Washer Dryer preference

[Imwashingmypirate]

I used to love opening the top load washing machine and watching it spin really fast. Had to stick something in that little safety device thingy. Ah, the good old days!

I agree with waiting until the kinks are worked out. We’ve only got one cycle left that uses water. Dryer is still going strong, except for those ink stains in the drum from The Great Ink Pen Disaster of 2023.

I stopped at Dollar Tree on my way home, and saw the spaghetti spoons/forks on the wall and thought about you Jersey.

Can you not wipe it off with something like isopropanol/acetone/alcohol?

[Physics Guy]

Do people in North America use condensing dryers? These are models that don't vent their hot, damp air to outdoors, but instead let it cool in a radiator to condense out the water into a little tank. If the tank is full, the dryer will show a warning light and not run, so you normally empty the tank after every load, when you clear the lint trap.

The advantage of a condensing dryer is that you can put it in any room. It doesn't need a hole in the outside wall. The only disadvantage is always having to empty the tank—so it is convenient to put the dryer in a room with a sink or a drain. We've used one for nearly twenty years with no problems. Emptying the water tank doesn't seem like a big chore because you're there anyway, clearing lint and unloading the dryer, so it's just one more little step to add to the routine.

Our dryer did stop running a few years ago, so I took the back off and poked around inside it. I cleaned out some grit that seemed to be causing excess friction when the drum rotated, and put it back together with only a few leftover screws afterwards. It has worked fine since then. I find that simple machines can surprisingly often be repaired just by taking them apart, making a few ignorant efforts to clean or adjust them inside, and putting them back together again. It's as if they just needed to be reassured that someone still loved them.

[Xenophon]

Do people in North America use condensing dryers? These are models that don't vent their hot, damp air to outdoors, but instead let it cool in a radiator to condense out the water into a little tank. If the tank is full, the dryer will show a warning light and not run, so you normally empty the tank after every load, when you clear the lint trap.

You can definitely purchase them here but I'm hard pressed to think of any time I've actually seen them used. Even in houses where the venting had to run a comical length or execute some potentially dangerous 90 degree turns. Which reminds me... PSA to clear your dryer vents at minimum once a year.

[Imwashingmypirate]

Do people in North America use condensing dryers? These are models that don't vent their hot, damp air to outdoors, but instead let it cool in a radiator to condense out the water into a little tank. If the tank is full, the dryer will show a warning light and not run, so you normally empty the tank after every load, when you clear the lint trap.

The advantage of a condensing dryer is that you can put it in any room. It doesn't need a hole in the outside wall. The only disadvantage is always having to empty the tank—so it is convenient to put the dryer in a room with a sink or a drain. We've used one for nearly twenty years with no problems. Emptying the water tank doesn't seem like a big chore because you're there anyway, clearing lint and unloading the dryer, so it's just one more little step to add to the routine.

Our dryer did stop running a few years ago, so I took the back off and poked around inside it. I cleaned out some grit that seemed to be causing excess friction when the drum rotated, and put it back together with only a few leftover screws afterwards. It has worked fine since then. I find that simple machines can surprisingly often be repaired just by taking them apart, making a few ignorant efforts to clean or adjust them inside, and putting them back together again. It's as if they just needed to be reassured that someone still loved them.

Haha. Cute. Our dryer broke once and it turned out the belt burned and snapped. I was able to open it, take the belt off and use the code on the belt to purchase a replacement. Was a b1**h to get the new one on. But it has been fine since.

I don't like condensers. I find the take a century to dry. We have one in the shed that belongs to the house. Hoping it still works. I had to get it out because It wasn't drying. We don't have a hole for our vent. I buy extra long vent tubes and hang them out the door or window. Did try a condenser box but it wet the wall. We have a clothes room and the dryer is in the clothes room by the window so we can put it on and shut the door which is warmer than when we had it in the kitchen and the back door open all the time. It also kept getting ripped in the kitchen and leaking water because people kept standing on it.

[Physics Guy]

Hmm, the condensing dryer probably does take longer. We run it overnight, or in the day while we're at work, so it has plenty of time.

A lot of our clothes we hang to dry, over a day or two, because we don't want them getting slowly shredded into lint by any dryer. That seems to be common practice here. It means that we're not trying to run a lot of stuff through our dryer, so taking longer isn't a problem.

In fact our dryer never seems to get anything as crisply dry and hot as a vented dryer, either. It actually does get them dry, but I remember at first we kept thinking, Hey, this isn't dry! because the clothes didn't feel hot and crisp when the machine said it was finished. Then we'd squish the clothes a bit, and realise that they weren't actually damp at all, and now we're just used to that.