No. Not a joke, fh. I purchased one, an LG if I remember correctly, for my old house. Since my daughter is handicapped, it seemed a perfect way to eliminate the hardest part of doing laundry while in a wheelchair--taking the wet clothes from the washer and putting them in the dryer. But the thing was TERRIBLE. During the spin cycle it vibrated so hard I thought it was going to break the tile. I even laid across it to get it to stop. Didn't slow it down a bit. Needless to say I returned it and got a refund. That was probably 5 years ago now. Maybe they've corrected the problem. One can hope so because it certainly is a great concept.

It is not a joke.

And this kind of combo-machine *has* been around for YEARS, as far back as the mid- or late-1950s. Bendix was the pioneer and several major manufacturers offered them -- Kenmore & Whirlpool, Easy, GE, Maytag, Philco/Bendix, Speed Queen, and Westinghouse. Kenmore carried a Whirlpool-built combo until 1974, a very complex machine, I've heard said that it had more individual parts/pieces than a VW Beetle.

These were large-size units (some were a bit physically larger than a stand-alone traditional washer) that could wash and dry a FULL-size load as would be handled by a pair standard separate machines. A drawback on the "compact" models that are popular nowadays is that they can effectively dry only a half-size load compared to what they can wash. One either removes half the load after washing, then dries the other half as a separate cycle ... or washes a half-size load for both processes to complete automatically.

I've gone through two of these. Yes, they are a joke. Insanely wrinkled clothes. Doesn't have to do with overloading-- it's because the spin cycle is so extreme. sorry, wish I could tell you some good news! My current one is an ariston and it wasn't working for nearly SIX months! It stopped working just shy of one year, so covered by manufacturer's warranty, but we had to wait that long for replacement parts (at least that is what the store that I bought it from is saying-- maybe they just kept forgetting to order the parts).

I have one on my boat...... takes forever to dry a small load. Mine is also not very energy efficient.

I had one when I lived in the UK. They are a compromise: in order to be water and electricity-efficient, the drum needs to be smaller; to be the most efficient at drying, the drum should be bigger. Consequently, (and this is well understood in Europe) it's only designed to dry HALF the load it can wash, efficiently. They're really designed for European kitchens, as space savers, not to simplify the laundry process. I think they're promoted in the US for entirely the wrong reasons.

I agree with Sara's post above. A lot of European homes, especiall older ones and apartment complexes, don't offer enough space for a washer and a separate dryer. In addition to that, they usually don't have the option to hook up a vented dryer. The all-in-one units are just a compromise and I would never consider them as a convenient replacement for my washer and dryer. If space or venting were a problem for us, it would be a great alternative to going to the laundromat though.

I also agree with Sara. When I lived in the UK, I didn't have one because I had room for 2 units and I knew that they weren't as efficient. I haven't seen them in the US.

Some co-ops/condos we looked at in NYC in the mid 90's had them -- I think if the option was nothing or combo unit I would go for it - otherwise no.

They are awful. We searched and searched for one years ago & bought one as the "answer" in a very small laundry room. Hated it. Small loads, intense wrinkling, long cycles, loud, vibrating...not one redeeming quality - except the size and "efficiency".

I also had one of these while living in the UK. I didn't have the problems mentioned with wrinkling, at least not worse than any other front loader, which all spin faster than top loaders. But no condensing dryer (which is what one of these is during the drying phase) gets clothes as dry as a vented dryer. Add together the wash time of a front loader (generally longer than a top loader) with a long, inefficient dry cycle and total cycle time was loooong. Another thing that hasn't been mentioned: having only one device means you can't dry one load and wash another at the same time, so one load takes a couple of hours or more before you can even begin to wash something else. Add to that the small capacity and there's no such thing as "laundry day", you'd better be thinking about laundry all the time. It seemed like we were continuously drying socks, hanging on radiators all over the house. As others have said, I wouldn't have another one of these things unless circumstances absolutely demanded it.