Question Washer / Dryer combo

[Rodeo]

So gonna fulltime in a newly acquired 2011 Montana. Hate the idea of laundry mat and trailer is plumbed for washer/Dryer. Any suggestions? any experince with the combo washer/dryers? Vented , Non Vented?

 

[Neemer]

We have a vented Splendide combo unit that is 16 years old and still going strong. It gets a lot of use when on the road. Nearly daily. We’ve been very happy with it.

 

[R.A.F]

Definitely Vented - Non-Vented generally leaves the laundry damp.

 

[docj]

Definitely Vented - Non-Vented generally leaves the laundry damp.

We've had an unvented Splendide for the entire 11 years we've had our coach. It is one of the most unfairly maligned devices I have ever encountered. Unfortunately, most of the negative comments come from people who have never owned one. The most common complaint is that they fill the RV up with humidity from the drying clothes, something which is downright wrong. They actually condense the water vapor coming off the clothes and send it down the drain with the waste water. As for leaving the clothes damp, that issue is easily avoided by adding an additional, short drying cycle after the first cycle ends. By doing that you can get clothes as dry as you wish.

One important thing to understand about combos is that they can wash a lot more clothes than they can dry effectively. That's very clearly spelled out in the user guide. What we do is remove some more delicate items to be line dried in our shower which lessens the weight of the clothes left to be dried.

The bottom line is that our combo serves us well. It is used almost daily; you get used to running frequent small loads. But if you don't have to take the clothes to a laundromat and stay there while they wash, who cares you need to run your machine? We couldn't full-time without it.

 

[R.A.F]

Gotta admit, never owned a non-vented, have always been deterred by a sales person. We have a stackable Splendide set-up. Wife is very pleased with the set up and, as stated above, you can dry a load while starting another wash.

 

[docj]

Wife is very pleased with the set up and, as stated above, you can dry a load while starting another wash.

But when you get down to it, the pacing element of the wash cycle is drying the load. All RV dryers, regardless of whether they are combos or stacked, operate using 120V on, at most, 20A circuits. That means they will take 3 times as long to dry a load as would a residential dryer using 240V on a 30A circuit.
As a result, being able to start a load while the previous one is drying is a marginal benefit IMHO. You end up with one wet load sitting in the washer while the previous one dries. The total time to do two loads is totally dominated by the time to dry them; the overall advantage of the stacked units over the combo reduces to the wash time of the second load.

By comparison, the combo has the ability to wash and then dry without operator intervention which means you can throw a load in in the morning and have clean, dry clothes when you return.

 

[EddieK]

We too have a Splende stack and also vented. The pair is less than a year old. We've relatively new to RV ownership and full time living. Please enough, so far.


-Eddie
2019 Keystone Alpine 3800FK