My wife has been liking the idea of moving the laundry from the basement to the first floor mudroom/office area. There is a crawl space below so access to all the mechanicals is not a problem.
We stop by the appliance store to start loo at units. It appears that we have the choice between 2 separate units that stack or one that is washer/dryer connected together. The sales guy was saying the 2 separate units put the dryer controls up high vs. the other.
a couple of things to consider. for the most part unless one of you is extremely short, the heighth is not a problem. a bigger consideration is the ability to reach into the back of the top dryer. My wife is about 5'3" and can't reach the back of a stacked dryer very easily. the other consideration as we get older is the ability to get down to extract wet clothes from the bottom front loader needed in a stacked set. The two in one units have smaller capacity but the washer is top loading. A preferred installation if possible is to use side by side units on a platform about 12" high. much easier for us "older" citizens to load and unload the laundry.
I built a platform for the washer and dryer. It is a double 2x6 so it raises the washer and dryer almost a foot. A friend in town bought a premade stand from an appliance place that does just about the same thing. I thought that $300 was a lot for a simple stand so I used some 2x6's that I had in the shop. If your wife wants the stand white, to match the washer and dryer, I would recommend painting the boards before assembly.
In a previous 2 story house I moved the laundry from the basement to an undersized and unused top floor bedroom. Made a lot more sense than carting laundry down 2 flights of stairs to the basement.
My sister had stackable washer/dryers. The biggest knock is that their capacity is pretty small. Put too much in and nothing gets clean [or dry]. You could wind up doing a large load of laundry in 2 or even 3 batches. They are a space saving compromise meant for a closet in an apartment.
I can't comment about stackables (I've used them in Australia and they were fine). However, I have several comments on moving from basement laundry to main floor:
1. My parents have a main floor laundry in their 1980's era house. When they switched from top loaders to front loaders, they had a problem with the front loader moving around during the spin cycle. The main floor joists had enough flex that the washer would walk around and bump into the dryer - damaging the dryer bezel and the control panels. I have the same washer/dryer in my basement and the washer stays put on the concrete floor even with unbalanced loads.
2. If you ever have a leak, you will prefer the leak to happen in the basement rather than the main floor. Replace your flexible hoses every 7 years or so.
3. Our basement laundry room is a combined storage room / laundry room. We can throw clothes in there and not worry about the mess. Main floor laundries are usually small and visible, so piles of clothes, etc. need to be kept somewhere else.
If and when you do relocate your laundry to an upstairs room, put down a pan on the floor with a drain. Or make the floor watertight with a drain. Hoses will break and when they do you will know and pay for it.
Use good quality hoses and replace often. Also get good turn off valves in the room so you can turn the water off when not in use.
Now it may be an age (aches and pains) thing and I don't want to be sexist but I've never heard one woman say she regrets having the laundry on the main floor. Can't say that about the ones who are using the basement.
The down side of an upstairs laundry is the noise and vibration.
We had a Whirlpool front loader in the basement of the old house you would never know it was running. The new house has a LG front loader in a pan on the vinyl LVT on engineered joists. The upstairs machine would knock things over at the other end of the house 40 feet away! The pan had to go, the washer got bolted to the dryer and leveled it still shook bet not as bad. I weighed the top of the washer, with two 60 pound sand tubes still shakes. I add 3 half inch sheets of tile backer board at 40 pounds each. Normal loads do not shake the house but the noise will stop conversation. Rugs and comforters still shake things.
Getting a vented drain without opening a wall will not be easy but drywall is cheap open the wall and do it right.
You will want to open the wall behind the dryer to make room for the vent that will not get smashed into the wall.
There was time front loader washer were not allowed on the second floor of houses with a stand. This was a Code restriction because some of them woulds ahke the houses enough to damage them.
Depending on the space available I would rather have side by side units, but that a personal choice. The person using the equipment should give this thought and make the decision.
The caution about using a pan and excellent hoses is good advice. Use the braided hose that are "burst proof". Turning the water off to the washer between uses is a good idea and they make single handle valves for this, but I don't know anyone who does it. I talked to an insurance agent who told me his company had 200,000 homes insured and they had a flood reported on average every day and the average cost of them was about $6,500.
Having seen many problems with Front loading Washing machines, I declined to ever purchase one! There have been leaking issues, mold issues, Vibration issues etc. I just can't see any advantage to this design. It only makes sense to hold the water in an upright drum.
My LG washer / dryer are side by side in a small utility room with wood floor. The washer is a high capacity unit and has very little vibration even with Quilts / blankets etc. The units are very quiet (no agitator) and does a great job. I have the steel braided covered supply lines, both to the washer and dryer (it has a steam wrinkle remover cycle).
I was a licensed contractor plumber in Indiana as a side job for 20 years. In this area the water pressure is not very high (40 - 50 psi dependent on elevation) and I have never seen a burst supply line. I am sure this is a function of pressure, so wouldn't advise anyone to not take proper precautions.
Burst proof hoses shut of flow if water flow exceeds a certain amount (basically a spring loaded valve that closes when flow is too high). Good idea. I installed them under my sinks during a previous renovation, but had to remove them because flow through the faucet was high enough to actuate the shut-off feature. I don't know if water flow to a washer would be high enough to actuate the stop.
