November 17th, 2023 | 10 min. read
Learn how to find the perfect laundry products with our Washer Buying Guide
The LG WashTower was the newest, most revolutionary unitized washer and dryer introduced almost four years ago.
Since then, competitors like Samsung and GE have developed their own models comparable to the LG WashTower.
This raises an important question: Do you need the WashTower at all?
In this article, you will learn the features, new models, and reliability of the WashTower and the newer models from Samsung and GE.
Let’s get started.
Looking for answers about Washers?
Short on time? Download our free Washer Buying Guide.
Why Did LG Suddenly Become So Popular?
LG is a Korean company manufacturing washers and dryers in Clarksville, Tennessee.
I asked LG Vice President of Sales Randy Warner how LG navigated the pandemic better than any other major brand.
LG makes more of its major components, like motors and compressors, making them less dependent on outside suppliers. This served them well in 2020-2022.
Also, by not outsourcing and understanding their parts and machines, LG makes the most reliable washer on the market.
You will see if that is still true this year.
Let’s dive into the LG WashTower’s key features.
2024 LG WashTower Review
The Main Benefits of the LG WashTower
Design
The design of the WashTower is more streamlined at 74 ⅜ inches, compared to 80 inches when stacking two full-size units.
The controls are also in the middle of the LG WashTower, which is incredibly helpful instead of reaching up to 6 feet and 3 inches for the controls of a stacked unit.
The dryer is a bit lower, so that, too, is fully accessible.
Depth
The depth is only 30.16 inches, which is almost 1.5 inches shallower than the next shallower brand, so it's great for closets.
Ventilation
You can vent out the back and both sides with an optional kit. You also don't need a vent for the new WashTower, thanks to its heat pump drying technology (more that later).
Large Capacity
With 4.5 and 7.5 cubic feet of capacity in the LG WashTower’s washer and dryer, you also don't sacrifice any cubic footage as it equals LG's most popular front load washers.
WashTower Reliability
Reliability is the single most important consideration in buying laundry.
You want a reliable machine because the average repair wait of –4-8 weeks translates into a pile of unwashed clothes.
LG is again the most reliable laundry brand sold at Yale.
Their washers need just 2.1% service in the first year based on over 33,000 service calls completed by our service team just last year.
Compare that to the average of 5.4% for washers and 9.7% for appliances overall.
Let's look at LG’s WashTower models and then competitive brands.
We will be publishing our 2024 reliability guides soon. Click here to subscribe to be first notified.
LG WashTower Models and Prices
The LG WashTower has five models to choose from.
LG WashTower WKE100HWA ($1,499)
The first four WashTower models have similar features and start at $1,499 during promotions.
Their most basic model, the WKE100HWA, has six cycles and nine options.
All of the LG WashTower models feature smart functionality, steam in the washer, and five wash temperatures.
LG WashTower WKEX200HGA ($1,699)
Their middle model, the WKEX200HGA for $200 more, offers steam in the dryer to refresh and de-wrinkle clothes.
Additionally, this model has LG’s signature TurboWash 360 cycle. The TurbWash360 option uses five high-pressure jets to turn any wash cycle into 30 minutes rather than an hour.
Below is a breakdown of the main washer cycles:
- Normal Cycle: This cycle is designed for everyday laundry and provides a thorough wash and dry for most clothing items. It's suitable for a wide range of fabrics and soil levels.
- Quick Wash Cycle: This cycle is a shorter and faster option for lightly soiled clothes. It's perfect when you need to wash and dry your laundry quickly.
- Heavy Duty Cycle: Use this cycle for heavily soiled or large loads. It provides deep cleaning and effectively removes tough stains and dirt.
- Delicates Cycle: Delicate fabrics like silk or lace require gentle care. The Delicates cycle is designed to wash and dry these items with utmost care and minimal agitation.
- Steam Cycle: The steam cycle helps remove wrinkles and odors from your clothes using steam during the wash and dry phases.
- Allergen Cycle: This cycle is ideal for households with allergy sufferers. It uses high-temperature water to remove allergens from clothing, providing a thorough cleaning.
- TurboWash 360 Cycle: This cycle uses powerful jets to provide deep cleaning while saving time. It's a quick and efficient option for washing and drying clothes.
- Sanitary Cycle: The Sanitary cycle uses high-temperature water to eliminate bacteria and germs from your laundry, making it suitable for bedding and towels.
- Wrinkle Care: This cycle prevents wrinkles by tumbling clothes without heat after the cycle is complete until the door is opened.
These cycles provide a wide range of options to handle different types of laundry, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your specific needs for each load of laundry.
As for the dryer, the LG WashTower offers various drying cycles to suit different needs.
Here are some of the drying cycles and their explanations:
- Normal Dry: This cycle is designed for everyday laundry and provides a standard drying time and heat level suitable for most clothing items.
- Damp Dry: This cycle leaves clothes slightly damp, making ironing them easier. It's useful for items you want to dry manually or reduce wrinkles.
- Low Heat Dry: This option uses lower heat settings, which are gentler on delicate fabrics. It's ideal for drying items that require a more delicate touch.
- Sensor Dry: LG's Sensor Dry technology detects the moisture level in the load and automatically adjusts the drying time and temperature to prevent over-drying and energy waste. This ensures that your clothes come out perfectly dry without excessive heat.
- Steam Dry: The Steam Dry cycle uses steam to help remove wrinkles and refresh your clothes during drying. It's a convenient option for reducing the need for ironing.
- Quick Dry: This cycle is designed for small loads of laundry and efficiently dries them in a shorter amount of time, which is perfect for when you need your clothes quickly.
- Sanitary Dry: Similar to the washing cycle, it uses high-temperature heat to eliminate bacteria and germs from your laundry, making it suitable for items like bedding and towels.
- Air Dry: This cycle uses only air circulation without heat. It's suitable for items that need to be fluffed or refreshed without exposure to heat.
These drying cycles provide flexibility and efficiency, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your laundry needs.
The inclusion of Sensor Dry technology helps ensure energy-efficient and precise drying, protecting your clothes from over-drying.
The next two models feature AI programming for cycles and include AI DD (Artificial Intelligence Direct Drive), which offers built-in intelligence and sensors.
LG WashTower WKEX300HBA ($1,799)
Their top model, the WKEX300HBA, priced at $100 more than the WKEX200HGA, offers a larger capacity of five cubic feet for the washer and includes additional wash cycles.
However, due to its larger size, the WashTower has a depth of 33 inches, so it's important to measure your space before making the purchase.
You have 26 wash cycles and 18 options, along with 23 drying programs and 14 dryer options. With AI, you can set any cycle or option.
LG Studio WashTower SWWE50N3 ($2,199)
The Studio is their best-vented model. Like the WKEX300HBA, it is five cubic feet but has an 18-31 load automatic dispenser, depending on the load size.
Auto dispensers are worth your consideration because they dispense the exact amount of detergent required at the right time.
In front loads, people tend to add too much detergent. Those additional suds stay in the machine for an expensive future service call.
The Studio has a better warranty of two years, and the dryer drum is steel, not aluminum, like in the other series.
All of these models also have a gas dryer option if you have a gas hook-up.
LG WashTower Ventless WKHC202HBA ($1,799)
Their newest model, the WKHC202HBA, has the same capacity as the first two WashTowers.
However, it adds the ventless heat pump dryer.
So now you can place a WashTower anywhere with power and water because it does not require a vent.
How the WKHC202HBA Heat Pump Works
We have other articles exclusive to heat pumps, but below is a brief explanation.
Heat pumps are more efficient than drying elements by using an evaporator to remove moisture and a compressor to heat the air through a heat exchanger.
Normal, vented dryers draw cooler air from your laundry room, heating with elements and projecting that hot air outside.
Heat pumps run on a closed loop, recycling increasingly warm air instead of continuously drawing colder air in.
You will save 50-60% by buying a heat pump.
Before you read about the features, you should know your regular dryer is expensive.
In Boston, a dryer will cost you 96 cents per load with an average dryer or roughly $350 per day when operated daily.
A family of five with an older dryer could spend $800 or more.
One Word of Caution: Heat pumps were invented in 1856 but were only placed in smaller compact dryers in 1997.
The LG WashTower is the first generation of larger dryers with a heat pump. Stay tuned for reliability.
LG WashTower Features
The WashTower incorporated the latest of LGs technology back in 2020
AI DD
The Artificial Intelligence Direct Drive, or AI DD, washes your clothes by determining weight and softness.
It uses 11,000 data points to decide the ideal cycle, time, and motion.
The dryer will save up to 22% drying time by sensing moisture and softness in the dryer.
The best part is you just hit a button without choosing any cycles and options.
AI Cycles
- Smart Learner: The "Smart Learner" remembers your favorite cycles that you use the most often. Therefore, if you want to wash colors in hot water with a cold rinse, the machine will remember that cycle.
- Smart Pairing: Smart Pairing intuitively sets the dryer setting based on the washer. Once again, many LG, GE, and Samsung washers now have this feature.
Wi-Fi Connectivity
Lastly, the WashTower is Wi-Fi driven and can be operated from your phone. It even sends you a notification when it's done.
You can also download customizable cycles that are not available onboard the machines.
TurboWash 360
Other cycles include TurboWash 360. LG adds five high-pressure sprays to shorten any cycle to 30 minutes.
Steam
Like we mentioned earlier, both the washer and dryer have steam in the top two models.
In the washer, steam is used to power out tough stains. In the dryer, steam is used to refresh and de-wrinkle your clothes.
Have a favorite shirt? Place it in a steam cycle to wear it out that night in about 10 minutes.
3 Missing Features of the LG WashTower
Auto Dispenser
Like other brands, the main missing feature is an automatic detergent dispenser. It's only available on their most expensive Studio series and not on the other models.
GE and Whirlpool now have 32 and 40-load dispensers, respectively.
Mold Protection
Mold can build up in front loads due to standing water. LG has the "TubClean" feature to reduce mold and mildew.
However, LG has not adopted GE's extensive mold protection. GE uses Microban anti-microbial surfaces and a fan to evaporate standing water.
You can greatly reduce mold by wiping down the gasket and keeping the door open.
You also want to run the washer in a high-temperature wash like LG's TubClean every few weeks.
Reversible Door
You can't reverse the washer door like GE and Electrolux, so that could be a problem in some laundry rooms.
Now let's compare the WashTower to all your options.
How Does the LG WashTower Compare to Other Brands?
The LG WashTower vs. One-Piece Washer and Dryer Stacks
Most of the one-piece stacks, like Frigidaire, GE, and Whirlpool, were designed when I started at Yale in the 1980s.
Not only is the WashTower more advanced, but it is also less expensive.
The others are simple top-load combos with less capacity and fewer overall features while using more water and electricity.
You shouldn't consider any other one-piece except for special long-run duct applications.
Then again, instead of ducting a long way, you should buy the WashTower with the heat pump for a much better machine with much greater overall cost savings.
What you should consider is whether you need a WashTower at all.
The LG WashTower vs. the GE GFW655SSVWW
GE is a better brand for preventing mold with its micro-ban anti-microbial surfaces in the gasket, dispenser, and hoses.
You also have the fan to dry the gasket where mold tends to develop.
Their 32-load dispenser will release the right amount of detergent at the right time and prevent service calls.
When you pour too much detergent, the oversudsing stays in the machine and becomes an expensive future issue.
Again, you must jump to the LG Studio WashTower, while a GE set will be more reasonably priced.
GE doesn't have a one-piece unit like the WashTower, so you must stack the dryer, which was a problem in previous years.
However, the washer now controls the dryer through their SmartHQ app, so it doesn't matter as much.
Ditto with Samsung.
The LG WashTower vs. the Samsung WF50BG8300AE
The new Samsung has the AI capabilities of the best WashTower model and antimicrobial technology to reduce mold build-up.
But like GE, you can control the dryer from the washer.
Should You Buy the LG WashTower?
Yes, I think other companies have duplicated the ease of use of the WashTower by smartly controlling the dryer from the washer.
The WashTower is still shallower, and LG is the most reliable washer and dryer on the market.
It should be on your list, but you do have options.
If you want a cool comparison between the New GE Profile UltraFast Combo vs. the LG WashTower with a heat pump dryer, click this link.
Thanks for reading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Additional Resources
Download our Yale Washer Buying Guide with all the features, terms, and brands of laundry. Over 1 million people have already found answers in a Yale guide.
Related Articles
- Most Reliable Front Load Washers
- Best Front Load Washers
- The Largest Front Load Washers
- LG vs. Samsung Front Load Washers & Dryers
- The LG WashTower with a Ventless Heat Pump Dryer Review
Looking for answers about Washers?
Choosing a new washer and dryer can be a confusing and time-consuming experience. We've taken the pain out of the decision process with our Washer Buying Guide.
Why Should You Trust Us?
It seems that every appliance review has nothing but glowing comments about almost every product, yet you read customer reviews and they are almost universally bad.
We are here to fill in the disconnect. We'll give you the best features, and the drawbacks as well, including reliability based on over 37,000 calls performed by our service team just last year. Our goal is to give you ALL the information so you know what's right for you.
Please consider subscribing or adding to the conversation in the comments below. We appreciate you stopping by.
A Note About Pricing
Pricing on this blog is for reference only and may include time sensitive rebates. We make every attempt to provide accurate pricing at time of publishing. Please call the stores for most accurate price.
