Should I upgrade my small washer/dryer?

[abstractionjackson]

My wife and I bought a house last year and it came with a painfully small washer/dryer combo (GE Spacemaker), like you might see in an apartment (pic attached). We have a 3-year old, and I'm about to be a full-time student. So my biggest concern is having something reliable and easy on clothes, while also saving us time. A small machine obviously means more loads and more time.

I've found some options for stacked frontloaders at around $1200 total, and we'd lower that by using the purchase to meet minimum spend on a CC bonus--and selling the old unit. Top loaders aren't an option due to space constraints.

For some reason, I'm getting buyer's remorse before making the purchase. We'd be upgrading from a 3.2 cu. ft. washer to 4.2. I imagine we'd save some water costs (haven't been able to quantify), but we'd save very little on electricity (less than $5 per year).

Anyone have thoughts or advice here? Is it worth it? Do you think I'll be pleased with the time-savings of a bigger unit?

[marielle]

$1200 doesn't seem worth it just to save a few minutes a week and maybe some clothes wear. I would post pone the decision until you find a nice set used on Craigslist. Also, I think hanging your clothes to dry would save a lot more wear on the clothes than having a newer set. I like to hang my clothes directly into the closet to dry to save time (skips the step of putting clothes in the dryer) but you need a lot of space for that.

[pk_aeryn]

How many loads a week are you going to save doing?  Honestly I find the biggest timesuck of laundry is not putting it in the washer and dryer / waiting but having to fold and put it all away.  I'm also fine with a smaller washer because with my clothes I have to separate into light delicates, dark delicate, warm regular, etc and a bigger washer would be wasteful before I have enough of a load yet need to wear them again.

Edit: sorry read age of child wrong, never mind :)

[Lady SA]

Yeah, I'd stick with the current set and just set up a craigslist search that emails you and keep an eye out for a used set of front-loaders. You see those pop up on craigslist relatively often.

[405programmer]

I recently purchased the Frigidaire HE stackable unit from HomeDepot for a little under 1100 after tax on a sale in May. It's a solid washer but it's not going to blow your GE out of the water. (Heh get it???) If you're lucky enough to have the 3.2 GE I don't think it's worth it to upgrade. The only time I really notice the difference in size from my older 3.0 stackable washer is washing things like comforters or really big blankets because there's no longer an agitator taking up space. The HE ones use less water but honestly spin way harder on normal than agitator types. I have to be careful washing thin clothes on normal and need to use delicate cycle much more often. As others have mentioned, the real cost savings will just be using your dryer less.

Also something to consider, wash times are actually a little longer on most HE units so while you can do more in a single load it takes closer to 90 minutes for the washer to complete a "Normal" cycle. I swear my old washer never took over an hour. A plus for the HE is the spin cycle on normal almost completely dries the clothes. They just need a 1-3 minute spin in the dryer to shake out the wrinkles and then they're ready to hang / lay out for the full dry.