Laundry Comparisons: Model by Model and Class by Class
Seven pages that put washer and dryer listings next to each other and next to their whole class, marking which figures two independent sources agree on and where a listing contradicts itself.
What is on these pages
A review tells you what one machine’s listing says. These pages put listings next to each other and next to the whole class. There are two kinds. Head-to-head pages take two specific models and compare them on what the listings state, marking which figures both our review and Amazon’s detail page agree on and which come from only one. Class reports take every reviewed machine of one type and ask what the published specifications say when taken together.
None of it is tested. No washer or dryer here has been run for us, so every figure is the manufacturer’s, and every page says so. There are no prices, because Amazon changes them daily, and no star ratings or review counts, because Amazon’s terms do not let us publish them. There is no league table and no single recommended pick: each page offers the conditions under which a machine suits you and the conditions under which it does not.
What a laundry listing tells you, in numbers
| Reviewed | State a drum volume | Median drum | Median weight | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-size washers | 13 | 12 | 4.3 cu ft | 57 kg |
| Full-size dryers | 11 | 10 | 4.4 cu ft | 55 kg |
| Portable washers | 31 | 14 | 1.7 cu ft | 17 kg |
| Portable dryers | 27 | 18 | 1.8 cu ft | 17 kg |
The table is built from the same checked catalogue as the pages below, and it already shows why laundry listings are hard to compare. A portable washer’s capacity is as likely to be stated in pounds as in cubic feet, so a median drum can only be computed for the 14 of the 31 that give one. The portable dryer class includes products that are not tumble dryers. And two of the full-size machines sold under different brand names list the same weight to a tenth of a pound.
Full-size washer and dryer comparisons
The full-size classes are small, thirteen washers and eleven dryers, so they have head-to-head pages and no class report: a report on thirteen machines would restate the pairs. The two comparisons each take a pair that makes a different point.
Kenmore 4.5 top load vs front load
One drum size, a 41 kg weight gap
BLACK+DECKER 8.0 vs Kenmore 8.0
Two brand names, one set of figures
Portable washer comparisons
Portable washers are where the listings disagree about what capacity means. The class report sets out the two units, the twin tub’s two capacities and a noise figure that repeats across brands. The two comparisons show them in practice.
Portable washer class report
31 machines, two capacity units
COMFEE’ 1.6 vs BLACK+DECKER 1.7
11 pounds each, 10 decibels apart
INTERGREAT twin tub vs Auertech
Two kinds of 18 pounds
Portable dryer comparisons
Portable dryers come in two sizes and state their load in wet pounds, dry pounds or not at all. The class report separates the tumble dryers from the products that are not, and the comparison takes two machines with the same drum and three different load figures.
Portable dryer class report
27 products, two drum sizes
BLACK+DECKER 3.5 vs Feelfunn 3.5
Same drum, different load figures
How the figures are checked
Each review on this site carries a specification table, and each product’s Amazon page carries its own. They are independent transcriptions of one listing, which makes it possible to check one against the other. Where both state a figure and agree, the comparison pages say so. Where they disagree, or only one states it, the pages say that too, because a listing that contradicts itself is part of what you need to know before you buy. Across the laundry catalogue the two sources agreed on drum volume for 48 of the 52 machines that state it in both.
The scrape that supports these pages also turned up something the finder had not shown. We collected Amazon’s page for 104 of the products we review under laundry, and 82 of them are washers or dryers that these pages could compare. Eighteen were parts and accessories, among them dryer vents, lint traps, heating elements, a door prop and a drain hose, and four were washer-dryer combinations, too few to compare. The parts are filed in the same review categories as the machines, and fourteen of the 35 posts filed under dryers were among them. Our comparisons leave them out and name them here, and the finder will no longer list them.
Where to go next
- To narrow by your own answers, use the laundry finder;
- To read one machine in full, browse the washing machine or dryer reviews, or use the finder, which links every result to its review;
- To see how a review is written, read how our reviews work.
Figures are the manufacturers’, as published on each listing and quoted in our reviews; none was measured by us. How we work · Affiliate disclosure