Combo unit
Okay that makes sense then. You said “top lint filter Whirlpool dryer” and that’s where I was confused.
I’ve no experience with combo unit washer-dryers but I’d imagine the reason traditional standalone units can’t easily be converted to such functions is for one, the space available inside the cabinet, and two, exposing the traditional seals in a front load washer to higher, dry heat on a regular basis would very quickly cause them to brittle and dry rot. Combos, from visual inspection, seem to have seals that are designed to withstand the heat but this may also make them more expensive, which would be impractical in a stand alone washer for how infrequently consumers would want to “convert” their machine.
On top of that, from what I understand, the drying components of a combo unit are also quite underpowered because of how small and space saving they have to be, which also explains why drying times for combos are notoriously long considering how small the usable capacity is for these machines. Just at a glance, combo models from WP, LG, all the Midea/Chinese knockoffs and such, they all basically have a small shaded-pole fan motor and a tiny little heating element ring. There’s no way that can compete with a full-size dryer blower and heating element duct.
I’d say the experiment to set a combo washer to “No Spin” and let the load sit and drizzle the excess out, and then set it separately to dry, if the machine will allow such a function, would be neat just to see how comically long it would take to adequately dry the load, but it also seems like it’s going to be a tremendous energy hog doing so. You might as well put a stock pot of water on the stove and see how long it takes to boil the pot dry at that point.
