About Equator
Equator Advanced Appliances was founded in 1991 by Atul Vir in Houston, Texas, where the company remains headquartered today. Vir built the company's first products around compact, apartment-size laundry machines, and Equator is widely credited as the first company to bring combo washer-dryer units to the US market. The company now holds 16 patents and has expanded into refrigerators, freezers, cooking appliances, dishwashers, and specialty units like wine coolers and ice makers, selling across the US, India, China, Canada, and Europe.
Equator has been covered by national outlets including CBS News, HGTV, Fortune, Popular Mechanics, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Its laundry lineup still targets the space-constrained buyer its founder originally had in mind: RVs, tiny homes, apartments, and rooms without a dedicated 240V dryer circuit. In our testing for DIYRated, its EW826/ED852 stackable pair stood out as a genuine two-piece unit, rather than a single fused combo, built to run entirely on standard 110V household outlets.
Brand website: equatorappliances.com
What Equator makes
Equator's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Stackable & combo laundry appliances
compact washers, dryers, and combo washer-dryer units — featured on DIYRated — featured on DIYRated
Refrigerators
standard, commercial, portable, and wine cooler refrigeration units
Freezers
compact and chest freezer lines
Cooking appliances
ranges, cooktops, microwaves, and air fryers
Dishwashers
compact and portable dishwasher units
Specialty appliances
ice makers, cigar humidors, and climate-control units
Why we recognized Equator
The DIYRated Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Equator earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, put to work on real jobs, and judged on merit.
Equator products we rated highly
Equator Premium Stackable Washer (EW826) & Vented Sensor Dryer (ED852), 110V, White
A genuine two-piece stackable pair in our testing, with the washer and dryer built as separate units engineered to stack, so either can be replaced independently instead of scrapping a fused combo. Both units run on standard 110V outlets, the right fit for RVs, tiny-house wiring, and any space without a 240V dryer circuit, and having two separate drums means wash and dry cycles can run at the same time. A pet-hair cycle and sensor-dry auto shutoff round out a feature set we don't often see on compact laundry.
Read the 8 Best Stackable Washer Dryers of 2026 guide →What earned Equator the recognition
- Founded in 1991 by Atul Vir in Houston, Texas, where the company is still headquartered; Equator is widely credited as the first company to bring combo washer-dryer units to the US market.
- Holds 16 patents across its compact and specialty appliance lines.
- Has grown from a single-category laundry manufacturer into refrigerators, freezers, cooking appliances, dishwashers, and specialty items like ice makers and wine coolers, sold across the US, India, China, Canada, and Europe.
- The EW826/ED852 stackable pair we tested runs on standard 110V household circuits on both the washer and the dryer, unlike most stacked units that need a dedicated 240V dryer circuit, a meaningful advantage for RVs, tiny homes, and older buildings without heavy dryer wiring.
- Featured in national outlets including CBS News, HGTV, Fortune, Popular Mechanics, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.