LG’s new AI washer-dryer combo can wash and dry your clothes in under 2 hours

“AI” has pretty much lost any credibility with me as it’s already being hijacked as another meaningless marketing tool, like “cloud” before it. It’s a washing machine with some sensors in it.

I am a wheelchair user, so a combination washer/dryer unit like this one is much much easier for me to use than two separate machines. Dry dirty clothes go in, dry clean clothes come out. So I have quite a bit of experience with this kind of unit.

I first had two LG units, one after the other. The first one was OK, the second one was better.

in 2023, though, I switched to the GE profile ultrafast all in one because it solved a problem that both LG units had, and that the new LG unit that you just wrote about also has. They don’t have a regular lint filter. Instead, you have to clean the pump filter at the very bottom of the machine about once a month or the machine will jam And shut itself off mid cycle. This is a really annoying chore, and impossible for someone like me. So I had to have someone else do it, and if they didn’t happen to do it in time, I’d be stuck with a load that stopped mid cycle, and all the wet soppy clothes had to be taken out until the pump filter was cleaned again.

if you look at pictures of the GE profile unit, you will see that at the top left they have a regular lint filter, just like the lint filter You’d be used to from a typical dryer. This works great. You clean it after every cycle just by pulling the fuzz off it. The machine even reminds you if you haven’t cleaned it. it’s easy to do and in a much better place for someone like me. It still has a pump filter down at the bottom, but you only use that like you would with a regular washer, if you had coins or something left in a pocket, and then they sank to the bottom during the cycle, so we haven’t had to clear it at all since we got the unit.

The LG manual tells you to wipe down the rubber ring on the door after every load, but that’s too late to catch ordinary things like pet fur, which would have already gone down into the drain pump. I don’t know exactly how the GE does it, but it does it. Huge improvement.

The GE profile has an app with very similar features to the LG. Including a notification from Alexa when the cycle is done. They don’t say it has “AI” but it’s pretty smart. You can find lots of YouTube videos from people reviewing it, it’s just a really nice combo design. Also, the GE has a feature where you can fill a reserve tank with liquid detergent and then it will automatically dispense the correct amount of detergent for each load based on the weight of the clothes. The reserve tank holds about 30 loads’ worth. So no plastic pods or strips needed .

I’m sure the new LG is also nice, but I think the lint filter feature alone brings the GE profile model to the top of this device class. And the smart dispense feature is also a moneysaver.

looking at the specs, the LG might finish a load about 15 minutes faster than the GE, but that doesn’t offset the other advantages that the GE has, as far as I’m concerned.