The Stainless Steel Look Hits the Laundry Room
Here are the best stainless-look washer-and-dryer pairs from CR's tests
Stainless steel kitchen appliances—once considered a fad—accounted for six out of 10 kitchen appliances shipped to stores last year. Now the stainless look is migrating to the laundry room, where it’s inspiring fresh design approaches.
“Designers are creating striking looks by pairing stainless washers and dryers with white or gray walls, graphic black and white tile floors, industrial-style fixtures, and countertops in natural wood or dark quartz,” says Shelia Schmitz, an editor at remodeling and design website Houzz.
Read more about Consumer Reports' New Overall Score.
Lab-Tested for Your Home
CR’s testers launder identical fabric swatches stained with calibrated amounts of red wine, cocoa, and carbon (which is similar to soot), among other stains. To grade how well each washer cleans, they use a spectrocolorimeter to analyze the swatches before and after washing: The lighter the stain after laundering, the higher the machine scores in cleaning. This test is meant to challenge the washer so that we can see real differences among the machines.
We also test to find out how gentle the machine is on fabrics, measure the amount of water and energy used, and note the energy needed to dry laundry. (Washers that extract more water reduce dryer time and score higher in our energy-efficiency tests.)
We measure how much vibration the washer transmits to a wood floor, and our panelists judge each washer’s noise levels during the fill, agitate/tumble, drain, and spin cycles.
In our dryer tests, we dry three loads of different sizes and fabric mixes. We also judge the ease of using the controls and cleaning the lint filter as well as how quietly the dryer operates.
We now incorporate lab test results, predicted reliability, and owner satisfaction into one Overall Score to make it easier for you to make a well-informed buying decision, as you'll see in our washing machine ratings and dryer ratings.
5 Matching Pairs With a Stainless Look
Read on for ratings and reviews of five matching washer-and-dryer sets from five brands. They all have the stainless look, and score Very Good or Excellent overall in our ratings. They appear in order of the pair’s Overall Score, highest to lowest.
BEST TIME TO BUY:
