Since this post we did buy the 218's as HF noted, with pedestals. The wife factor prevailed on the pedestals. (She has a bad back, although I pointed out opening the drawer on these would require more bending). We also got that Whirlpool organizer that slides in between the units and has two slide out drawers that will hold large detergent bottles. Salesman cut the price in half for this. This is more useful than the pedestals. Sammy pedestals are 189 around here and I agree they are ridiculously priced but I'm not handy at all with wood to make my own and besides if there's a problem with vibration they could always blame my pedestal. One other thing I've noticed is that the matching dryer is always priced pretty close to the washer. Wonder if this has anything to do with the demand for aesthetics (that you will naturally buy a dryer that looks like the washer whether you needed to or not- we didn't really need a dryer). So, looking forward to the arrival of the new set this Friday. Thanks again all.

I too am one of those crazy non-pedastal front loader owners. They were expensive, so I always figured that someday I would get them when I had extra cash. Also, my kiddos were little, 2 & newborn when I got them, eventually followed by a 3rd, so storing chemicals within their reach didn't seem like a good idea. I've had mine for 9 years now and the kids are no longer a worry, but honestly other than raising the height, I couldn't see the point of the storage down below. Talk about stooping! I much prefer having my laundry stuff higher up at a level I can easily reach. I'm 2.5 years into our sorta DIY kitchen, but I have plans to eventually stack mine too rather than build a counter (someday). My laundry room is not spacious. In fact, with no windows and a single depressing light overhead, it's pretty dark. I usually end up folding upstairs in our loft area where I can watch TV. It seems I rarely ever get to watch anyway (3 kids remember), so doing laundry is a good excuse. Plus the bedrooms are all up there too.

I spoke with an LG rep who cleared it with a supervisor: you can indeed stack an LG dryer on top of an LG washer and LG pedestal washer. Our model numbers are DLGX3571W, WM3770HWA, WD100CW. We will be doing so for our newly purchased house which has its particular design challenge. I purchased the 27” stacking kit (and a side vent kit, to better use the space). We have been using the the two washers together thus far with the dryer beside it. We will be installing late July 2021 and will report back!

The manufacturer pedestals all are meant to be bolted to the machine, so you can slide the entire unit out if needed to service or access the back. Basic pedestals have large drawers where you can store supplies, or even use as hampers. Fancier pedestals can include another washing machine (see LG sidekicks). Whether on pedestals or not, I find almost all front loaders too tall to fold laundry on top, but you could still use a shelf above for more storage if you wanted. With your own built pedestals you would still want to bolt the machines onto the pedestals as a safety issue (and to protect your machines and floors from the machine smashing down). So you would want to make sure they can take the shaking and flex, and you would need to unbolt to move them and it would be even more work to take them off. I have seen them done many times, but just things to be aware of. Oh, and the times I have seen them done they were more solid boxes - I’d be concerned about the durability of “open” pedestals, or if it would affect the machine warranties since it is not a solid platform. But for space savings stackables are nice. I have a laundry room with side by side washer and dryer on the manufacturers matching pedestals on my second floor (no problem reaching controls or soap trays from standing) but I put stackables in my mudroom to have a second laundry on main floor near kitchen and garage entry. I am 5’4” and don’t have difficulty reaching into the dryer tub on top without a stool - and the tub lights up and it is not that deep that things go missing in there :) i would not put cabinet in between machines. Far less convenient to move set laundry to the dryer, and exposes the cabinet to more moisture.