Stacked washer-dryers and stacked dryers have been available in the commercial space for many years. They are a staple for any environment where the floor space of a site must be optimised.
However, eagle-eyed viewers of our range of stacked commercial laundry appliances may have noticed a gap, why are there no stacked washing machines?
It's all about the weight of water.
The short version is that stacking two washing machines on top of each other will lead to severe wear and tear of both machines due to the enormous forces they exert when spinning wet laundry. This is compounded in a commercial machine, which uses even higher loads and forces for greater laundry efficiency.
The water used to clean laundry can double or even triple the weight of whatever garments are inside your washer, meaning your washing machine deals with much greater forces than your dryer.
Additionally, the movement within a dryer is designed to create airflow, whereas a washing machine is pulling water out of your washing through centrifugal forces.
Here's a practical example:
Don't believe us? Take the SC020 for example. On its medium setting, this hard mount washer spins its 9kg DRY loads (which are likely much heavier when wet inside) at a whopping 579 RPM, generating a crazy 100 g's of force (if you need a reminder about the difference between hard mount and soft mount, check out this article).
With forces this powerful, you have to bolt these machines to a solid foundation. If you were to stack two SC020s and push go, the top washer would fly off the bottom one, and probably go through the nearby wall.
Things will be less catastrophic with a soft mount washer due to their internal stabilisers, but they still require a solid base that won't move much. When stacked, the vibrations from the bottom washer will interfere with the top washer's ability to stabilise itself effectively, causing mechanical components and the washer's structure to wear at a considerably increased rate.
So what about "stacking kits"?
We don't recommend using laundry stacking kits for commercial laundry for one simple reason; it's not what the machines are designed for. All of our products undergo extensive component and field testing, often in the harshest and most extreme real-world settings we can find, but these scenarios only test for situations the product is intended for use.
By using a stacking kit, you introduce additional variables that can compromise the structural integrity and performance of the machines that our engineers have not designed them for. Single washers and dryers are designed to be mounted on floors.
Our advice is to stick with what each machine is designed for, our stacked options are specifically designed to support the extra height and force, that way you can be sure that your machine will live up to our legendary durability.
Want to find out more about commercial laundry from our experts?
