Houses here are built on concrete slabs. There is no basement to put the washer in, so the laundry ends up in one of three places: a corner of the attached garage, a closet off a hallway or kitchen, or, in many newer two-story homes, a small room upstairs. Each spot works, and each one puts its own kind of stress on the machines.
The garage is the most common arrangement in older single-story homes, and the hardest on the equipment, so most of this guide starts there.
What summer heat does in a garage
An attached garage with the door shut on a July afternoon gets very hot, often much hotter than the outside air in the shade. Washers and dryers are built to tolerate a range of room temperatures, and the manual lists it. Most of the year a garage stays within reason. The hottest weeks of summer push it.
Heat works on a laundry pair slowly:
- •Rubber ages faster. Fill hoses, door boots and drain hoses harden and crack sooner in a hot space. Braided stainless fill hoses hold up better than plain rubber ones, and any hose should be replaced on the schedule its maker suggests, or right away if it bulges or cracks.
- •Electronics run warmer. Control boards and motor controllers have more trouble shedding heat when the air around them is already hot.
- •Detergent and softener change. Liquids left in a hot garage can separate or thicken. Keep them inside if you can.
None of this means the garage is a bad place for laundry. It means checking hoses and connections more often than someone with an air-conditioned laundry room would.
The floor isn't flat, and it isn't meant to be
Garage slabs are usually poured with a gentle slope toward the big door, so water and rain run out instead of pooling. That slope is good for the garage and bad for a washer. A machine that isn't level shakes harder on spin, wears its suspension and bearings faster, and can creep across the floor until it pulls on its hoses or hits the dryer.
Level the washer on all four feet, not just front to back. Most have adjustable front legs with lock nuts; some have self-adjusting rear legs that settle when you tip the machine forward and set it down. Put a level on top, side to side and front to back, and lock the nuts once it is right. Rubber anti-vibration pads under the feet help on bare concrete.
If a front-loader still walks after leveling, check that the shipping bolts were removed when it was installed. A machine left with them in will shake violently.
Water has nowhere to go but out the door
Without a floor drain, a leak in a garage runs along the slab toward the door, under storage boxes and anything else on the floor. Simple precautions:
- •Know where the shutoff valves for the washer are, and make sure they turn. Close them when you leave home for a long stretch.
- •Check the drain hose where it enters the standpipe. It should be secured so it can't pop out mid-cycle, but not sealed airtight, which can cause siphoning.
- •Look under the washer every few months with a flashlight. A small drip from a pump or hose is easy to fix before it becomes a puddle.
In an upstairs laundry room or a hallway closet, a drain pan under the washer, piped to a drain, is simple protection against a ceiling stain or a soaked hallway floor.
If your washer stops draining or leaves the drum full of water, our washer not draining guide walks through the likely causes.
Dryer vents: the long way out
When a dryer sits against an outside wall, its vent can run a few feet straight through it. When the laundry sits in an interior closet, the duct may have to climb into the attic and run across it to a wall cap or up through the roof. Long runs, many bends and vertical rises all slow the airflow, and slow airflow means lint settles in the duct.
Signs the vent is restricted:
- •Loads take two cycles to dry.
- •The laundry room or closet gets noticeably hot while the dryer runs.
- •The outside of the dryer is very hot to the touch.
- •At the vent cap, the flap barely moves while the dryer is running.
A restricted vent makes the dryer cycle on its safety thermostats and can blow its thermal fuse, so the dryer stops heating altogether. Never bypass a thermal fuse or high-limit thermostat. It is the device that keeps lint from catching fire.
What helps:
- •Rigid or semi-rigid metal duct, as short and straight as possible. Not plastic or thin foil.
- •A vent cap without a screen. Screens catch lint and clog. A flap or louvered damper keeps out birds, rodents and lizards instead.
- •Cleaning the full run of duct regularly, roof vents included. That may be work for a vent-cleaning service if the roof is steep or high.
- •Cleaning the lint screen before every load.
Our dryer not heating post has more on the heating side.
Laundry closets need air
A dryer pulls in air from the room, heats it and blows it out the vent. In a closet with a solid door, there isn't enough air to replace what goes out, and the dryer runs hot and slow. Manufacturers publish minimum clearances and ventilation openings for closet installations, often in the form of louvered doors. Stacked washer-dryer units in tight closets are especially sensitive to this.
Humidity and the front-loader smell
Front-load washers seal tightly to save water, and in a humid climate the rubber door boot and the drum stay damp between loads. Mildew follows, and with it the familiar musty smell.
- •Leave the door ajar after each wash, and pull the dispenser drawer out to dry.
- •Wipe the folds of the door boot, where water and lint collect.
- •Use only HE detergent, in the amount the manual calls for. Extra soap leaves residue that feeds mildew.
- •Run the machine's cleaning cycle on the schedule the manual gives.
Electric is the norm; gas is the exception
Most homes here are all-electric, so most dryers run on a 240-volt outlet. Gas dryers do exist. If you have one and smell gas, don't operate any switches. Leave the house and call the gas utility or 911 from outside.
When the garage floods
The garage is the lowest part of most slab homes, so it is the first place water reaches in a heavy storm. A washer and dryer sitting on the slab can take water into their motors and controls. If they've been wet, don't plug them in or switch the breaker back on to test them. Have them inspected first. Our hurricane season checklist covers storm prep, including raising machines on pedestals.
When a machine needs a technician, see our washer repair page, or call or book online. We diagnose it at your home and you approve the price before any work starts.