arkitrave :: log

AKA “Hello, this is Laundry”, for any MadTV fans out there.

My last project of the summer was an impulse one. We found out a few weeks ago that our washing machine was carefully adding drops of oil to select items of clothing. We eventually decided that enough clothes had been destroyed, and stopped doing laundry. <public service announcement>GE washers eventually start leaking oil from the transmission and it gets on your clothes</public service announcement>

We went into the store to look at standard, middle-of-the-road washer/dryer pairs (the dryer has been stopping every 10 minutes in a cycle, and is about 25 years old, so there’s no love lost there). We went out of the store with a contract for delivery of an Asko washer and dryer. 50% off. The dryer was a floor model, the washer was priced as a floor model but still in the box.

OK. I must be getting old. I’m really excited about new appliances.

But the thing that really made this project exciting is the dimensions of the washer and dryer. I started thinking (at the store, in the heat of impulse-buying, with no tape measure) that they looked like they would fit in a small closet. I thought some more. Baby on the way, basement smelly, would be so nice to not have to go downstairs to do laundry, one closet in hallway…

The long and short of it is: I decided, at the store, on impulse, to buy the machines and prepare my clothes closet (in my hallway, not in a bedroom) for a laundry facility. Of course, since the units were priced to sell, they had to deliver within a few days. I had the weekend to prepare the closet to be a mini-laundry room.

It was really not that difficult. The washing machine is designed to heat its own water (up to 205, or 95 for you Brits the rest of the world), so it requires only a cold water supply. I had a cold water pipe closeby in the basement, so I hacked the end off and ran PVC and a shutoff valve for the water supply, drilled a huge hole in the floor for the drain pipe (sump-pump flex hose into the old laundry tub), ran a new 240V circuit (only one, as the washer plugs into the dryer with a special plug), and ran a vent through my wife’s closet and out the side of the house.

The delivery people weren’t too excited. They are used to installing machines in the basement with lots of room around them. They had to install two 2×2x2 foot machines in a 27″ wide closet with a 2-foot wide door opening.

I have no buyer’s remorse. The machines are amazing (I have pants cuffs that have been dirty for years, even with stain-stick and numerous washes, that came clean in one cycle). The washer spins at 1600RPM, which is fast, and has water temperatures from cold to 205F. The washer senses the amount of water it needs, and the dryer senses when the clothes are dry. They are extremely energy-efficient, using about 1/4 the water and 1/8 the total energy of conventional machines. And did I say the clothes are CLEAN? And they don’t smell like detergent because of the five standard rinses (and two optional additional rinses).

It is insanely convenient to have the laundry on the first floor as well. Already we don’t dread doing the laundry like we used to. And they fit. Barely. I had to re-hang the door on the other side so it would open 180 degrees and not block the opening, and I had to remove one of the pieces of stop molding on the door trim so that the washer door could fold down through the opening. We have a total of about 1/16″ of clearance.

And my clothes are all hanging on a metal rack in my office. Someday, when I get my upstairs finished (which is becoming code for “when hell freezes over” in my house) I will have a closet again. But the trade-off is worth it.

The Swedes know how to make a washer and dryer. I won’t be buying anything else in the future.