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You would be far better off with a small washer and the Whirlpool 24" dryer. With the dryer, you get a higher and more efficient air flow as well as a larger drum, plus you can be washing another load while the first is drying. If you are drying electrically on 120 volts, it is not going to be a fast operation any way you look at it, but the combo route is not for any but the most desperate of situations with twin bed linens and clothes, other than socks and underwear, that are sent to the cleaners.
 
Maybe I'm projecting, but it seems to me if one is even discussing this, one does not have access to 240V or to gas. Therefore there are no good options.

If there were room for 2 machines, I'd buy the vented combo AND a 120v dryer. When the combo has started its drying cycle, take 1/2 the load and place it into the dryer and let the other half continue to (slowly) dry in the combo. When the dryer load is finished, put the other half into the dedicated dryer.

Hardly an ideal situation, but it's still better than schlepping to the laundromat.

Jim
 
99% of homes and apartments in the US have either a gas range or a 208-240 volt range so people do have access to these options.

 

A 120 volt WP comp[act dryer is still better than a 24" vented 120 volt combo for drying clothing. The vented [ or condensing ] combos sold in this country are too small in capacity to be a decent dryer and they are very short lived before failing.
 
The nice thing about having a separate portable  or 24" dryer is that it does not have to be near the plumbing like the washer does. Some people put the dryer in another room or even out on a balcony. They can be covered with a tablecloth when not in use.

 

One of the most noticed failures of the little toy combos is that the air circulator, usually a squirrel cage blower, quickly clogs up with the moist lint in the air. Full-size domestic combos that used a blower, like the WP made 29 inch machines, ran the fill flume through two positions in the blower housing to flush lint from the larger blower each time the machine filled. These do not do that and the blowers are smaller so the fins are placed closer together, making them clog faster . The little combos also do not have a very good service network so it might take some time to find someone who is able to service your machine and show you how, if you have the aptitude, to take it apart to get into the blower to periodically clean it yourself.

 

Drying in the combo and a portable dryer presupposes that you have two separate circuits able to handle the high amp draw of the machines, both of which take the full capacity of a 15 amp circuit when in use. This means that you don't have the refrigerator, a toaster oven or a window air conditioner on the same circuit. This is something many small or older apartments lack.

 

It is true that a vented combo does not have to be hooked up to the sink for hours while it washes and dries so even if it dries slowly, at least you have the ability to use your sink during the process.
 
"99% of homes and apartments in the US have either a gas range"

While one supposes that statement is true it does not mean tenants (rental housing) can or even have the right to install a gas dryer.

Most every lease have seen at least in New York has the common boiler plate language forbidding installing appliances or whatever without the explicit permission of landlord.

NYC government and utilities are very touchy atm about illegal gas connections, in particular after a few major disasters like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_East_Village_gas_explosion

Anyone around here who installs a gas dryer or any other such appliance without permission will quickly find themselves out on the street.

Not even for a dryer, but would love one of those vintage gas heated ironers, but even I know when to leave well enough alone.
 
Since I am the eternal underdog lover (drove a Yugo, Gremlin, Citroen 2CV!) it's the toy aspect that appeals to me. The cabin currently has a KM stack unit that is 120V. That means you can only wash or dry at one time. I'm sure it's still faster than a combo, but seldom comes up in cocktail party chatter.
 
I had a '74

Gremlin, and yes, it was full of them. Electrical system gremlins, door hinge gremlins, rust gremlins, suspension spring gremlins. Even the exhaust pipe clamp on the transmission had one. The last of Richard Teague's designs after joining AMC/Nash-Hudson from defunct Packard Motors under George Romney.
I had junked it by 1978, and got a nice used '74 Caprice, then a '77 Cutlass which lasted 8 more years.
 
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