Can I stack a tumble dryer on top of a washing machine?

Stacking is the best answer to a small utility space, because it keeps two proper machines rather than compromising on a washer dryer, and it occupies the floor area of one. It only works with the right bracket. A washing machine on a full spin is throwing an off-centre wet load around at speed, and anything sitting loose on top of it will eventually walk off the front.

Safety

What you'll need

• A stacking kit compatible with both machines
• A second person
• Spirit level and a spanner for the feet
• A screwdriver, per the kit instructions (optional)

Step by step

1. Confirm a compatible kit exists for your two machines.Kits are usually brand-specific and often model-specific. A universal kit must explicitly state compatibility with both machines. If nothing suitable exists for your pair, the machines go side by side — this is the point at which to stop, not to improvise.
2. Put the washing machine underneath, always.It is much heavier, has the ballast, and is the machine that generates the forces. A dryer at the bottom would be lifted and moved by the washer above it.
3. Get the washing machine dead level first.Spirit level both ways, all four feet firm, no rock when you push each top corner, and the locknuts tightened hard against the body. A stack magnifies every levelling error, so this matters more here than in any other installation.
4. Check the floor can take the pair.Two machines is 100 to 140kg on four feet, plus the dynamic load of a spin. On a suspended timber floor, spread it across a plywood sheet crossing several joists.
5. Leave the hose and cable space behind.Around 100mm behind the lower machine for hoses that are not crushed, plus a route for the dryer's cable and, if it is a condenser, its drain hose if you plumb one in.
6. Fit the kit exactly as instructed.Most are a shelf or bracket that bolts into the washing machine's chassis or its side panels — not the lid — and locates the dryer's feet. Follow the sequence in the instructions rather than assembling it by inspection.
7. Lift with two people and a clear route.The dryer is going to chest height. Clear the floor, agree the lift, take the weight on the base and not the door, and set it down onto the bracket rather than sliding it into place.
8. Check the dryer is located and secure before letting go.Its feet should sit in the kit's locations, and any retaining strap or bracket should be fitted. Push the top of the dryer firmly — it should not move independently of the washer.
9. Make sure the dryer can still breathe.Air intake and outlet unobstructed. A condenser or heat pump machine at the top of a stack in a closed cupboard will overheat and run long cycles. Ventilation is not optional.
10. Check you can actually reach and open the upper door.On a standard 850mm washer, the dryer's door aperture ends up around chest height and the top of the machine near head height. Filters at the top of the machine may be out of comfortable reach for some people, and the filter has to be cleaned every load.
11. Run a full spin and watch it.Load the washer normally and stand and watch a 1400 spin. Any movement of the dryer relative to the washer, any rocking of the stack, and something needs revisiting before you use it again.
12. Recheck the feet and the kit fixings after a few weeks.Vibration loosens things. A quick check of the foot locknuts and the bracket bolts a month in, and annually after that, keeps the stack where it should be.

Tips

• A pedestal or drawer base under the washing machine raises the whole stack and can put the dryer door uncomfortably high. Measure before buying one.
• If the dryer is a condenser or heat pump machine, plumbing its drain to the waste removes the need to reach a water tank at chest height every load.
• Stacking makes the washing machine's pump filter no harder to reach, but it does make pulling the lower machine out for service a two-person job. Factor that into the maintenance routine.
• Where the space is a fitted cupboard, remember the stack still needs a gap all round so neither machine drums against the carcass.

Common mistakes

• Resting the dryer directly on the washing machine's lid — The lid is thin pressed steel and is not designed to carry a load, and nothing locates the dryer. At the first full spin the stack rocks and the dryer can walk off the front.
• Putting the dryer underneath — The heavier, vibrating machine has to be at the bottom. A washing machine on top of a lighter dryer will move both of them.
• Skipping the levelling because the machines will be strapped together — A stack amplifies imbalance. An unlevel washer at the bottom transmits far more movement into the machine above it than it would on its own.
• Improvising a frame from timber and straps — The kit is engineered to take a dynamic load and to locate the upper machine. Improvised supports are neither, and the failure mode is a dryer falling from chest height.

If it doesn't work

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