Best portable washer dryer combo for apartments ventless

If you can’t quite fit a full-size washer or dryer in your home, a 24-inch washer and ventless dryer pair will usually work instead. After 25 hours of research into 22 compact washers and 24 dryers, your best bet in this style is probably the Bosch 300 Series WAT28400UC washer and WTG86400UC dryer.

Our pick

Bosch 300 Series WAT28400UC

The best compact washer

A solid 24-inch washer with a reputation for reliability and helpful customer service, plus a shorter wash time, and a fast spin cycle to dry clothes more quickly.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1200.

Bosch is a laundry heavyweight in Europe, where this style is the norm, and the company has a reputation for making sturdy, effective, efficient machines backed by helpful customer service. The Bosch 300 Series WAT28400UC washer is one of the more affordable compact models with an accelerated wash cycle, significantly cutting cycle times. It also has a very fast spin cycle, which pre-dries clothes so they don’t need to spend so much time drying. The WTG86400UC dryer is a ventless condenser model, and the washer can piggyback off its power supply, so you need only one outlet for the pair.

Runner-up

Electrolux EFLS210TIW

A slightly larger washer

This washer gets excellent reviews for cleaning and can plug into a regular outlet, but it seems to have more reliability problems.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,050.

The Bosch set has a couple of quirks that may not work for everyone, and in that case we think the Electrolux EFLS210TIW washer and EFDE210TIW dryer make the next-best pair. Though the company’s reputation for reliability and service aren’t as great as Bosch’s, both the washer and dryer have a slightly larger capacity, the washer may be better at removing the toughest stains, and the installation options are more flexible.

Upgrade pick

Miele W1

Built to last

This compact washer is effective at lifting stains while still being gentle on fabrics, and Miele makes some of the most durable appliances around.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,200.

Miele T1

The matching Miele dryer

This ventless heat-pump model can plug into a standard 120-volt outlet and is more efficient than even condenser models.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,200.

We were so impressed by the Miele W1 when we tested it against full-size washers that we’d recommend it to anyone who’s willing to spend extra for a long-lasting washer, whether or not they need a compact machine. The W1 performed as well as our favorite full-size washer, the LG WM3900H, at stain removal and fabric care. And unlike the Bosch and Electrolux dryers, the T1 dryer uses a heat pump instead of a condenser, which makes it more energy-efficient and allows it to work well in all temperature and humidity conditions. We think the extra cost of these models is worth it: Miele is known for making well-built and long-lasting appliances. And unlike our other picks, both the washer and dryer can be plugged into standard 120-volt outlets.

The research

• Why you should trust us
• Who should get this
• How we picked
• What to know about ventless dryers
• Our pick: Bosch 300 Series compact washer and dryer
• Flaws but not dealbreakers
• Runner-up: Electrolux EFLS210TIW and EFDE210TIW
• Upgrade pick: Miele W1 and T1
• The competition
• What about portable washers?
• What about hand-crank washers?
• Consider a drying rack

Why you should trust us

I started writing about appliances in 2011 for Reviewed.com. Since 2013, I’ve covered appliances for Wirecutter and have put hundreds of hours of research into washers and dryers. That’s included interviews with repair technicians from around the country, representatives from all the major washer brands, a major detergent company, and another review website. I’ve also read most of the reviews at Reviewed.com and CNET, and countless emails, comments, tweets, message board posts, and user reviews from our readers and pretty much anyone else who cared enough to weigh in on laundry machines.

Most of what we’ve learned about full-size washers is relevant to compact laundry machines, though the dryer situation is more complicated. For additional research, we got in touch with Chaim Shanet, repair technician for Mr. Appliance of Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York, where compact laundry is common, and checked back in with Steve Sheinkopf, CEO of Yale Appliance and Lighting in Boston, another city where compact laundry is relatively widespread. We also spoke to George Tjoumakaris, a product manager for Miele.

We researched the picks in this guide but were able to test only the Miele set for the 2020 update due to space limitations and the coronavirus pandemic. Compared with full-size models, compacts are a bit of a mystery because fewer experts know as much about them, fewer user reviews get published, and testing outlets like Reviewed.com don’t spend as much time covering the categories (though they do publish some reviews, and we’ll cite them when they’re relevant).

Even so, our readers have asked us for advice on these for a few years, so we’re sharing as much as we’ve been able to discover through research (and a little testing) so far. If you have more questions, you should talk to a good dealer in your area.

Who should get this

Compact washers and dryers are primarily for people who can’t fit a full-size set into their home.

In the US and Canada, a full-size washer or dryer is usually 27 inches wide, 30 inches deep, and at least 36 inches tall. They need hot- and cold-water plumbing hookups and some kind of drainage for the washer, plus a 240-volt outlet and ventilation for the dryer.

If your laundry area doesn’t have enough space, or anywhere to ventilate the dryer, a compact washer or dryer might work instead. Most models are the size of a dishwasher, but some are even smaller. Small apartments or condos, tiny houses, or older homes built before laundry rooms became standard are all common settings for compact laundry machines.

Compacts, even the best models, do have downsides: They usually have around half the capacity of today’s full-size machines. So extra-large items like comforters won’t fit, and mega-loads with a week’s worth of clothing from a family of three or four are out of the question. Compact dryers almost always work slower than full-size ones. And despite those trade-offs, compacts often cost more. So if you can fit standard models, they’re usually the better value.

How we picked

We focused on 24-inch (or European-style) compact washers and dryers. That is, the chassis of each machine is a maximum of 24 inches wide, about 24 inches deep, and around 33 inches tall—about the size of a dishwasher. The washing machines are all front-loaders, and the dryers do not require ventilation.

This style of laundry machine can fit in more places around more types of homes than standard-size machines: side by side under a kitchen counter or stacked in a small laundry closet, to name the most common examples. It’s the typical type of washer and dryer in Europe and works pretty similarly to modern American laundry in most respects (though the dryers are a bit different).

Compacts like these still need most of the same plumbing and electrical requirements as a standard washer and dryer, including hot- and cold-water hookups, a 240-volt outlet (though one of our picks can be plugged into a 120-volt outlet), and a drain nearby.

We also decided to limit our recommendations to matching pairs. They look better together, are easier to stack, and sometimes actually work better as a set.

The most important features in any appliance are reliability and helpful customer service. Both of these are difficult to predict—especially in a category like compact laundry machines where there’s very little public information available. But we’re basing our recommendations on user reviews, the breadth of the brands’ service networks, the brands’ reputations in other, more popular appliance categories, and wisdom from retailers and repair technicians. We typically look toward J.D. Power for more information about reliability and customer satisfaction, but it doesn’t publish information about compact machines.

Other important factors, in rough descending order of importance, include:

Washer cleaning performance: We learned what we could from the lab tests at Reviewed.com, though some popular models haven’t been reviewed (at least not at the time of writing), and we also tested one set ourselves.

Washer spin speed: This is a good proxy for how dry your clothes will be when they come out of the washer, which means they’ll need less time in the dryer. A higher number means drier clothes. It’s fair to expect a minimum of 1,200 rpm. Since ventless dryers are relatively slow, this can be a real time-saver.

An accelerated wash cycle: That is, an option to run a normal cleaning cycle in about half the time as usual—typically at the expense of being a little rougher on clothes, or less efficient with water or energy. Regular cycles in front-loaders usually take somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 to 120 minutes, so this is another big time-saver. However, it’s not a common feature.

A dryer reservoir: Ventless dryers usually need to be hooked up to a drain, but some models can also store evaporated water in a reservoir, which needs to be emptied regularly for the dryer to work properly.

An easy-to-reach dryer filter: Ventless dryers have a primary lint filter that you should clean after each cycle (just like a vented dryer), as well as a secondary filter that you should clean monthly (particularly if you use fabric softener). Primary filters are always easy to reach, but some models stash their secondary filters on the back or bottom of the machine, so it can be an ordeal to do that bit of routine maintenance.

Capacity: Most models comfortably fit around 10 pounds of laundry (though we were able to fit 12 pounds in the set we tested), which is small if you’re washing for a family. But a few are slightly larger, which is useful because the space is so tight.

Low noise and light vibration: This really depends on your home. Most people have no trouble at all with either, but some people find that even with low-vibration models, their floor vibrates like a drumhead when the spin cycle starts. So this played only a minor part in our decision.

And then the features that didn’t factor into our decision at all include the number of cycles (most people use three at most anyway), an extra-hot wash option (it’s nice, but few people ever use it as it turns out), and efficiency (it’s pretty similar across the board, with a few exceptions among dryers).

For the 2020 update, we tested the Miele W1 and T1.

What to know about ventless dryers

Most compact dryers are ventless. They don’t need one of those long hoses that blows exhaust through a window, wall, or duct, like most full-size dryers do. That gives you a little more flexibility for where you can install it in your home.

However, ventless models do still have a few special requirements. Ventless models are always electric and never gas-powered, and they usually need to plug into a 240-volt outlet, just like a standard dryer (though some models require only a 120-volt outlet). So if you’re setting up a new laundry space for an old building, you might need to call an electrician to rig a new connection. Most ventless dryers also need to connect to a drain, though some can instead collect water in a reservoir.

The worst part about ventless dryers is that they take about twice as long as vented models to dry your clothes. A typical drying time for a load of cottons in a ventless dryer is around 90 minutes. It might be a little quicker than that in low humidity, or longer in high humidity, but just brace yourself for longer cycles.

Most ventless dryers, including two of our picks in this guide, rely on a condenser to get the moisture out. Just like a regular vented dryer, condenser dryers pass heated air through a spinning drum, causing the moisture in clothes to evaporate. But though a vented dryer would blow the steam out through a hose, a condenser dryer circulates the steam over a passive heat exchanger—essentially a matrix of metal coils that can stay cool even when the air around them is pretty hot. The steam condenses into water on the coils and is then pumped through a drain hose or into a reservoir. The process repeats until the humidity in the drum falls below a certain point, as measured by a moisture sensor.

Condenser dryers use roughly the same amount of energy as vented dryers, give or take, depending on the weather. It’s not clear whether they’re gentler on clothes. Reviewed.com has found that they run cooler than vented dryers, which means that they should cause less heat damage. But because they tumble longer, they cause more mechanical damage. Condenser dryers also radiate some heat and humidity into your living space, which might be nice in the winter but not so great in the summer. (Vented dryers might actually be worse for climate control, though, because they blow your heated or cooled air out through the hose, creating negative air pressure in your home so that outdoor “infiltration” air gets sucked in.)

The other type of ventless dryer uses a heat pump, as in our upgrade pick. This is better technology. It relies on an active heat exchanger, filled with refrigerant, to remove moisture very efficiently. Though the dry times are about the same as in condenser dryers, heat-pump dryers use about half as much energy and are much gentler on clothes because they work at much, much lower temperatures than any other kind of dryer. They have almost no effect on your home’s climate control either.

Our pick: Bosch 300 Series compact washer and dryer

Our pick

Bosch 300 Series WAT28400UC

The best compact washer

A solid 24-inch washer with a reputation for reliability and helpful customer service, plus a shorter wash time, and a fast spin cycle to dry clothes more quickly.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1200.

Most people who need a 24-inch (European style) compact washer and dryer should be happy with the Bosch 300 Series WAT28400UC washer and WTG86400UC dryer. Of the few models that fit our criteria, these in particular have most of the features that matter, including a fast spin speed and a shorter wash cycle. The brand also has a strong reputation for reliability, service, and performance.

As far as we can tell, the 300 Series washer and dryer seem like sturdy machines. They’ve been out for a few years, and out of several hundred user reviews online, we found only a handful of major mechanical malfunctions. A handful of those reviewers noted that they were replacing Bosch machines that lasted 10 or 15 years, which is good for modern laundry. The average user rating for the washer is 4.5 stars out of five, which is better than average for any type of washer, and the dryer earns a 4.2 out of five.

The Yale Appliance blog named Bosch the most reliable compact laundry brand, as well as one of the most reliable brands that they sell overall. Bosch covers its laundry products with the industry-standard one-year parts and labor warranty, plus a second year of coverage for all parts, and the total cost of replacement for the control board and motor. Other brands tend to offer longer cost-of-parts warranties for their models.

We’re also confident that Bosch is better at customer service than other brands in North America. Again, this is based on anecdotal data from user reviews, and from our experience covering Bosch dishwashers (not laundry). But we have not seen a pattern of bad feedback about long waits for service, frustrating phone-tree escalations, or unfulfilled promises.

The Bosch has one of the higher spin cycle speeds we found: 1,400 rpm (only our upgrade pick, the Miele, is faster, at 1,600 rpm). Though we don’t have data on real-world performance, a faster spin speed usually means that clothes are less moist coming out of the washer, which translates to less time in the dryer. The spin speed is also adjustable, so you can turn it down if you’re line-drying and can’t deal with clothes being so heavily wrinkled.

And it’s also one of the few compact washers with an accelerated normal wash cycle—finishing an 8-pound load in 60 minutes rather than 100. This is a big time-saver. Because we haven’t tested the machine, we’re not sure if the speed comes at the expense of fabric care or efficiency.

As for the matching WTG86400UC dryer, owners have mixed reactions. Those who need a ventless dryer, and understand that it doesn’t work like a full-size vented machine, seem to be satisfied with it (it’s much better than having no dryer). Those who bought the set because of the brand name, not because they really needed compact, ventless equipment, seem less happy with it.

In addition to the 300 Series, Bosch also makes some upgrade pairs: the 500 Series (around $270 extra) and the 800 Series (around $400 extra). The performance is identical across the board, but the pricier models have extra features that some people might find useful. The 500 Series adds a high-temperature “sanitize” wash option (which is hotter than the highest-temperature allergen setting on the 300 Series), a stainless steel dryer drum, a reversible dryer door, and better dryer efficiency. The 800 Series adds an interior light to both the washer and dryer, and a 15-minute light-load option to the washer.

That said, we don’t think most people will gain all that much by upgrading, or at least not enough to make the extra cost seem worth it. The reversible doors might be helpful to some people, and many online reviewers note how quiet the machine is. But the improved dryer efficiency will add up to only a couple bucks’ worth of energy per year, not enough to offset purchase price during the lifetime of the machine. And all the other upgrades are nice but probably not life-changing. If you want the extras, don’t let us stop you though—they’re all very good machines.

All the models mix and match, so if you want the 300 Series washer and the stainless drum and reversible door of the 500 Series dryer, you can do that, no problem. However, the different series all have different door trim, so they won’t be a perfect aesthetic match.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The washer’s power supply could be a potential dealbreaker: Unlike most washing machines, the WAT28400UC needs a 240-volt outlet. Now it can plug into the WTG86400UC dryer and piggyback off that connection. So if you’re stacking the machines or installing them side by side, this is not an issue. But if you’re installing the machines across the room from each other, you’ll need two 240-volt outlets—this is not a common setup. Contrary to the claims in some user reviews, though, it is not required that you plug the washer into the dryer. The washer works fine on its own as long as it has the right power supply. Be sure to check that the outlets you plan to use are wired for 240 volts—and don’t necessarily assume your installer will know either—as many of the negative user reviews cite this as their main problem with the Bosch. If you need to use 120-volt outlets, you should consider our upgrade pick, the Miele W1 and T1.

The manual notes that chlorine-based and color-safe bleach cannot be used in the Bosch, as it will damage the washer. Oxygenated bleach is fine to use.

The dryer also needs to be near a drain. Most of the time, this is a nonissue, because the dryer will be installed next to or on top of the washer, which obviously also needs to be near a drain. But some compact ventless dryers (like the Electrolux or the Miele) can drain into a self-contained, manual-empty reservoir, so that they don’t need to be near an actual drain.

The Bosch 300 Series is one of the more expensive sets we considered. At typical prices, the cost of the washer and dryer, plus the stacking kit and any delivery and installation fees, tends to be a couple hundred dollars more than our runner-up. Bosch products don’t often go on sale, either. We still think it’s worth the extra cash.

The drum in the WTG86400UC dryer is made out of an aluminum-zinc alloy, rather than stainless steel, which is the standard material in most dryers. We’re not sure what the implications are; it probably won’t impact the durability or performance, but it may mean that the dryer runs a little louder than it otherwise would.

Some user reviews mention that the wash and dry cycles can be very long. This is not wrong, but it’s also true of any front-load washer or ventless dryers. In our experience, most of the people who are surprised by the long cycles are upgrading from old agitator top-loaders and vented dryers.

Other reviewers don’t love the interface. In our experience, this is really a matter of personal taste: For any machine, you’ll find a few people who love it and a few who hate it, and most people are fine with it and learn to live with it. Editor Marguerite Preston has used the Bosch 300 washer and dryer with some regularity since 2016 and notes that “the touch controls aren’t super sensitive”; sometimes she has to hit the start button several times before the cycle will begin. A handful of online reviewers do note that the controls on their specific machines can be finicky as well.

Runner-up: Electrolux EFLS210TIW and EFDE210TIW

Runner-up

Electrolux EFLS210TIW

A slightly larger washer

This washer gets excellent reviews for cleaning and can plug into a regular outlet, but it seems to have more reliability problems.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,050.

The Electrolux EFLS210TIW washer and EFDE210TIW dryer are the next-best pair if the Bosch’s washer voltage and dryer drainage requirements are a problem. The Electrolux pair gets good ratings for cleaning power and has a slightly larger washer capacity than other compact models but the same fast spin speed as the Bosch. And this is a better option if you don’t want to hook up the dryer to a drain, or if you have access to a 120-volt outlet only where you want to install the washer. However, we found an uncomfortable number of reviews about poor reliability and customer service, and it’s also missing an accelerated-wash option.

At $1,600 for the set, the Electrolux pair costs about $300 less than our main pick, the Bosch 300 Series set. That’s a big advantage.

The EFLS210TIW washer has some similarities to the latest generation of Electrolux full-size washers (including our full-size runner-up pick), which are also known to have some of the best stain-removal capabilities today. The evidence suggests that when it comes to very stubborn stains, the EFLS210TIW has an advantage over the Bosch 300 Series model (though the real-world results could be swayed by tons of factors, including cycle selection, detergent, and pretreatment).

The EFLS210TIW also has the largest capacity we’ve seen in a compact washer. The drum is 2.4 cubic feet, which can help it hold a few more garments than the 2.2-cubic-foot Bosch 300 Series.

The Electrolux pair allows more installation flexibility. The washer can plug directly into a standard 120-volt outlet, whereas the Bosch washer needs to plug into either the dryer or its own 240-volt outlet. And the Electrolux dryer can either collect its condensed water in a reservoir or send it directly down a drain. The Bosch has no reservoir, so it needs to be installed near a drain.

The EFLS210TIW also has the same 1,400 rpm spin speed as the Bosch 300 Series.

We’re not comfortable making the Electrolux pair our main pick, though, because the older version, the EIFLS20QSW, had a few too many troubling reviews about reliability and customer service. Although it had a slightly higher average user rating than the Bosch 300 Series, the negative reviews are very harsh, citing major malfunctions like control-board failures, drum-suspension problems, and big leaks. We are pulling from a small set of data, and these problems can occasionally happen to any kind of product from any brand—but these reviews popped up more often than we were comfortable seeing for a product with relatively little feedback overall. The reviews for the EFDE210TIW dryer are less favorable than we like to see, with an average Home Depot user <a href="rating of 3.9 out of five stars. Some of the negative reviews cite faulty machines, but others mention the long drying times and heat and humidity produced in drying that are typical of condenser dryers.

The EFLS210TIW also has no accelerated normal-cycle option, so jobs will take about 100 minutes (typical for front-load washers).

Upgrade pick: Miele W1 and T1

Upgrade pick

Miele W1

Built to last

This compact washer is effective at lifting stains while still being gentle on fabrics, and Miele makes some of the most durable appliances around.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,200.

Miele T1

The matching Miele dryer

This ventless heat-pump model can plug into a standard 120-volt outlet and is more efficient than even condenser models.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,200.

The Miele W1 washer performed better than many of the full-size washers we tested it against. It has a faster spin speed than the Bosch or Electrolux, which makes it more effective at removing moisture from a load, and consequently at reducing drying time. Like our top pick, the Bosch WAT28400UC, the W1 also has an express wash cycle. The W1’s companion dryer, the T1, is a heat pump model, which is more energy efficient than the Bosch’s or Electrolux’s condenser models. And unlike our other picks, which require a 240-volt outlet, the Miele set plugs into 120-volt ones, which allows a lot more flexibility in where it can be placed. it. Miele has rightfully earned a reputation for producing durable appliances and providing excellent customer service.

We included the Miele set in our testing of full-size machines, and it not only removed more of the stains on our stain strip than all but our full-size pick, it did so with the same size load in a smaller drum—and thus had less room for the water and detergent to circulate. The W1 was also the gentlest on fabrics in our tests.

The W1 spins at 1,600 rpm, which is faster than either the Bosch or Electrolux. In our testing, the Miele extracted more water—at least two cups—than all the full-size models we tested.

In the dryer tests we ran, the T1 proved effective but slow. It took about 1.5 hours to dry our 12-pound mixed load (some items were still damp when the cycle completed). The vented dryers we looked at took about 40 minutes to an hour to dry the same load of clothes. But ventless dryers always take longer than their vented counterparts, so the Miele isn’t any different from the Bosch or Electrolux in that respect.

As for installation, the Miele set offers even more flexibility than the Electrolux. Each machine can be plugged into a regular 120-volt outlet. Like the Electrolux dryer and unlike the Bosch, the T1 collects moisture in a water tank that must be emptied periodically. Or you can connect a hose and drain water out as you would with a washing machine. Because the T1 relies on a heat pump and not a condenser, it does not emit heat or moisture, which means it can be installed in a closet. It also works well in hot and/or humid conditions.

There are four variants of the W1 washer: The Classic W1 is the base model. All the upgraded variants are equipped with Wi-Fi and a steam cycle, among other bells and whistles that we consider unnecessary. In our experience, steam functions generally aren’t a real substitute for a clothes steamer or iron. The T1 dryer similarly comes in three versions. As with the washers, the upline models perform the same as the base model but come with features like Wi-Fi and extra dry cycles, and one comes with a clear door instead of an opaque one.

The competition

We came pretty close to recommending the Blomberg WM77210 washer (now discontinued) and DHP24412W heat-pump dryer as our runner-up pair. Two things stopped us: First, though the technology is cool and the model itself reviewed favorably, the DHP24412W is wicked expensive. It tends to cost hundreds more than the Miele T1, not to mention the condenser dryers we considered. Second, Blomberg still has a narrow service network compared with most brands, including Miele. If you live in an area where Blomberg has a big footprint, this is a nonissue. But huge parts of the country, including some major metro areas, have no Blomberg retailers at all, which often means it’s hard to find service technicians.

If the price isn’t a dealbreaker, and you live in Blomberg-land and outside of Miele’s service network, the DHP24412W is a compact dryer worth considering. Blomberg is a North American imprint of Beko, the second best-selling appliance brand in Europe, and is owned by parent company Arçelik, part of Turkey’s largest conglomerate. They even manufacture some appliances that better-known brands slap their labels on. So this isn’t some rinky-dink operation. The product is great, but the brand hasn’t fully committed to the US.

The LG WM1388HW washer and DLEC888W dryer were on our short list of finalists. LG makes some of the most reliable washing machines, but the performance reviews from the test labs were just okay for this model (and its predecessor, the WM1377HW), and the user ratings for the dryer are poor (though few have been published).

Now that GE makes the ventless GFT14ESSMWW dryer, we may consider giving it a closer look for a future update of this guide.

Similarly, we may also take a closer look at the Samsung WW22K6800AW compact washer now that the company makes the DV22N6800HW heat pump dryer.

Whirlpool makes a couple of (relatively) affordable heat-pump dryers: The basic WHD3090GW for around $900, and the sound-reduced WHD5090GW for around $1,000. That’s exciting, but there’s a big design flaw here: The secondary lint trap is on the bottom-rear of the machines, which makes it very difficult to reach. It’s supposed to be cleaned monthly, and sliding the heavy machine out from the wall so often for routine maintenance sounds like a huge ordeal. If you think you can handle it, these dryers might be worth a look—but there’s so little information available, we really don’t know how they perform, how reliable they’ll be, or how much energy they save in practice. Both receive terrible user reviews.

Besides Miele, the maker of our upgrade pick, the other top-end laundry brand with (relatively) wide distribution in the US is Asko, a Swedish company. We have not looked into why, but the brand doesn’t seem to have the same kind of loyal following as Miele, nor quite as much availability.

Even if you can install one, you’ll find that there aren’t very many vented compact dryers. This is because they have trouble passing the fire-safety test from Underwriters Laboratory, requiring a dryer to contain a fire for at least seven hours, so most manufacturers don’t bother making one. And among those that you can buy, the user ratings are mediocre to poor, for reasons that we don’t really understand.

What about portable washers?

If you can’t install a regular washing machine, or your landlord won’t do it, you could consider a portable washing machine.

We looked into 19 portable washers, and we’d previously recommended one from Panda. But it went out of stock, and we don’t feel comfortable recommending another one until we can test some out ourselves. So take our advice here as a starting point rather than a strong recommendation for any model.

The best way to get an idea of how a portable washer works is to watch a demo video. But the gist of it is that you need a regular outlet to power the machine, and a sink, shower, or tub to drain it. They’re usually on wheels, so you can easily move them around as needed. The best ones are twin-tub models: The bigger tub on the left washes, and the smaller tub on the right rinses and spin dries. You can fill the tubs with water through an inlet hose that clamps onto a faucet, or you can just fill it manually using a pitcher, garden hose, or really any source of water. Mid-cycle, you need to move the clothes, by hand, from the wash tub into the rinse-and-spin tub. That second tub has only half the capacity of the first, so you’ll need to do two rounds.

The most popular twin-tub portable washers can wash four or five bath towels or pairs of jeans per load, or a mixed load with a couple of days’ worth of clothes for one person. Full loads usually take something like 20 minutes, based on what we’ve seen on YouTube. Wirecutter writer Lesley Stockton owns a portable washer and said that her loads finish in about 15 minutes.

A good portable washer has a drain pump, so that when you’re done washing, it can push water up through the drain hose, into a sink or bathtub or whatever. Some cheaper models don’t have a drain pump, so it’s much harder to empty them completely.

The most popular portable twin-tub models are sold under the Giantex, Best Choice Products, and Panda brands—not exactly household names, but they’re the ones to look at if you’re thinking about buying one.

Single-tub models, like the popular Haier HLP21N, work more like regular top-load washers, just smaller, on wheels, and hooked up to a sink rather than a dedicated tap and drain. You can start the cycle and walk away, and it’ll do all the work on its own. But they tend to cost much more than twin-tub models with similar capacities. They also spin a lot slower, around 800 rpm compared with some twin tubs’ 1,300 rpm, so clothes come out wetter and need much more time on the drying rack.

The most common complaints from owners are that portable washers are noisy; that you need to pay attention to the water level as they fill up; and that they create a lot of lint, leaving it behind on your clothes, and also potentially clogging your drain (a lint roller can help with the clothes, and a stocking rubber-banded to the end of the hose can prevent the clogging).

They might also annoy the hell out of your downstairs neighbors (if you care about that) because it vibrates pretty hard during the spin cycle. Drain hoses can be sketchy, so they’re a potential flood hazard. The hoses tend to be made out of cheap plastic, rather than the rubberized material that higher-end washers use, and don’t attach to the water outlet as securely. If they fail, the washer will dump gallons of water on your floor, which is a problem for you but a bigger problem for anyone downstairs. This risk is why it’s common for older apartment buildings to completely ban in-unit laundry. So check with your landlord, your lease, or your HOA covenant to see if you’re even allowed to get a portable washer.

What about hand-crank washers?

One last washer option to consider is a hand-crank washer like the Wonderwash. It doesn’t need any hookups at all—you just fill it with a few garments and hot water and a bit of detergent, tighten the lid to pressurize the interior, spin the crank at a modest pace for a few minutes, and then insert a drain tube. Repeat, minus the detergent, to rinse. Reviews indicate that it’s more effective than it sounds, thanks to the high pressure. The downside is that you can wash only a few garments at a time, and there’s no spin cycle to speak of, so they’ll take a long time to dry. Unless you can line-dry your clothes outdoors, this probably isn’t a practical way to do your laundry.

Consider a drying rack

Though there are small, 120-volt automatic dryers, most of them require a vent, which is a dealbreaker in most apartments, and the ventless models take so, so long to work that it’s almost always more practical to just hang-dry your clothes. So if you’re dealing with a difficult laundry situation, we think a drying rack is the way to go.