My mother has this arrangement.
She got a special price on buying a new washer/dryer pair but her old dryer was working fairly new and still worked great so she kept the old dryer and had the new one hooked up as well.

She is a low heat dry'er (as am I) and loves being able to keep loads running without things getting backed up.

Justin

Well, I do the reverse in my country house: I have two washers (FLs), and only one dryer which works well for me. But then I hang most of my clothes out on the line and only routinely use the dryer to pre-fluff my laundry before I hang it out.

I think if you did switch to a FL, the dryer and washer would be more in sync, even if you dry at low temps.

Molly~

It's a lot of overkill. Todays washing machines (FL) take much longer to complete cycles. It makes little sense to go through the expense of another dryer. Even using an old style TL with cycle times around 45 minutes, the dryer has plenty of time. Rarely did I ever play catch up before I got my Duet washer. I was usually waiting for the washer as I am now. My 90 series Kenmore dryer always completes loads in 40 min or less with 30-35 minutes being the average.

Two dryers would work out so much better for me since my clothes always take longer to dry than the load takes to do the wash despite always doing an extra rinse especially when I am drying towels and my next load is a small load of clothes that get done quick.

Two dryers would also help in separating clothes like panties that need a lower heat setting. If I had a bigger laundry room and finances were not so tight, I would buy another dryer or a stackable washer/dryer unit to wash delicates in and dry them.

When I was growing up and my dad remarried right before my Senior Year in high school, we moved into a house that came with two dryers and one washer in the laundry room. I only lived there for one year since I moved out the day after I graduated high school and the marriage did not last long but it was wonderful to do laundry there.

Lynn2006, a lot of your drying woes can be elminated by planning your loads. Wash your quick and delicate items first, and finish with your last load taking the longest. Any modern dryer has multiple heat settings, so there is really no need to combine loads, and smaller loads dry quicker. I also am assuming your using a conventional top load washer? To each his own, but the expense of two machines, two gas lines, or two 220v electric runs(electric dryer), two external vent runs just isn't worth what you think you will gain unless your processing laundry for a living.

rpsinfoman, Thank you for this advice since you are right. I guess I usually wash the clothes that take the longest to dry but that is not working so maybe I will try your way and wash what will dry quickly. I have two front loaders that are able to fit a lot of clothes in them but then the drying time is so much longer.

I can't do a front-loader and my experience is that the dryer takes MUCH longer. Thanks for the input though!

Hmmm..... you got me thinking...

In our garage we have a 220-v plug for an electric dryer and a 110-v plug and gas outlet for a gas dryer.

It would be simple to have one gas dryer and one electric dryer, only requiring the installation of one more vent through the wall.

How about a spin dryer? They are small, take just 3 minutes, cut down drying time significantly, require no installation, and use a standard 110volt plug.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spin Dryer

I have a GE Front load washer, and been VERY pleased with it. As other front load owners said here, your dryer is done before the clothes are washed.

I now can do double the load of wash in one wash. So in a way I have two loads of wash washed, and dried in 1 1/2 hours, Before It would of taken 2 1/2 hours to do two loads.

Forgive me if I missed your post saying why you can't do front loader?

My dream laundry room would have double stacking front loaders or even more! Seriously, I would love a laundromat of my own if I could arrange it, LOL. Ok, maybe a bit of an exagerration but my user name is no accident what with 5 kids in this house. Best of luck to you.

Multiple dryers would necessarily save you a great deal of time anyway. Even if you put completely dry clothes in a dryer it will have a minimum run time and cooldown. So if you are going to do multiple loads you will have some duplicate dry time that will cost you extra to run them. So if you had a large load of light stuff for example and they would dry normally in 28 minutes and you split them up into two loads they would both take at least 20 minutes. So yes you might save a little time but not much and it would cost more to run both for 20 minutes than the one for 28.

Naturally I meant would NOT necessarily save you a great deal of time.

Speed Queen sells a stacked double dryer with a single, central control panel for this purpose, in 240V electric or 120V gas versions. Takes no more floor space than a single dryer would.

{{!gwi}}

Thanks Lee.

They look cool. Definitely like a home laundrymat.

Just saw this on Ebay and thought of this thread... very similar to the one posted from Speedqueen, this is from Maytag..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Maytag-2-Stack-Electric-Commercial-Clothes-Dryers_W0QQitemZ150089794524QQihZ005QQcategoryZ57020QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Here is a link that might be useful: Maytag Stacked Commercial Dryer

you can also get spin dryers from http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm for $129.95

Here is a link that might be useful: spin dryer

I like that SpeedQueen double stacked dryer.

Ah, clarifications:

1. I can't do a front loader due to pet hair issues, but the pros and cons of front loaders for pet hair are not something I want to go into here... Plus, my old top load washer is rather good, high capacity, and a reliable model.

2. I'm not talking about saving time by splitting up a load, rather by drying two loads at once. So, for simplicity, let's say that washing a load takes half and hour and drying it, an hour. So I was load number 1, put in dryer #1...wash load #2, put in dryer number 2...etc.

This also has the advantage of 'synching up' the laundry so I don't just wander off and forget about it while waiting for mr dryer! lol

When we moved in, our laundry room had 2 washers and 2 dryers. I found I almost never used both washers but often used both dryers (especially before and after vacations, etc.). When we remodelled I took out the extra washer and substituted a sink as the plumbing was in place but kept the extra dryer. It's great on heavy wash days and also lets you sort loads to dry.

i totally agree, i would definately put two dryers to 1 washer....it takes on average 20 minutes to wash and 45 minutes to dry

all laundry places that know what they are doing have that 2 to 1 ratio of dryers to washers

That may have been true 13 years ago when this post first appeared - but isn't my experience today. The newer energy efficient washers take forever to complete and spin a load unless maybe using a quick wash cycle. I believe that's the only one on my machine that is completed in much less than an hour. Most loads are dry long before the next load of wash is ready to be dried.

Although I do admit remembering when it was the dryer I waited on, not the washer. But, now its the washer.