Washer dryer combos are great for tight spaces, but you need to be aware of their limitations. Longer drying times and smaller capacities mean combination washer dryers aren’t for everyone.

Combination washer-dryers are front-loading machines that use the same drum for washing and drying. They all use condenser-type dryers, which do not vent air out of the machine, but instead separate the moisture from the damp air and collect it in a chamber to be emptied later or pumped to the same drain as the wash water.

Sales of washer dryer combos have increased exponentially since 2004, probably due to their appeal to apartment developers and people living in the inner city. "They’re good for people with limited space, such as apartments or when the laundry’s inside a bathroom or kitchen area," says whitegoods retailer Brian Watson.

Combined washers and dryers can also provide a practical solution where there’s no access to an external wall for venting a dryer outside. "In a lot of apartments you can’t use vented dryers because the body corporate won’t allow vents on the external walls," he says. "In most cases it’s also a little bit cheaper than buying a separate washer and dryer in the same brand."

While a washer dryer combo is great for limited space, they do have their down sides. "A disadvantage of the compact washer dryer combo is that most of the time you’ve got five or six kilos of washing capacity and you can only do 3.5 kilos of drying. So the drying capacity is about half that for washing," says Brian.

This means you can’t put on a full load of washing and leave it to finish its cycle. You’ll either need to remove half the clothes before the drying commences, or only half-fill the machine. While this might be okay for people who wash infrequently and are happy to air dry some of the less important items, for people with high-volume laundry it’s going to be inconvenient.

Combined washer dryers also take significantly longer to dry items than other machines, so you’ll need to allow extra time to completely wash and dry your clothes. And of course you will only be able to wash or dry at any one time, and for larger households this may be restrictive.