After reading of the woes of people in housing with shared laundry facilities operated under draconian schedules, I feel like a spoilt kid even thinking about installing a personal machine in our flat, but I am, and I have two main questions. I want to be prepared before I ask the owner for his permission to make this change. And, yes, we intend to hire a proper electrician/plumber to do the work.

- We currently have a dishwasher in the kitchen. Miele, appears to be standard European 60 cm. I'm assuming that the existing electrical and plumbing hook-ups for the device are sufficient for a combined washer-dryer unit. Can anyone confirm this assumption?

- We're considering a combined unit, a Waschvolltrockner as they appear to be called. Recommendations for specific units - must be unterbaufähig AFAIU - or warnings against, are very appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

You can kind of have your cake and eat it (i.e. both washing machine and dishwasher). We bought one where the hose attachment empties into the bath and is plumbed in using a tap adapter on the bath taps. If we need to use the bath we just unclip the washing machine hose and take out the waste pipe from the bath.

This way we kept the dishwasher as well.

With a baby we couldn't really rely solely on the laundry room downstairs, even though it is really flexible, so we got our own.

I have two bathrooms. One of them, actually a shower, had space for a washing machine and tumbledrier. There were special fittings specially for the washing machine.

I used Fusst as delivery and installation was included in the price. The extended guarantee period was also a bargain (I took a 4 year pickup service for 300 :- IIRC).

I asked the landlord before buying the machines, and they said it was fine as long as an authorised person installed them.

I decided not to go for the combo machines (washing machine/drier in one) as there are limits to how much they can dry (I think it's between 2.5 and 3 kilos). Also, they don't really dry effectively. Of course if there are space issues, then it's a better option.

Do you not have space in your bathroom for a machine?

What a tremendous idea. We can't put it in the bathroom as we have mixer taps, but the dishwasher could be substituted for a clothes washing machine. I'm going to investigate ASAP

before embarking on this, I would suggest ensuring landlord is not extremely hacked-off at this idea - washing machines can be much noisier than dishwashers and hearing the news from you before installing rather than your neighbours after the fact will not be in your favour....

Ours is a mixer tap but we were supplied with a special adapter and you only turn on the cold water tap (or do you mean the taps with the lever instead of the twist on/off taps?)

I just second the drying feature. We had a top of the line in one place. The clothes were barely dry after 2 dry cycles. And maybe it was installed wrong, but the way it vented into the kitchen/living area was awful.

Just pick your model carefully. Thank god for consumer reviews.

Actually even with mixer taps you should be able to install stubs with an extra tap and nozzle on the cold water pipe, which allows you to connect the washmachine without worries.

My initial enthusiasm has been tempered with the growing awareness that the delightful woman who lives downstairs would probably have my guts for garters if I did that. Also, the company that owns our flat would most likely deny us permission. I could always get a twin tub that we could keep on the balcony............................

Chap that installed ours told us that a double layer of a yoga mat underneath the washing machine works wonders as a soundproofer.

Not with Frau B downstairs. I imagine she has a stethescope to her ceiling listening to us. She did tell me that I needed a licence for our telly, I was delighted to be able to inform her that we had one. She then asked if I needed a special one to watch 'those noisy English programmes' (must be said with a sneer in your voice), I don't think she aproves of laughter or joviality. So, a yoga mat or 12 would not be the answer. Maybe moving would be..........................

Oh goody, so many replies!!! Thank you all! Let's see now:

I should have mentioned that we have never used the dishwasher, nor do we intend to, so it's just taking up valuable space in the small kitchen.

The weight limit wouldn't be that much of an issue, as I'm already trained from our communal washing machines. The bathroom set-up doesn't work for us. It's easier to work with the communal machines in that case. It's extremely flexible, with no real time constraints, just that one has to sign up on a calendar. I've washed loads at 2 am and at 6 am. It's just that I don't like the dungeon and I'm also lazy.

Yep, agreed. Please see the second sentence in my original post.

Hm, good to know. What model was it, so that we may avoid it? From what I've read, a Kondenstrockner shouldn't vent any of the moisture into the room, it will heat up the place if it's air-cooled as it does its heat-exchange thing to condense the moisture into liquid water which it then expels down a drain. Although, it appears the combo units are usually water-cooled. Anyway, here's a link with some information for those who might be curious:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/l...958010854.html