# Straight Dope on portable washers/dryers please.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-portable-washers-dryers-please/308038>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 13, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-portable-washers-dryers-please/308038 "2005-06-13T02:32:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![D505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@D505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D505)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-portable-washers-dryers-please/308038/1 "2005-06-13T02:32:20Z")

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Hi all,

I live in an apartment and currently have a load of laundry drying in the laundry room. The laundry room is typical… downstairs, far away, expensive, crowded, and doesn’t always work. ☹

While I’m in the mood, I would like to get opinions from people who have tried 110v washers and dryers, specifically the kind which hooks up to a sink for water (because I do not have any washer/dryer hookups).

I’m also interested in the heatless dryers… while [this one](http://www.laundry-alternative.com/ventless_clothes_dryer.html) seems to leave clothes “mostly dry” and is sold by a bunch of g.d. pinko hippies :mad:, I’d be willing to try it if it’s not a dumb idea. 🙂

Also, would the noise bother my downstairs neighbors?

-d

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**Author:** ![Studs\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@Studs\_Murphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Studs_Murphy)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-portable-washers-dryers-please/308038/2 "2005-06-13T03:25:06Z")

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Never tried the driers but a long time ago I had a washer of the type you describe.

Hard to say whether I would recommend it. It wasn’t bad and I found it handy for underwear and having shirts ready, for example and the load was reasonable, all things considered. Definitely worth having as a standby but not a replacement for a full size washing machine.  
If you get one, buy soap flakes or other low-suds powder.

I doubt that the noise would bother your neighbours. As I recall, it seemed pretty noisy when you were in the same room but I doubt that it would travel up or down too much. Also, the cycle wasn’t that long so any minor noise nuisance would be quite limited, I would say.