Celticmoon, Yes, my counters are fixed. I have Miele laundry appliances, so most maintenance, if it becomes necessary, can be done from the front of the machine. On Miele washers and dryers, the entire front of the machine can be swung open like a big door. That being said, there's still the issue of leveling. As I mentioned above, I have extra-deep (36") counters above the laundry pair. This was done for two reasons. First, was to allow room for hoses, electrical connections and the dryer vent. Secondly, it allows me some room to work behind the machines. My laundry room is arranged with about 9 feet of counter along one wall, and 12 feet of counter (standard 24" deep) along the opposite wall. There is 4 feet of space between the two counters. Facing the 9 foot counter, the sink is on the left, then moving to the right is the dryer, then the washer, then a cupboard. Under the sink base and in the far right cupboard there are hinged doors at the back of the partitions that separate the sink base from the dryer space, and the washer space from the cupboard (naturally, I had to specify this at the time the cupboards and counters were built). These hinged doors allow enough access to connect the dryer vent, and if needed, reach the rear legs of the two appliances for leveling (it's rather awkward to crawl in there, but doable). When I installed the appliances, I positioned and leveled the washer first (without the dryer in place, I had plenty of room to work). Then I positioned and leveled the dryer, which is much easier to do and not as critical to have absolutely perfectly balanced. Once the dryer was properly positioned, I connected the dryer vent through the door from under the sink base. That's all there is to it. There's nothing fancy about my laundry room (in fact, it's quite basic -- almost no one sees it other than me), I just thought it out before it was built. It's worked very well. If and when pulling one of the machines out for service becomes necessary, I'll just have to deal with it -- but it's not something I expect to come up very often. One other thing to think about if you're doing fixed counters is the plumbing for the washer. I had valves installed in the wall above the counter (they're essentially the sames as the valves used for a bathtub or shower). They control the flow of water to the hose bibbs which emerge from the wall below the countertop. This arrangement allows me to easily turn the water supply on and off, but not have any hoses visible. Hope this helps. James

The biggest expense in this endeavor is probably going to be venting the drain line. Yeah, a bad supply line can cost you, but an improper vent can kill you. There's really not enough information to answer your cost question.

anoop, does your washer's hot water hookup deliver immediate 120F or higher hot water? If so, I think that sticking with hot and cold input is your best choice for getting hot washes. That's how the machine is designed to be used. The Extended option will give it more time to reach Very Warm and higher temperatures, if you're concerned that it might not extend a non-Extended wash tumble enough to reach the set temperature. For Hot and Sanitize temps you can also use the Sanitize program which is very long, and may conform to some standard that requires a minimum time at the set temp.

There's nothing special about water devices. The general rule on panel boards is nothing in front of them and at least 30" of working room. Note that there are specific requirements for Laundry 120V 15/20A receptacles (must have at least one 20A circuit shared with nothing else and be GFCI protected). Note there is often limitations on how much scerwing around you can do with the dryer exhaust ducts.