Clean Machines: Washers and Dryers Designed for the Smart Home

If laundry day is your least favorite day of the week, you may be working with some substandard tools.

Contemporary cleaning machines offer greater freedom and a number of other fine features that ease the essential burden of clean clothes and bedding—and return Mondays to their proper spot as the week’s most loathed day.

GE Connected Washersand Dryers

GE Connected Washers and Dryers look to untether users from the tyranny of the laundry room via near complete remote control. Using the GE Appliances Laundry app, users can remotely start wash and dry cycles, monitor cycle status and time remaining, receive an alert when a cycle has finished and extend the dryer cycle. The connected machines also offer voice-control via popular A.I. assistants Alexa and Google Home, and work with Amazon’s Dash service so you can have detergent automatically delivered whenever you are running low.

GE Connected Washers are available for $799 or $899, and Connected Dryers are available for $799 to $999.

Samsung FlexWash and FlexDry

This wash-and-dry combo is the Rolls Royce of connected cleaning machines. The FlexWash comes equipped with two individually controlled washers within one unit, allowing users to clean two loads at different cycles and temperatures at same time. The FlexDry features a standstill rack designed to carefully dry more delicate articles of clothing, as well as sensor dry technology that optimizes time and temperature to thoroughly dry clothes and automatically shut off to prevent heat damage. Wi-Fi connectivity allows users to remotely monitor their cycles, receive cycle-end alerts, and schedule cycles from your smart device of choice. Samsung Smart Care will run diagnostics on your machines and alert you, via app, whether any repair work is needed, and the FlexWash’s Self Clean feature will send an alert every 40 cycles to perform a soaking, pulsating, high speed spinning—and chemical free!—self-cleaning.

The Samsung WV9600 5.5 Total cu. ft. FlexWash Washer is available for $1,299, and the DV9600 7.5 cu. ft. FlexDry Dryer is available for $1,099 (electric) or $1,199 (gas).

LG Signature Washer/Dryer Combo

One machine to rule them all. Offering a true "set-it-and-forget-it" experience, the LUWM101HWA—LG Signature’s washer-and-dryer combo machine—enables users to do their entire laundry with one machine, and they don’t even need to be home to do it. Featuring LQ’s SmartThinQ technology, this machinecan be entirely operated remotely on the user’s favorite smart device—allowing owners to wash and dry an entire load from the comfort of the spa’s pedicure chair. The talented and transformative machine somehow makes laundry day even easier with its Auto Dosing System, which detects soil levels and automatically dispenses the appropriate amount of detergent via a built-in detergent container.

The LUWM101HWA is available for $3,299.

Whirlpool Smart Cabrio

The Whirlpool Smart Cabrio series of washers and dryers offers many of the same intelligent features as contemporary cleaning machines—remote control, machine diagnostics, automatic detergent replenishment via Amazon, even moisture sensors to ensure that clothes reach peak dryness without overheating. But the Cabrio does offer a intriguing feature for the eco-minded: Nest Learning Thermostat Integration. It will pair with the smart thermostat to help homeowners maximize energy efficiency by running washers and dryers during non-peak energy hours.

Whirlpool Smart Cabrio washers and dryers are available for $1,399.

Cleanly

If you’re someone who doesn’t like to get their hands dirty (even when cleaning), then Cleanly may be for you. The app for the laundry-averse allows users to schedule a soiled clothes pick-up—or as Cleanly suggests, simply leave your laundry with your doorman—by Cleanly professionals who pack your goods into custom laundry and garment bags and return it clean and folded 24 hours later.

Pricing depends on size of order, service provided (washing/dry cleaning) and location. At the moment, Cleanly is only available in New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.