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LG WashCombo review: A washer and a dryer in one, but Is it worth it?
LG
Washers and dryers take up a lot of space, especially if you’re living a little apartment. And if you have a separate washer and dryer (and who doesn’t?) you need to manually transfer your clothes into the dryer. Now, a few appliance companies — including LG, Whirlpool, GE and Equator — are starting to combine washers and dryers into a single machine. But are they any good?
LG calls its electric washer and dryer combo the WashCombo. It offers a 5 cu. ft. capacity and takes up the same space as just a typical washing machine. The WashCombo was released in January 2024. LG delivered to a WashCombo in black steel to my home and arranged for it to be professionally installed so that I could take this intriguing new machine for a spin — pun intended.
For two weeks, I put this washer/dryer combo through its paces. After using the WashCombo to wash clothes, towels and bulky bedding, I discovered it can be a decent laundry solution for some — but not for everyone. If you’re ready to buy (say hello to more space in your kitchen!) a handy buy button is below. Or keep reading to learn how the LG WashCombo performed during my testing.
For additional advice on choosing a washer and dryer, be sure to check out our coverage of the five best washing machines for 2024 and the eight best electric dryers for 2024.
LG WashCombo: Two functions, one machine
LG
Capacity: 5 cu. ft. | Smart functionality: Yes (LG ThinQ) | Key features: Washing machine and ventless dryer in one unit | Dimensions: 27 x 39 x 33 1/8 inches | Displays: LCD dial and control panel touchscreens | Color options: Black steel or graphite steel | Power source: Electric | Model #: WM6998HBA
The new LG WashCombo is a full-featured washing machine and ventless electric dryer bundled into a single unit. The WashCombo relies on a quiet inverter heat pump and direct drive motor to perform a complete wash and dry cycle — without having to transfer your laundry between separate appliances.
WashCombo uses AI-based technology to detect fabric texture, soil level and load size to automatically select the right functions, temperatures and amount of liquid detergent. It’s also designed for a standard 120v outlet, with no special in-home electrical wiring required.
The TL:DR: After reading the appliance’s manual and doing just one laundry load, it was clear that this washer/dryer combo does what it’s meant to do, but not at the speed LG promotes. For someone living alone or a couple with just average laundering needs, the WashCombo is a solid option — able to keep up with demand and save you some space. But for a larger family, I’d recommend sticking with a large-capacity washer (at least 5.5 cu.ft.) and a separate, larger-capacity (at least 9 cu. ft) dryer to keep up with everyone’s dirty laundry and maintain energy efficiency.
LG WashCombo: Getting hands-on
The LG WashCombo was delivered in a large box that required two men to carry upstairs, unpack and install. The process took about 20 minutes from the time it was taken off the delivery truck.
Jason R. Rich
The detergent dispenser drawer holds enough liquid for up to 30 loads. The washer determines how much to use during each cycle. Or, you have the option of using detergent pods and tossing one into the machine when you load it with laundry.
Jason R. Rich
One thing that sets the LG WashCombo apart from traditional washers and dryers is that it has two separate filters that need to be cleaned. The top filter is a basic lint filter, while the one located in the lower-left corner of the appliance is a water inlet filter that catches loose items like buttons or coins. If not cleaned regularly, the entire WashCombo could easily clog.
Jason R. Rich
Owners will also need to maintain the rubber door seal using a liquid chlorine bleach mixture, and make sure no dirt, lint or anything else is caught within the rubber folds of the seal. And the manual also recommends wiping down the door seal, the inside of the washer door and the door’s inner glass between uses. The door must be left slightly open when it’s not in use to prevent mold buildup. Overall, that makes this a higher-maintenance model compared with traditional machines.
Jason R. Rich
To begin using the WashCombo, press the power button for about two seconds, until the control touchscreen lights up. Rotate the dial and choose the desired cycle setting. The most commonly used option is for a wash and a dry.
Jason R. Rich
To the right of the controller is a second touchscreen. It shows temperature, spin and soil settings and gives you access to additional cleaning options. For my first time using the WashCombo, I inserted five pairs of Levi’s jeans, selected the main option and pressed start. At this point, the machine started to spin slightly as the internal sensors did their calculations.
Jason R. Rich
Within about 30 seconds, the display on the control dial informed me that the complete wash and dry cycle would take two hours and 19 minutes, which is not the two hours LG promotes for this appliance. The wash cycle completed about 30 minutes later.
Jason R. Rich
At this point, the WashCombo switched automatically to dryer mode and the timer continued to count down.
Jason R. Rich
After the cycles were completed, the six pairs of jeans were clean and about 98% dry.
Next, I loaded up the WashCombo with a load of six bath towels. This time, I set the machine to the towels option, and it said the wash cycle would take 47 minutes. It wound up taking 55.
But this is where things started to really get off schedule. The display then told me that the dryer cycle would then take two hours and 10 minutes more. When the machine beeped saying it was done, two of the towels were over dried and crunchy, and four of them were still very wet. I turned the machine back on and set it to “dry only.” This time, the sensors said it would take another two hours and eight minutes to fully dry the towels — which already had been in the dryer for more than two hours. Ultimately, the entire process to wash and dry a load of just six towels took upwards of five hours and 18 minutes. This extended schedule repeated when I attempted to launder bulky bedding.
As I continued using the appliance, I realized it would probably be smart to invest in LG’s 27-inch pedestal storage drawer ($250) to raise the front-loading appliance door and prevent having to bend down. I suggest purchasing this accessory when you get the WashCombo, so you can have it installed at the same time. Otherwise, you’ll need at least two people to lift up the 246 pound WashCombo to install the pedestal later.
While not included with the WashCombo, I also strongly recommend putting an optional anti-vibration and noise dampening pad under the appliance. This can be purchased from Amazon for under $25. Especially during the drying cycle, the WashCombo shakes a lot — which at times, could be felt throughout my entire home.
Is the LG WashCombo worth it?
Despite multiple attempts, I couldn’t come up with a laundry load that the appliance could handle in the two hours that LG promotes. With heavier and bulkier laundry loads, the complete process took anywhere from 2.5 hours to more than five hours. By comparison, my previous washer took 40 minutes for a standard wash cycle, while the accompanying gas dryer took about 50 minutes for a complete drying cycle.
If you’re not counting on the WashCombo to complete a full wash and dry cycle in just two hours, than this appliance works just fine, and, for the most part, does what it’s supposed to do. Yes, the WashCombo saves space. And yes, it does eliminate the need to manually move loads from the washer to a separate dryer.
10 things I like about the LG WashCombo
- It has a sleek, modern appearance with intuitive and well labeled touchscreens.
- You get a washer and dryer that fits into the same space as a typical 27-inch-wide washing machine.
- There’s no need to manually move laundry from washer to dryer.
- The appliance uses artificial intelligence and sensors to detect fabric texture, soil level and load size. It can then automatically adjust its settings, or you can manually set them.
- Choose between 30 washer/dryer programs and 18 washer options. Some are load size- or fabric-specific.
- The WashCombo has an integrated sanitary cycle. It uses steam to disinfect laundry, while helping to reduce wrinkles and allergens.
- You can remotely control the WashCombo from a smartphone. The app allows you to download and install new and specialized cycles, monitor energy use and more.
- The appliance’s ventless and electric-only design gives you more installation options with fewer home connections than a traditional washer and gas dryer.
- The door can be installed to open either from left to right or right to left.
- During wash cycles, the WashCombo uses an internal heat element to make water hotter as needed.
Seven things I don’t like about the LG WashCombo
- The dry time is unpredictable. It often takes much longer to dry a load of laundry than the display indicates. A full load can often take four hours or longer. That said, the wash cycle is consistent, taking 30 and 55 minutes.
- To maintain the size of a standard, front-load washer, the WashCombo’s door is low to the ground. This requires the user to bend over sharply to load and unload it. For this reason, the optional (and matching) 27-inch pedestal is highly recommended.
- Despite an inverter heat pump and direct drive motor, the appliance vibrates a lot. (It’s no louder than any other washer or dryer, however.) Using an optional anti-vibration and noise dampening pad is highly recommended, especially if the appliance is installed on an upper floor.
- For maximum efficiency, LG recommends only washing/drying clothing made from the same fabric in each load and not to mix and match fabrics. For most people, this is not realistic or convenient.
- If you buy two WashCombo units to accommodate a family, the units can’t be stacked, since the appliance’s lint trap is on top of the unit.
- Even after the WashCombo completed its wash/dry cycle, it was often necessary to repeat the dryer cycle again. This needs to be done manually, since the internal sensors can’t tell when clothing is dry.
- The WashCombo requires more basic maintenance than most other washers and dryers. These tasks do not take a lot of time, but they must be done to prevent mold build up and to keep the appliance from getting clogged.
LG WashCombo: Final thoughts…
Even when on sale, the price of the LG WashCombo is about the same as a premium washer and dryer set, so you’re not saving money by purchasing just the one appliance. What you’re paying for is the convenience of not having to manually move your laundry from the washer to the dryer, for the added space you might get in your home, and for the “smart” functionality built in.
The washing functionality is great. I was underwhelmed, however, by the drying capabilities. Only a few times was I able to load it up with laundry, have it complete the wash and dry cycle, and end up with my clothes being fully dry. And when it worked without a hitch, it was never within the two hour time frame promoted by LG.
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Renad Atallah is an unlikely internet sensation: a 10-year-old chef, with a repertoire of simple recipes, cooking in war-torn Gaza. She has nearly a million followers on Instagram, who’ve witnessed her delight as she unpacks parcels of food aid.
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We interviewed Renad via satellite, though we were just 50 miles away, in Tel Aviv. [Israel doesn’t allow outside journalists into Gaza, except on brief trips with the country’s military.]
“There are a lot of dishes I’d like to cook, but the ingredients aren’t available in the market,” Renad told us. “Milk used to be easy to buy, but now it’s become very expensive.”
I asked, “How does it feel when so many people like your internet videos?”
“All the comments were positive,” she said. “When I’m feeling tired or sad and I want something to cheer me up, I read the comments.”
We sent a local camera crew to Renad’s home as she made Ful, a traditional Middle Eastern bean stew. Her older sister Noorhan says they never expected the videos to go viral. “Amazing food,” Noorhan said, who added that her sibling made her “very surprised!”
After more than a year of war, the Gaza Strip lies in ruins. Nearly everyone has been displaced from their homes. The United Nations says close to two million people are experiencing critical levels of hunger.
Hamada Shaqoura is another chef showing the outside world how Gazans are getting by, relying on food from aid packages, and cooking with a single gas burner in a tent.
Shaqoura also volunteers with the charity Watermelon Relief, which makes sweet treats for Gaza’s children.
In his videos online, Shaqoura always appears very serious. Asked why, he replied, “The situation does not call for smiling. What you see on screen will never show you how hard life is here.”
Before dawn one recent morning in Israel, we watched the UN’s World Food Program load nearly two dozen trucks with flour, headed across the border. The problem is not a lack of food; the problem is getting the food into the Gaza Strip, and into the hands of those who desperately need it.
The UN has repeatedly accused Israel of obstructing aid deliveries to Gaza. Israel’s government denies that, and claims that Hamas is hijacking aid.
“For all the actors that are on the ground, let the humanitarians do their work,” said Antoine Renard, the World Food Program’s director in the Palestinian territories.
I asked, “Some people might see these two chefs and think, well, they’re cooking, they have food.”
“They have food, but they don’t have the right food; they’re trying to accommodate with anything that they can find,” Renard said.
Even in our darkest hour, food can bring comfort. But for many in Gaza, there’s only the anxiety of not knowing where they’ll find their next meal.
For more info:
Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Carol Ross.
See also:
“Sunday Morning” 2024 “Food Issue” recipe index
Delicious menu suggestions from top chefs, cookbook authors, food writers, restaurateurs, and the editors of Food & Wine magazine.
It’s been said the best meals come from the heart, not from a recipe book. But at this USDA kitchen, there’s no pinch of this, dash of that, no dollops or smidgens of anything. Here, nutritionists in white coats painstakingly measure every single ingredient, down to the tenth of a gram.
Sheryn Stover is expected to eat every crumb of her pizza; any tiny morsels she does miss go back to the kitchen, where they’re scrutinized like evidence of some dietary crime.
Stover (or participant #8180, as she’s known) is one of some 10,000 volunteers enrolled in a $170 million nutrition study run by the National Institutes of Health. “At 78, not many people get to do studies that are going to affect a great amount of people, and I thought this was a great opportunity to do that,” she said.
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It’s called the Nutrition for Precision Health Study. “When I tell people about the study, the reaction usually is, ‘Oh, that’s so cool, can I do it?'” said coordinator Holly Nicastro.
She explained just what “precise” precisely means: “Precision nutrition means tailoring nutrition or dietary guidance to the individual.”
The government has long offered guidelines to help us eat better. In the 1940s we had the “Basic 7.” In the ’50s, the “Basic 4.” We’ve had the “Food Wheel,” the “Food Pyramid,” and currently, “My Plate.”
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They’re all well-intentioned, except they’re all based on averages – what works best for most people, most of the time. But according to Nicastro, there is no one best way to eat. “We know from virtually every nutrition study ever conducted, we have inner individual variability,” she said. “That means we have some people that are going to respond, and some people that aren’t. There’s no one-size-fits-all.”
The study’s participants, like Stover, are all being drawn from another NIH study program called All Of Us, a massive undertaking to create a database of at least a million people who are volunteering everything from their electronic health records to their DNA. It was from that All of Us research that Stover discovered she has the gene that makes some foods taste bitter, which could explain why she ate more of one kind of food than another.
Professor Sai Das, who oversees the study at Tufts University, says the goal of precision nutrition is to drill down even deeper into those individual differences. “We’re moving away from just saying everybody go do this, to being able to say, ‘Okay, if you have X, Y and Z characteristics, then you’re more likely to respond to a diet, and somebody else that has A, B and C characteristics will be responding to the diet differently,'” Das said.
It’s a big commitment for Stover, who is one of 150 people being paid to live at a handful of test sites around the country for six weeks – two weeks at a time. It’s so precise she can’t even go for a walk without a dietary chaperone. “Well, you could stop and buy candy … God forbid, you can’t do that!” she laughed.
While she’s here, everything from her resting metabolic rate, her body fat percentage, her bone mineral content, even the microbes in her gut (digested by a machine that essentially is a smart toilet paper reading device) are being analyzed for how hers may differ from someone else’s.
Nicastro said, “We really think that what’s going on in your poop is going to tell us a lot of information about your health and how you respond to food.”
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Stover says she doesn’t mind, except for the odd sounds the machine makes. While she is a live-in participant, thousands of others are participating from their homes, where electronic wearables track all kinds of health data, including special glasses that record everything they eat, activated when someone starts chewing. Artificial intelligence can then be used to determine not only which foods the person is eating, but how many calories are consumed.
This study is expected to be wrapped up by 2027, and because of it, we may indeed know not only to eat more fruits and vegetables, but what combination of foods is really best for us. The question that even Holly Nicastro can’t answer is, will we listen? “You can lead a horse to water; you can’t make them drink,” she said. “We can tailor the interventions all day. But one hypothesis I have is that if the guidance is tailored to the individual, it’s going to make that individual more likely to follow it, because this is for me, this was designed for me.”
For more info:
Story produced by Mark Hudspeth. Editor: Ed Givnish.
“Sunday Morning” 2024 “Food Issue” recipe index
Delicious menu suggestions from top chefs, cookbook authors, food writers, restaurateurs, and the editors of Food & Wine magazine.
