A Portable Option

There are really three options for people who need a washer and dryer but have limited area for placing these appliances. The first is the stackable washer dryer, but by virtue of the vertical alignment of two appliances, the result is a towering unit that can reach 6 feet in height.

Such a tall unit is both difficult to install and to accomodate into areas that have shelving and cabinets hanging on the wall which get in the way of the stacked unit. The second option is a combo mini washer dryer which is a single unit that is able to both wash, and then dry within the same appliance space. But what if the consumer does not even have space for a mini? The answer is the portable washer dryer. After use, the portable washer or dryer can be stowed away somewhere easily. It is easily transported because either it is quite light and can be picked up with little effort, or it is outfitted with wheels that allow it to be pushed from spot to spot.

A Solution with Mixed Benefits

Although the portable washers and dryers are so small and light they can be moved around, they differ from the mini due to the fact that they are separate units. There is also a lot of variance between manufacturers, as there is much less consensus among consumers and what constitutes a useful portable washer or dryer. For example, a student living in a dorm room might want a portable washer that can be stored under the desk when not in use and hooked up to a faucet when doing a load of laundry. In contrast, a camper may bring a much tinier unit that is operated entirely by manual power (filling and agitating the clothes). Do not expect the same high quality such as that found in the German Bosch stackable washer dryer.

Portable Washers

Portable washers can really be divided into three categories. The first is the wheeled portable, the second is the counter-top, and the third is the manual. The wheeled portable is the fanciest with a water hook up, electric motor, and electronic controls for adjusting water level and washer speed. Haier, a manufacturing company from China, is well-known for their small-sized portables. Partly this is because dwellings tend to be smaller in China and partly because income levels in China support smaller appliances. The counter-tops are more varied with a mix of options. The Wonder Washer for example is an electrically-driven model that is essentially a spinning bucket. A small (perhaps half) load of clothes is placed in and cycled for some time, but then must be wrung by hand because the motor is not strong enough to do spin drying. On the other hand, the Wonderwash Countertop (different company) makes a countertop that is entirely hand-powered. Reviews are mixed on both products but they certainly satisfy an under-served niche. Finally the manual washers are served by small niche companies that produce small devices such as the Laundry POD.

Portable Dryers

Unlike washers, portable dryers cannot be made into fully manual devices. A fully non-powered drying device after all is the clothesline. All portable dryers instead are driven by electricity to either spin dry or heat a wet load of clothes. Again Haier from China makes a few portable versions that are essentially very light appliances which can fit small loads. These tend to be somewhat larging and fit best on the ground but perhaps can be accomodated on a sturdy countertop. Competing companies make countertop, electrical spin dryers that squeeze the water out by high speed spinning rather than heating. Because portables are already so small, it makes little sense to squeeze in a ventless washer dryer that can dry without outflow.

Summary

A number of portable options exist but the product line-up is highly non-uniform due to the great variety of what consumers expect out of a portable washer dryer. Some opt for wheeled, standing units that are almost equivalent to their non-portable counterparts, and others opt for very small, camping-size devices. The supplier market unfortunately is also much smaller, reflecting perhaps limited demand for devices that can only do half or smaller loads of laundry, and perhaps also engineering constraints that prohibit a larger company from trying to put out a product in this difficult niche.