her apartment!

Yes, we should all be entitled to our own laundry facilities. Unfortunately, that is simply not possible in many apartment buildings with 1920s (or even 1960s!) plumbing infrastructure.

 

[richardlxixxx]

Washer and Dryer

I have decided that honesty is the best policy. The landlord was informed of what I want to do and even recommended an electrician. The LG compact ventless condenser dryer is a perfect fit and the LG 2.3 cubic foot washer with the portability package will work perfectly. Landlord has approved of everything, so hopefully soon I will not have to use the common area laundry. Convenience of having your own readily accessible laundry is worth a lot to me. I cannot wait for the project to be finished.

Thank you for all the advice.

Richard

 

[NYCWriter]

Richard ...

... good for you. Now you can sleep at night, and really enjoy using your new washer/dryer.

By the way, I now officially hate you.

 

[henene4]

@warmsecondrinse

All condensing dryers today use air as cooling medium. Thus, lower ambient temperature means faster, more effectiv drying.
Only combo units use water cooled condensors.
There has been at least one Miele dryer that had a water cooled condensor, but it is verry rare and has been canceld in the late 70s, I think...

 

[combo52]

Condensing Dryers

Heat-pump dryers are also condensing dryers and they are getting more popular every day.

 

[yogitunes]

sometimes you have no choice.....either live with it, or improvise.....

but you have to wonder with some as to why they didn't have a list of things they would be looking to 'have' when they purchase a house or apartment....there would be priority, and then necessity.....hopefully fitting into their budget

then again, I seen some not think of anything until after they moved in, or had no clue as to what they would want or need...

some things I required when looking were

cable or satellite
natural gas
high water pressure
laundry room

just to name a few.....

 

[combo52]

Proper Living

I could not agree more Martin, one of my friends has complained for years that he can't have an electric range in his Coop apartment. Aah why did you buy the apartment,? one must have priorities and direction in life.

 

[NYCWriter]

Well ...

"but you have to wonder with some as to why they didn't have a list of things they would be looking to 'have' when they purchase a house or apartment....there would be priority, and then necessity.....hopefully fitting into their budget"

Unfortunately, in New York City, priorities and necessities don't fit AT ALL into your budget.

With "starter" apartments priced at $500K and above, you pretty much have to take what's offered.

 

[launderess]

Why Did You Buy The Apartment?

No small number of persons fail to grasp that no matter how dear the cost purchasing a unit in a multi-family building is *NOT* the same as owning a private house somewhere. By nature of the arrangement the former means one is subjected to certain rules and or laws governed and or set in place by the majority (the board).

This is one of the reasons brownstone/townhouse sales in Manhattan and large parts of Brooklyn have gone through the roof. Persons simply are not interested in spending millions on a property and not only being subjected to an approval process, then being told what they can and cannot do within or to same.

Harlem is rapidly becoming the next big gay area of Manhattan due in no small part to large numbers purchasing brownstones up there. Mind you many tend to be couples and or single parents, but still they wanted to live in a "private" house and were willing to go into an area just a generation ago none would have given a second look. Ditto for Bed-Stuy, Clinton Hill, Prospect Park, and so forth.

 

[NYCWriter]

Um ...

"Why Did You Buy The Apartment?"

Because I have to live SOMEWHERE and I couldn't afford a brownstone because I didn't have $8 million, I had "only" $3 million.

As I said earlier, there always trade-offs.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

@ Henene: Viel'n Dank for the info. I was unaware that only combos used waster in the drying cycle. That's good. That'll be one less complication for me.

@NYCWriter: You're very welcome.

@ Combo52: Are there any heat pump dryers available in the U.S. now?

For all you non-NYC people: NYC (with the possible exceptions of Boston and S.F.) is the most competitive, fickle, and expensive housing market in the country. Finding a house/condo/co-op/cond-op a within reasonable commuting distance, has parking, is large enough, and is vaguely affordable is all but impossible for most people. Add to that fickle real estate salesmen and mortgage reps who can't be bothered to return calls/e-mails and just disappear and you have a full-time job that quickly has you pulling your hair out.

I was determined to have a place that would let me have my own washer, dryer, and dishwasher. I saw a couple dozen places before finding one I could afford. It's in Mott Haven, yet another "bad area" of the Bronx that is experiencing renewal because nobody can afford to live anywhere else. A lot of people aren't as lucky as I and cannot find a place that satisfies their needs, much less their wants...something from the list has to go. Of course, that doesn't give you the right to bitch afterward as you knew (or should have) what you were getting into when you bought.

As Launderess stated, a lot of NYC is experiencing the opposite of urban decay; 'good' areas are encroaching on the 'bad' as even white collar professionals are priced out of the so-called good parts of town. I'm temporarily staying with a friend in Sugar Hill, in the NW end of Harlem. At most I could afford a small studio here.

 

[NYCWriter]

Jim ...

... well put!

 

[jstags]

A note about washer/dryer "portablity" and portabili

In my experience, most of the washer/dryer combos are not--per the manufacturer--designed to be used as "portables". No current LG washer-dryer is designed to be used with casters, for example.
While a number of resellers do offer "portability kits" which largely consist of casters to replace the normal legs and a faucet attachment kit, using casters is problematic with a front-loader; the casters do not provide a stable base and significant vibration during spin results.

--I had a Equator for about 12 years and--while it was on casters--I used custom foam blocks to anchor it between the end of the counter and the wall so that it was stabilized. Without that step, the castors were not sufficiently stable: any spin was unstable, loud and I can't imagine that it wouldn't have eventually damaged the machine.
--When that machine died, I replaced it with an LG Combo (bigger, faster, stronger, shinier). Due to the layout of my apartment, I need to be able to easily move the machine, but instead of casters (which LG explicitly says not to use), I used an adjustable shop stand base (HTC2000 Adjustable Mobile Base to be exact). Because it is designed for shop equipment, it is extremely stable. In the lowered position, it is firmly anchored, and it raises easily with foot pedals to allow it to be moved. I leveled it on the stand in the location I used it and the even heavy load spin cycles are amazing smooth. Pic below.

--Note that when connecting to a faucet, you adjust the temp by adjusting it at the faucet itself. It gives you complete control over the temperature, but you have to remember to change to cold only for the dry cycle.

--I get the impression that most of the people saying how useless a 120V combo dryer is have never actually used a combo unit. Most of my loads dry in an hour including towels (note that if you do a full load of wash, you need to split the dry time: this is more due to the small drum size--dryers normally have double the volume of a washer to allow airflow). So if I do a full size load, it usually is two 1 hour dry cycles for drying each half. The new LG dries faster than the old machine. It isn't as convenient as a standard W/D setup, but that isn't the point: a standard W/D setup isn't an option in an apartment without laundry hookups. Of course a 22V dryer is faster, but you know, my kitchen doesn't have a bunch of extra 220V outlet. If the combo needed 22V to dry, then I couldn't use the combo anyway.