I have to stack my machines because they are located along the rear wall of the garage, and city ordinance requires a bollard (concrete-filled steel pipe) be located to protect appliances from a wayward car. Because the home was built in 1988, when FLs were a very small segment of the market (I guess White-Westinghouse still made them, but no other major US brands made them---one could buy Miele imports but I digress). The bollard was placed right in front of the washer space, so that the pipe would now block the door of any FL, even if on a pedestal.
If you cut down and remove the bollard, the house might not meet code inspection if you try to sell. I felt a better approach was to work with what I had, and that meant placing a laundry stack in the dryer space and using the washer space for something else (I placed a table there for folding laundry or holding laundry baskets). Not all companies then (2006) offered stackable washers/dryers, but Frigidaire did, and because they have kept their cabinet sizes to 36", a stack is only six feet tall (I am 5'11"). Electrolux is more like 39" tall, so that a stack will be 6'6". Right now, the dryer door is even with my chest, so removing clothes from dryer is very ergonomic. If I upgraded to Electrolux, the door would be higher.
Our local appliance store (Pacific Sales) has a showroom with several stacks so consumers can get a feel for whether controls and doors are at a comfortable height for them. They don't have every make and model stacked, but they do have a Frigidaire and an Electrolux stack, so you can see what 36" and 38.5" cabinets look like when stacked.
From the context of the article posted by [COLOR=#ff0000; font-size: medium]mrb627[/COLOR], it appears that demand for stacking is growing due to the growth of upstairs laundry rooms. The ones I've seen in newer homes tended to be closets with enough lateral room to place the machines side by side, but the article seems to suggest that some homes feature narrower closets that require stacking.
<span style="font-size: medium; color: #ff0000;">(<span style="text-decoration: underline;">@gualin</span></span>---no, there is no special mechanism to keep the garage pipes from freezing.....it may get down to 8 C in the winter in the garage, but not cold enough to freeze pipes---we do get light frosts 26-30F, but that won't freeze pipes).
