2) A few items tumbling around in the drum whip up more suds than a big chunk of clothes rolling about. If I have to wash a small load, two teaspoons of detergent is about all I need to use - and I'm on 20+ grains per gallon well water. Don't rely on the "Min" level of the washer's dispenser; go by what the detergent bottle suggest - unless it suggest to use more, of course.

3) You can level the washer/dryer stack all you want... if the floor isn't sturdy enough to support it, it'll swing like a skyscraper on a windy day.

4) Well, I could imagine that it has to do with airflow. Some dryers have a stronger airflow than others, thus clothes can be sucked towards the filter. See this Samsung as an example.

Alex

Here is a link that might be useful: Samsung dryer design defect

Alex, thanks so much for the advice! The small-load/more suds thing does make sense because the first 2 loads I did were a pair of queen sheets and I did not get the sudsing. But all the other loads were smaller and even though I cut down the amount of detergent it was apparantly still too much. We have fairly soft public water here (3 grains/gal).

Looks like I'm going to have to get the contractor guy to reinforce the flooring from underneath. When I bought the house I asked the home inspector that very question (because the previous owners added the laundry area and so it's on framing rather than a slab) and he assured me that the framing was "perfectly adequate" (prev owners had a one-piece Kenmore washer-dryer in that space). I did tell him that I was planning to replace the existing unit with a stacked pair too.

Now I'm wondering whether the failure of the dispenser cups to properly drain, might also be a function of the spin cycle being too wobbly....

Thanks for the link to the Samsung issue. I have a feeling mine might be also related to the flooring/swing possibility now, because it isn't only small items that get tossed to the front: sheets and heavy items like jeans do too. It's pretty amazing to watch: I can load the drum perfectly evenly front to back, turn on the dryer, and in less than a half dozen revolutions the whole load is tumbling right up against the door and the rear half of the drum is entirely empty of clothing! And remains so throughout the entire cycle.

Sheets are a real pain because everything quickly balls up into one big cocoon. I did two queen sheets last night and had to stop and separate them three times during the cycle because one sheet was entirely encased in a cocoon formed by the other sheet's layers.

The drum is level when it is stationary but now I'm wondering if (due to floor flexing) it may be tilting toward the front as soon as the rotation starts. I have not yet run the washer and dryer at the same time, by the way.

This is my first experience with a stacked configuration and I'm definitely NOT a fan. The washer is too low and the dryer flirting with being too high. Before this, I've always had them side by side, on pedestals and on a slab foundation. But there is nowhere else in this house to put the W&D other than in this bumped-out recessed area.

Drying sheets: When you take them from the washer, shake them and fold each sheet like you are going to put them in the closet. Put each folded sheet in the dryer and start the cycle. See if that helps the balling up with the sheets.

We have a model 70 dryer stacked on top of the model 60 washer.

1) While significant water remains in the right hand side more than half the time, I've never seen significant water left in the main wash cup. FWIW, we use only liquid detergent.

2) We, too, have soft water, and yes, tiny loads would leave some soap unless we use the extra rinse. But we try our best to avoid tiny loads - after all, one of the points of a large capacity front loader is to be efficient.

3) They never rock, but they're on a tile floor over a lower-level slab. I have seen the washer work hard at balancing the load before spinning. It will stop after less than a second of potential rocking to re-balance. I've seen the re-balancing take as long as ten minutes, if not longer, but eventually it succeeds. Perhaps this is a difference between the 50 and 60 models, or perhaps it's an improvement in programming, since we just bought ours this past summer.

4) Of course clothing will hit the front door. The idea is to keep things moving around, and I expect there to be random movements front to back, and I can't imagine how a dryer could possibly keep items away from the front. I'll have to check the next time I do a mid-sized load to see if it looks like a bias towards the front.

We don't have a problem with the sheets balling up, but then, that's why we got the model 70 with the reversing tumble. It does seem as though the dryer sensor is set too low; I may need to experiment by turning off the eco-friendly feature.

As for the stacked configuration too low: Every time I groan because I have to get the dish washing detergent from below the sink, I think how glad I am we didn't go for a pedestal configuration for the washer and dryer. I'm old enough to be thinking about starting Social Security, but I'm still too young to give up bending and kneeling for housework. (Actually, the groaning is because of chronic allergies that congest my sinuses when bending, but unloading the washer is nowhere close to the congestion from a few seconds of reaching for a dishwasher tablet.)