On Jul 26, 10:36 am, WDS wrote:
That's nothing do to with suds and everything to do with not having a
large enough water heater.

First, I really appreciate the replies. However, as to the specifics,
it can't be the size of the hot water heater. The condo complex
consists of a couple of dozen garden style units, and they are all fed
off a common water supply -- I think there are two boilers that feed
the whole place. And when I say that someone using a washer takes
away the hot water, it's like, the hot water just isn't there, and as
then at some point it's there again. So it's like the hot water
pressure in the pipes is affected by the (illegal!) washing machine
that someone is using.

But, I am wondering if these High Efficiency washer/dryers could work
in our complex. I will have to bring it up with the condo board.

Any other suggestions are appreciated as well!

On Jul 25, 8:36 pm, CJ wrote:

Original Poster -- OK, I really should have included this in the
original post: Every now and then some new owner (or new renter,
since some people rent out the units) goes out and buys a portable
washer/dryer. And as soon as they run it, everyone else has no hot
water. (That's how we know they are doing it, the hot water goes
away....) So, maybe there are issues with draining the suds as well,
and I have no idea how we'd ventilate the dryers, but the one clear
issue seems to be that for some reasons -- again, I know nothing about
plumbing -- but when people put washers in, they hot water seems to
get drained from the pipes for everyone else. So the question, maybe,
is whether there are some low water flow washers out there that are
meant for this sort of thing.

That's nothing do to with suds and everything to do with not having a
large enough water heater.

There are washers that run only on cold water and heat their own
water. We used to have one and it worked great.

As for dryers there are ones that don't need to be ventilated
outside. They condense the moisture out of the outflow air. Those
are quite common in Europe.