An all-in-one washer dryer is one drum that washes a load and then dries it without you moving the clothes. Most people who buy one are short of something: a second machine's worth of floor, a 240-volt dryer outlet, or a way to vent hot air outside. So the combo often ends up in a closet off a hallway or a bedroom, running late at night, and the question of how loud it is matters more than it would in a basement.
We went looking for the published decibel figures, and there are very few. We checked the makers' own US product pages, spec sheets and manuals for fifteen combos from ten brands, from 24-inch compacts to full-size heat pump models. Six carry a figure, from two brands. Here is what those figures cover, what the other makers print in their place, and what the documents say about putting a combo where you sleep.
Our picks are listed above, with full specifications for each.
Two brands do, and neither prints the figure you would want most.
Equator prints 60 dB on five models: the EZ 4600, EZ 4700 C, EZ 4800 V, the marine EZ 4650 CV and the larger EZ 6500. On four of them the figure is attached to a program. The spec sheets list "Quiet 60 db" among the wash cycles and describe it this way: "Quiet Cycle: Clothes are washed and dried at low RPM with noise level less 60 dB." The EZ 6500 page puts it as "Quiet Operation (Below 60 dB)" without naming a cycle, and the owner's manual linked from that page lists a program called Quiet 60dB. No weighting, distance or test standard is given, and there is no figure for the Normal program.
KoolMore prints "Noise 78 dB" in the specification table for its FLC-3CWH. That is all it says. There is no cycle, no weighting and no distance, and the manual adds nothing.
Because one figure describes a special program and the other describes nothing in particular, we do not rank them against each other. We would be guessing which half of the cycle 78 dB belongs to.
Everyone else prints a feature name or nothing. GE lists "Quiet-By-Design with dBT Quiet Control", and dBT is Dynamic Balancing Technology. LG lists "LoDecibel Quiet Operation". Samsung, Magic Chef, Summit and Danby print no figure on the US pages or documents we read. Midea's US page has a "Noise Reduction" row with no figure beside it. Bosch sells compact washers and dryers in the US but no combo on its US site. The BLACK+DECKER combo page we could open, on cobyusa.com, showed no figure and was marked sold out.
It tells you about one program, and that is still useful if you read it for what it is.
The manual Equator links from the EZ 6500 page has a program chart. Normal washes warm and spins at 1,200 rpm. Quiet washes cold and spins at 800. Heavy and Prewash reach 1,400. So the Quiet program is quiet at least partly because it spins slower, which is the same trade we found in washing machines: a lower spin speed costs you drier clothes and saves you noise. The chart gives the Quiet program the same 1300W maximum drying heat as Normal, with 80 minutes of drying where Normal gets 90.
What it cannot tell you is how loud the Normal program is, or the final spin of a heavy load. For that there is no published number from any combo maker. Bosch is the one brand that publishes both halves of the cycle for its compact washers, and there the spin is about 20 dBA above the wash. Those are washers and not combos, so we mention them only as a reminder that a single figure rarely describes the loud part.
The Equator figure is also in dB without an A. We keep it apart from dBA figures for that reason. If the difference is new to you, see dBA explained.
The closet is the point of a combo
A ventless combo exists so you can put laundry somewhere a vented dryer cannot go. That is a real advantage in a small flat, and our page on keeping an apartment quiet covers how the rest of a small home's machines fit around it. A closet door will not make a combo silent, and no maker claims it will, but the makers do tell you how to install one there.
GE says its UltraFast Combo is approved for closet installation, with zero inches of clearance on all sides and the top, if the closet doors are "louvered or otherwise ventilated and have at least 60 square inches" of open area. That opening lets the heat pump breathe, and it also lets sound out, so plan for both.
Samsung says that if its combo shares a closet with another washer or dryer, the front of the closet needs two unobstructed air openings with a combined area of at least 72 square inches.
Equator says the EZ 4700 C can be completely built in where a standard dishwasher would go, with zero clearance at the back and sides.
LG asks for at least 1 inch at the sides and 4 inches behind its WM3555HWA. Magic Chef, Danby and KoolMore all recommend about an inch of space on every side, and all three give noise as the reason. It is the one noise instruction nearly every small combo manual agrees on, and it costs nothing.
Movement, bolts and floors
GE's manual has a line we had not seen before in a laundry manual. Under loud or unusual noise, it says the combo "is designed to move 1/4" to reduce forces transmitted to the floor. This movement is normal." That is worth knowing before you build a tight cabinet around one.
Past that quarter inch, the manuals list the familiar causes. Shipping bolts: GE's has four, Equator's spec sheets say to remove two shipping rods, and Magic Chef and Danby both tell you to check the transport bolts first if the machine is noisy. Legs: GE says to push and pull the corners to check that all four rubber feet touch the floor, and to tighten the lock nuts. The floor: LG says the floor must be strong and rigid enough not to flex or bounce, and that a floor that is not solid may cause severe vibration and noise.
A combo spins at 1,200 to 1,400 rpm among the models here, as fast as a standalone front loader. Treat the install the same way you would for one.
Small combo or full-size
The compact combos in this guide hold 1.62 to 2.7 cu ft, and those whose weight we read come in at about 161 to 170 lbs. The full-size heat pump combos hold 4.8 to 5.3 cu ft and weigh 247 to 318 lbs. Every combo here whose electrical rating we read runs on a 110 to 120 volt supply.
The published figures all belong to small machines. If you want a big drum, you are choosing without a number: GE for its closet documentation, LG for its direct drive motor, or Samsung for its 20-year motor warranty. If you want a figure of any kind, you are choosing a 1.62 cu ft Equator or the KoolMore, and Equator's own pages say bulky items such as comforters need a larger machine.
How much should you spend?
Around $1,450 to $1,850 at Equator's list prices buys a 1.62 cu ft Equator with the Quiet program figure, and all four were shown 10 percent off. The EZ 6500 lists at $1,621 in white, also shown 10 percent off, and $1,688 in silver.
Around $1,470 to $2,200 covers the other 24-inch combos with a list price, from Magic Chef to LG. Magic Chef was shown on sale at $959, LG at $1,699, and KoolMore at $1,960 was sold out. Summit shows no price and sends you to a dealer.
Around $3,000 to $3,300 buys a full-size heat pump combo at list, and all three were discounted by $700 to $1,100 on the makers' own sites when we checked. None has a published figure.
Mistakes buyers make
Reading a program figure as the machine's figure. Equator's 60 dB describes its Quiet program, with a slower spin.
Reading a feature name as a rating. dBT, LoDecibel and Quiet-By-Design carry no number.
Closing the closet door on a heat pump. GE and Samsung both specify air openings.
Leaving the shipping bolts in. Every manual we read that mentions noise mentions them.
Building the cabinet tight. GE designs its combo to move a quarter inch, and the small combo makers ask for about an inch of space around the machine.
How we chose
We read the manufacturer's US product page for each combo, and the spec sheet, owner's manual or installation instructions wherever the maker links one we could open. We recorded each noise figure in the maker's own words, with the program or cycle it names, and kept a figure with no cycle named apart from one tied to a program. We compared capacity, drying method, spin speed, power supply, warranty and each maker's closet and floor guidance. Prices are the list prices on the makers' own sites on September 28, 2026, with any sale price noted.
We ranked combos with a published figure first. Among those, the five Equator models tie on the figure, so we chose between them on the installation each suits. Below them, where nothing is published, we chose on what the makers do document: closet approval, motor type and warranty, and the quality of the installation advice.
We did not measure any of these combos. Every figure in this guide is the maker's own, quoted from its US page or documents, and the rankings describe what makers publish, not how loud the machines were in a room we sat in.
