If you replace them, consider Mieles- and I am pretty sure Bosch makes the size you need. I'm sorry I don't know anything about the German Duets. You may want to ask the people who service your set if they can refurbish it well.

First comment is that designing a space around a specific washer & dryer size is never a good idea. :-)

Regards to longevity of the machines ... depends on how long parts remain available and there's no way to predict that factor ... and very much on individual usage habits. I have a friend who has Kenmore HE3t pair that'll be 15 years in a few more months. I replaced the washer's water valve (seeping when not in use) and the dryer's thermistor last Dec. They're in reasonable condition, notwithstanding the condition of the washer's drum spider being unknown without direct examination. Another friend has a 14-years-old HE3 pair. Her washer had the pump replaced a few years ago, and the dryer's heating element last Dec. Another friend has a 2006 Duet HT pair (in one of his rental properties) bought used at a few months past 5 years of age. The washer was horribly abused, had bad bearings, bad pump, deteriorated spider (but not yet broken), and infested with mold, stink, and general debris. I repaired and cleaned it up, no trouble for the duration to date.

The Laundry Room forum isn't totally dead.

On advice from there as well as other informed sources, I just bought Speed Queens for relatives, yesterday. Old fashioned top loaders with agitators that actually get the clothes clean and old fashioned standard size. They remind me a lot of old time Whirlpools.

@dadoes, I totally agree about building the laundry room around the appliances. Without going into it, it wasn't, even though I said it was. The laundry room was one of the rooms we didn't change. Because the dimensions I gave fit the small space that was there, they left it as is. The original house was built in 1972. If the dimensions worked from 1972 to 2016, I guess I thought not much more would change.

Thanks, @pillog. I have been looking at speed queen. I don't care if it is top-loader or front loader. At this point, I need to get what fits, not what I want.

I'm always amused by Americans' obsession with top loaders. I grew up in Germany, and I only ever saw a single top loader ... they felt antiquated in the 1980s.

I agree that the first front loaders on the American market were of very questionable quality. But that doesn't mean the design is fundamentally flawed.

You can get perfectly good front loaders and they clean and dry just fine. Even SpeedQueen builds them these days. But a with all things, there of course is a learning curve. In this case, that mostly means buying the appropriate detergent and following the manufacturer's instructions about what to do at the end of the cycle (e.g. leave the doors cracked open for a few hours).

We've had Maytag front loaders for a couple of years and they worked fine until an internal strut broke and wasn't worth the repair. We have since had Electrolux washers and dryers and they're unremarkable ... I guess that's a good thing.

I agree with Rita that German brands are probably the best bet for more compact designs. We love our huge laundry machines, but then we have little kids and wash seemingly non stop

M, often it's a matter of what will fit where. There's no where in my folks' laundry room for the door of a front loader to open. The OP has constraints as well. Then there's the bending factor. In many parts of Europe, especially in flats in older buildings, there's an attitude of be grateful you have a machine--don't whine about having to get down on the floor to unload it while trying to avoid knocking the kettle off the stove. Understandable given the constraints of fitting modern mechanical servants into small spaces. The there are the expectations that you can presoak large items, dye fabrics and other usages that front loaders don't always lend themselves to. OTOH, for dying smaller silks, Mieles have long been favored for the temperature control on the water.

The New York Times wrote an interesting article about the backstory as to why Whirlpool looked to Germany for the design and manufacture of their machines (Whirlpool Duets, Kenmore HE3t, etc..).

Enjoy...

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/business/worldbusiness/an-american-label-made-in-germany.html