Ours has just packed up after 14 years (a modest Whirlpool so not bad)
SWMBO is set on a new one now, even if I could find the reset switch...
When we last bought the choice was between vented and condenser, and our recollection is that condensers were for people who couldn't vent (e.g. flat dwellers), and weren't as good.
Now there are heat pump ones too, which also don't need a vent.
Doesn't matter much whether we need a vent - we already have the gubbins - bit non-vented seem cheaper to run and the others are better at energy efficiency (generalisation).
Our budget isn't unlimited but will run to whatever we think best.
Does anyone have ant views on vented v. condenser v. heat pump
Better be quick, we are on the Curry's site already seeing if they can deliver at the weekend!!
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We have a condenser dryer. I suppose we could have got a vented one - it's in the cellar. But easiest option. I didn't bother plumbing in the water outlet and so just use the water tank to collect the condensed water. Not an issue.
Apart from over the winter we still try to use the washing line.
When I bought the dryer I got it by doubling up Tesco clubcard points. So half price really.
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Don't buy a whirlpool replacement !
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We have a Whirlpool which we bought orf the previous owners of the property. Must be about 10 years old now but still does what it should do about 4 times per week in Winter.
If and when it dies, I'd replace it with a White Knight: whiteknightdryers.com/
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We have a cheapo, sensor-dry equipped.BEKO, vented. It lives in our shed and has done for nearly 6 years. In spite of its less than ideal location, it has never let us down
It dries well - much better than our daughter's vented and expensive Hotpoint,
We had a condenser dryer, as part of a washer/dryer machine by Bosch, years ago and it was slooooooow and unreliable.
Maybe condensers have improved over the years, but the relative simplicity of a straightforward vented machine is attractive, IMO.
(For BEKO bashers, we have a BEKO frost-free upright freezer, also a denizen of our shed, a BEKO clothes washer and a BEKO fan oven, all of which have been fine. (Gulp!) )
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When we first moved in here in 1998 (newbuild) Mrs B was determined we weren't having a drier.
By time she changed her mind in 2003 it was too late to get the developer back to move the vent outlet from half the TD slot's depth to where it needed to be at back so we were stuck with condensor models. First a Zanussi and now a Bosch sensordry.
Zanussi was OK but Bosch is actually very good. If stuff is removed at right time next to nothing needs ironing. It's got low/delicate settings for the fancy fabrics in more specialised items in my collection of Rohan clothing and we just empty the container when it's full.
Condensor needs removing and rinsing every 6-8 weeks.
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Thanks for the replies. The decision was pretty much made anyway I think and I was just being put to the test...
We're getting a cheapo new newfangled heat pump one which is extraordinarily energy efficient. This is it tinyurl.com/hgeu6gg
Cheapo really to test out the technology and if it falls apart in a few years we will then know whether the downsides (really slow cycles) outweigh the upsides. If it works for eyars then that's fine!
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 14 Jan 17 at 00:17
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I could run mine for quite a while for the cost difference. I don't see how a water tank in the door is an advantage - you empty it every cycle anyway. Well mostly every cycle.
I assume there's still a heat exchanger and a filter to keep clean.
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>> I don't see
>> how a water tank in the door is an advantage - you empty it every
>> cycle anyway.
In most driers the condensate drains by gravity and the reservoir is at floor level. Have to get down on my knees to extract it for emptying. Not a problem for me but my Mother cannot knell (or more accurately cannot get up again if she does).
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I have a 70cm wide Beko fridge-freezer. Never missed a beat in the past near seven years' use.
The marque was recommended to me by two friends at the time they owned retail audio/visual/appliances outlets and, to back it up, was the brand they bought for their own use at home.
As for tumble dryers, used to own one (a Zanussi that served us well for 16 years), but now I dry on an outside washing line during the summer and use one of a local launderette's huge dryers during the winter.
Costs £5 or less to dry a number of bedding sheets and other laundry because the dryers are so effective. Much cheaper in the long run than a tumble dryer.....:-)
Last edited by: Stuartli on Sat 14 Jan 17 at 00:41
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>> use one of a local launderette's huge dryers during the winter.
Are you retired? Not so convenient for some of us.
I assume Smokie will run his on sunny days to benefit from his solar panels.... Oh hang on those are days when you could use the outside washing line :-)
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Yep, outdoors on sunny days. Tumble dryer really doesn't get used a lot except at this time of year, and even then it's just for two - maybe once a week on average if it's lucky.
I don't believe we have a launderette in my town, certainly Google can't tell me about one, and even if there was I wouldn't be about to walk round town with armfuls of washing just to sit to watch it go round and round anyway.
This machine is A++ energy rating and is very cheap to run. If you are thinking that £5 is a good price for drying your stuff then you might need to update your cost models.
I'm not saying it's the best or cleverest decision I've ever made but so far I'm happy with it. Maybe I won't be once it arrives and it gets a test drive.
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Here is an interesting site. It allows you to compare different models by price and running costs.
I think a lot of people overestimate the running costs. Around 25p to 50 per cycle seems fairly typical which doesn't seem bad to me if the alternative in a rainy spell is to have wet washing everywhere.
www.sust-it.net/energy-saving.php?id=41
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sat 14 Jan 17 at 10:36
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Yes, but again a bit outdated I think. There is a third, new, type of dryer (heat pump) which is even more efficient and therefore cheap.
I've no idea whether this EON comparator is accurate tinyurl.com/hu3coyw but their conclusion on the machine I've got shows it around 40+% cheaper to run than a standard machine, whatever that may be.
It can also show what they call clear cost which includes the capital cost of the machine. This shows if it is used once a week then the cost over 5 years is about £360 (about £70 a year or £1.50 per load - 9kg capaacity) or for two loads it becomes £434 (c £80 a year).
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I bought a whirlpool heat pump dryer about six months ago.
Its one of these sixth sense jobs that you just tell it to dry rather than set a specific time......it takes ages longer than our old siemens condesor
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Apparently you just tell it "how dry" you want the stuff ("Perfect Home", "Store Dry" or "Hang Dry" and (if you want) it goes on until it's that dry. The useful thing for me is a start delay timer. SWMBO likes the see-through door, unusual in a dryer. But then - she once wanted a green car... :-)
Amazing how expert you can become overnight in something which is of such little interest...
Some sort of performance degradation seems often to be the trade off for energy saving. We're usually in no rush for stuff in the dryer so it doesn't matter. (I did start using a travel kettle for tea making in the summer when my panels are generating. That meant my imported energy usage was zero, i.e. using my solar power only, but sometimes it seemed an awful long wait for a cuppa...!!)
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"Yes, but again a bit outdated I think. There is a third, new, type of dryer (heat pump) which is even more efficient and therefore cheap."
No it includes them too - the one below is an example
Panasonic NH-P8ER1
8.0kg Capacity Condenser Tumble Dryer with Heat Pump
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>> Yes, but again a bit outdated I think. There is a third, new, type of
>> dryer (heat pump) which is even more efficient and therefore cheap.
>>
Will be interesting to know your experience after a few months.
This company doesn't rate them highly (report updated 07 September 2016)
www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/buying-advice/tumble-dryers/3845-are-heat-pump-dryers-worth-it?
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I read that one last night Brian. Much of their criticism is on the basis of cost.
It quotes a purchase price of £800 but they have obviously come down in cost and the one I got was on a deal (£299) and wasn't much different from a regular vented one, with running costs at least 40% less,
They also talk about much longer drying time but as I said, I don't really care about that. We tend to have more than one of most things so I can't ever remember waiting for something to come out of the dryer so I can use it.
And the last gripe is about there being more to go wrong. Of course that's true. It's not a huge outlay, so as long as it does it's job for a few years I'll be OK with that - obviously the longer the better!! Maybe when it needs replacement I get the same sort, maybe not...
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>>
>> I think a lot of people overestimate the running costs. Around 25p to 50 per
>> cycle seems fairly typical which doesn't seem bad to me if the alternative in a
>> rainy spell is to have wet washing everywhere.
Drying washing in house exacerbates condensation problems leading to black mould etc. One of the few areas where I'm genuinely sympathetic with Landlords in cases of alleged disrepair is where tenants have clothing hung up everywhere but won't crack open windows for a bit of ventilation.
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I agree. Not an effective way to dry clothes anyway as the air in the room will soon become saturated without ventilation and the clothes will take days to dry. If you must dry clothes indoors, say in a bathroom , you need a source of heat such as a radiator and the window slightly open. Keep the bathrom door shut.
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>>If you must dry clothes indoors, say in a bathroom , you need a source of heat such as a radiator and the window slightly open
Or ... a multi-fuel stove. I decided to use the remaining bits of Taybrite from last winter, instead of having a wood fire today
25.5° C in here. Too hot when we came back from our walk with the dogs 'over the tops', had to leave the door open to let some cold air in.
Might start having a coal (smokeless fuel) fire again at the weekends, and just use the logs during the week.
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>>One of the few areas where I'm genuinely sympathetic with Landlords in cases of alleged disrepair is where tenants have clothing hung up everywhere but won't crack open windows for a bit of ventilation. <<<
Been there, got the T shirt. Despite tenant instructions, buying a dehumidifier, and a new washer/dryer (condensing) as no possibility to vent. All exacerbated by the installation of new double glazing without sufficient trickle vents. So much for professional block maintenance by the management company.
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> Drying washing in house exacerbates condensation problems leading to black mould etc. One of the few areas where I'm genuinely sympathetic with Landlords in cases of alleged disrepair is where tenants have clothing hung up everywhere but won't crack open windows for a bit of ventilation.
>>
Can be a bit of a squeeze to get somewhere to use it. Many older houses only have one under counter space in the kitchen. I've lived in similar, we had to stack the fridge on top of freezer as there was no space for both. The washer went in the only under counter space.
Some people are ignorant of course, however making it easy to use appliances that LLs want tenants to use goes a long way, rather than 'oh that's the tenants choice' type of attitude.
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Our tumble drier gets used a LOT.
We dry our two bath towels, one or two hand towels and the bath mat in it every morning, unless it's sunny and a good drying day for a line-dry.
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My missus uses an Ebac dehumidifier for drying the laundry.
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>>Yes, I am retired and a widower>>
>>If you are thinking that £5 is a good price for drying your stuff then you might need to update your cost models. >>
Actually £5 is dirt cheap to thoroughly dry two or three sets of bedding, duvet covers, pyjamas and a lot of other smaller stuff about once every six weeks or so and also avoids the problem of trying to dry them when out of the warmer months.
As I said, much more cost effective to use the launderette in these circumstances, so I don't need to "update any cost models"....:-) :-) Rest assured I know best for my needs!!
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>> My missus uses an Ebac dehumidifier for drying the laundry.
When the weather's inclement, we also use a de-humidifier in a room with the clothes on a drying rack and finish off in a tumble dryer.
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Our utility room houses the boiler - coal installed to replace the Oil boiler which was very unreliable & cost masses to feed. NO gas other than bottled at the time.
It runs 24x7 & as a result the large utility room is always warm. Clothes horse loaded daily & dry 24 hours later - everything hung & little or no ironing required.
Tumble Drier is a Hotpoint - the type that goes on fire - modded by Hotpoint FOC a few months back - used 2/3 times a month for sheets etc or when neighbour etc dumps their washing whilst their machine is repaired.
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I imagine we have a tumble dryer, in the servants wing anyway. Wouldn't know, never go there, leave that sort of thing to the Memsahib to organise. She's very good at it and I don't like to interfere.
;-)
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Both my tumble dryer & washing machine are in the garage. Not the ideal solution, but when I built a single storey extension and knocked down the internal wall dividing my kitchen/ dining room, the kitchen was re designed as a galley kitchen. My idea, and I picked the brains of several people before deciding on that plan.
This resulted in lovely views from the kitchen across Ribblesdale to the limestone escarpments, at the cost of practicality and less light.
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>> Both my tumble dryer & washing machine are in the garage.
I think that's quite common i know a few people that have that set up.
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>> >> Both my tumble dryer & washing machine are in the garage.
>>
>>
>> I think that's quite common i know a few people that have that set up.
>>
>>
Ours too.
Our Creda condenser dryer is 14 years old, and has only needed the door cutout switch replacing. Motor and bearings still completely untouched. It's older than both of my children and has coped with the silly laundry volumes they've generated over the years
We have replaced our washing machine three times in the same period.
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A pox on it - I should NOT have said our tumble dryer was working fine, 'cos as of this AM, it ain't.
It tumbles but there's no heat.
Given the cost of call-out and repairs and the number of fairly cheap dryers available, we are in the market for a free standing vented, sensor dryer.
Typical though, our BT internet has been down all day, from sparrow-fart to 10.30pm, so research online has been impossible, as both our mobiles, (3G) using Vodafone as the network provider for Talkmobile seem to have had DNS resolver problems. Lots of failure to load pages at all.
Bah.
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Roger, find the heating element and there is often a reset button on it.
My new one is here. Took about 5 hours to dry a load of towels the other day but they were pretty wet going in and very dry coming out.
Also the price went up £80 after I bought it...
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>> My new one is here. Took about 5 hours to dry a load of towels the other day but they were
>> pretty wet going in and very dry coming out.
1. 5 hours seems a long time!
2. Didn't you give them another spin to get more water out?
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5 hours does seem a lot. Mrs puts things in for 60 minutes and they always come out a little bit damp, which seems pointless to me. I put them in for 70 and they come out dry as you like. We do find that stuff coming out of the washing machine is pretty dry to start with though. Certainly not dripping or anything.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 26 Jan 17 at 08:13
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Being a heat pump machine it uses next to no electricity and is therefore a lot slower than your conventional tumble dryers (A++ rating). Also it was a fairly heavy load of towels she put in, just as test. It decides as it goes along how long it needs to do the job properly which is quite clever. We were in no rush for the towels, and it#s all part of the learning curve with new technology...
Sometime if I can be bothered I'll get round to measuring just how much juice it uses...
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>> Sometime if I can be bothered I'll get round to measuring just how much juice
>> it uses...
Well, that's the interesting bit! Get along and do it immediately.
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LOL - well there is a same-looking condenser dryer (same manufacturer, capacity etc)
The blurb says that per annum mine uses 259Kwh (at 15.4p that's £39.89) whereas the other uses 675Kwh, £103.95.
The beauty. for me, of a low consumption device is that I use more of my generated solar power and less from the grid, despite it taking longer (and assuming I'm using it in reasonable daylight which is supplying my base load with spare capacity). Obviously I have most spare capacity in the better weather (when drying is often preferable outdoors) but even this week I would have had spare capacity at times.
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I see the attraction of using solar power to dry your washing. Why not take the direct approach and get one of them new fangled washing lines? Apparently they don't use any power at a all. They work well on cloudy days as well as long as there's bit of wind.
I reckon they will be the next "big thing".
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 26 Jan 17 at 09:21
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>> I reckon they will be the next "big thing".
>
Nah, try that round here these past five days, they don't dry they just get very stiff
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Interesting. That sounds like a lot of usage.
Ballpark figures for comparison - mine, a normal Creda that's about ten years old now pulls about 2.2kW. For the last 20 minutes of any run it turns off the heat, so I'll make it easy and say for a 70 minute run it pulls 2.2kW for an hour.
We run it perhaps twice a week, all year. So that's 4.4kW a week, or roughly 230kW a year. I pay 12p inc VAT per kW , so about £30 a year tops.
Nothing to be inferred from that, just interesting for a bit of context.
The solar thing always sounds good to me, but I could never get the numbers to work for us. But I do like the idea, of course.
We have a string of solar lights down the avenue and across to the thinking garden, before moving past the fishponds and orangery to the second glasshouses and on to the walled garden (aka "to the shed for the bins and then down the drive"), and it's nice to be enlightened on one's bin promenade for nothing.
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Deesa good Cc, I put one in the shed where I keep the dogs grub. Tis brilliant:
www.wilko.com/invt/0422379
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Oh, ta Dog. Coincidentally my fourth one of these is being delivered today, as it was on special
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01H03WQQU/
Can't talk, you'll be pleased to know. Fancying a change from Genesis, I found this:
www.reddit.com/r/progrockmusic/comments/2eqqnb/bands_like_genesis/
Bisy backson.
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>> Oh, ta Dog. Coincidentally my fourth one of these is being delivered today, as it
>> was on special
>>
What's your review of them? ( Presumably quite good as you are buying a fourth one! )
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>> What's your review of them? ( Presumably quite good as you are buying a fourth
>> one! )
They cast a dimmish to reasonable white light (but uncomfortable to stare directly into it levels) over a few feet.
One is not in full sun, as it's shielded a bit by a tree, and on the occasional day in winter it won't work that night. All the others get more light and always work year round.
Oldest is about three years now, still going strong. Never paid more than a tenner for them.
Wouldn't use it as security light, but we use them for lighting a step in the garden, one halfway down the drive which is absolutely pitch otherwise, that kind of thing. I have one over my car charger. This one will probably go over the bins by the shed.
More a "so you don't step or trip on anything you don't want to" light than anything else.
The PIR bit works fine, from about ten to fifteen feet away. No false triggers. I've always just whacked them on the wall out of the box in five minutes and there it is, done.
After all, as they say themselves, "In night,the light will be strong bright when people comes."
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 26 Jan 17 at 12:18
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I listened to this today, all 1 3/4 hours of it :) .. quite enjoyable, although I've never heard of Anthony Phillips.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EffLIs0PpKU
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>>I listened to this today, all 1 3/4 hours of it :) .. quite enjoyable, although I've never heard of Anthony Phillips.
Geese were a thing, weren't they. Look at Caravan. Sigh.
Phillips was an early Genesis songwriting man, before they went completely bonkers. He was their fifth Beatle in a way - but we got Trespass out of him, which is a great one in my view.
But Dog, we must be boring the absolute pants off everyone else by putting this stuff in odd threads (thumbs up if you agree, anyone else).
Should we have our own separate proggy nonsense thread, then nobody else need find it annoying?
Or take it off site? Or get a room?
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 27 Jan 17 at 08:32
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>>Or take it off site? Or get a room?
Now now, I'm not as young as I once was you know.
Course, I've checked out 'The Vicar' now - lundener too: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Phillips
Been listening to Hyperborea by Tangerine Dream this morning. Nothing special, although far better than Trump and Brexit.
This is/was worth a listen: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08b3k40
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Interesting comment here from a YouTube poster on the Trespass/Genesis album I'm listening to:
"I heard it explained to me this way by an audio tech: CDs have higher quality sound, period. But the problem is that they seem flat; high quality vinyl reproduces the effect, because of minor distortion, of a kind of "distance" or "atmosphere" whereas with a high quality CD recording that "depth" effect is erased by clarifying the sounds"
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I'm 'not of this world', knowlmean :)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4BUn1YYWJE
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>> Deesa good Cc, I put one in the shed
Nice to know yours works properly Dog. The one I got from eBay was faulty, as was the replacement. It worked regardless whether it was day or night. On the plus side the seller gave me a full refund, and didn't want the lights returning. So I ended up with some LEDs that I used to repair an LED light in the garage.
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>>Nice to know yours works properly
Yep, quite happy wivvit, it does exactly what I wanted it to do instead of having to faff about with a torch.
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>> Yep, quite happy wivvit, it does exactly what I wanted it to do instead of
>> having to faff about with a torch.
Does it run off 4AA batteries? How long approx. do they last? When I looked at some reviews prior to buying the one from eBay, they estimated a month because the sensor always requires a small amount of power for continual movement monitoring.
I've got a light sorted out now. I suddenly remembered buying a solar powered PIR security LED light from Tesco's for the princely sum of £3.50 around 6 years ago but never bothered using it. I wish I'd had bought all 10 of them off the shelf because when I got home they were each selling on the internet for £37.50. Anyway, I found it up in the loft the other day and it's just bright enough to light up our back yard, door and step. Very handy to find the key hole in the evening.
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Yep, 4 x AA. I don't know how long they will last as I only fitted the light last week and, as I said, I just need a light in the shed for when I refill the dogs kibble containers, so the light only gets used once or twice per week, and for very little time so, the JML sensor jobbie is ideal for wot I want.
Don't like LED's as a rule. I've recently replaced my main security pir light wiv another halogen jobbie and, chose a classic rechargeable torch (CLU10) in preference to their LED (CL13) jobbie.
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>> Yep, 4 x AA. I don't know how long they will last as I only fitted the light last week and, as I said, I just need a light in the shed for when I refill the dogs kibble containers, so the light only gets used once or twice per week, and for very little time.
You'd be surprised. As I previously said, the sensor always requires power to monitor for movement. In daylight the movement sensor is disabled so the battery consumption is reduced. If yours is mounted in a dark place then the sensor is active 24/7.
See www.youtube.com/watch?v=unZJi2WwkK4 (ignore the start)
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 27 Jan 17 at 12:53
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Um, I didn't think about the sensor requiring power.
:-}
I'll see how it goes then as I don't want to keep on buying AA batteries for it, although I could use rechargeables.
These are nice, I've just had a Peanut Delight and a Cocoa Orange with my lunch, not cheap though:
www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/nakd-fruit-and-nut-bars/
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My tumble dryer gets used about once a week most weeks at the moment then much less as the weather improves and drying can be done outside.I will try to measure real-time usage one day just out of interest. I think have a plug-in device somewhere which does that, if I can find the instructions.
I must admit though that if it turns out really cheap to run, I may well do the "smalls" in it throughout the year, as I get fed up with the time it takes to hang out and peg, and later retrieve, each sock, pair of keks and hanky, and to drop them into the dryer might be preferable. Big things would still go outside.
I'm not so sure the sums do work so well on solar these days but I got mine when the FIT payments were middling and expected recovery of my outlay was somewhere in year 8 (with 25 year guarantee on payments) but now that is somewhere in year 7 - and that's without the savings on imported electricity. So economically it works, but I also like the idea of being a little bit green.
I'd like an electric car too but the maths definitely do not work as my mileage is so small (easily under 6k per year, which includes at least 1.5 of long trips which I wouldn't want to do with a PV car) and the cost to change would be quite steep. However I haven't ruled it out even though the economics don't work - depends how long my current car keeps running!!
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A kW is a measure of power. If you use 2.2 kW for an hour you use 2.2 kWh - kWh being a measure of energy, and for what you pay your 12p.
Pedant mode off....
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Thanks Richard - you're right of course.
I find it interesting that I will growl uncontrollably if someone puts an apostrophe in the wrong place, or uses the word "like", or innumerable other trivialities, but I have a complete blind spot when it comes to SI units, even if I do get annoyed about signs for the next tearoom telling me it's 100 miles away.
I shall take more care with my ks.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 26 Jan 17 at 13:29
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>> 5 hours does seem a lot. Mrs puts things in for 60 minutes and they
>> always come out a little bit damp, which seems pointless to me.
Something to do with being easier to iron if not totally dry, or so I've been told.
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My prayers to Mullah BEKO have been answered.
For no apparent reason, the drier seems to have recovered from its sulk and is drying again!
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Thermostat. Will reset itself when it cools down - bit like an electric kettle. something caused it to overheat - check filters vent etc
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>> My new one is here. Took about 5 hours to dry a load of towels
>> the other day but they were pretty wet going in and very dry coming out.
Our heat pump dryer takes 4 ish hours to dry a load if you leave it to its own thing......however, Mrs B discovered it also has a set time function where you just tell it how many minutes you want it to dry for. Using this it works just like an ordinary dryer and will do a load in a little over an hour.
I've tried explaining that its more economical to leave it to its own thing, but its falling of deaf ears......should have just bought an ordinary one
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Pretty sure I read that ours has that option too, but for the solar panel reasons above I'm quite happy to wait. Not that it would be a massive cost anyway by the sounds of it.
Does yours have the ability for the drain to be plumbed in? By default mine collects the water in the door front but there is a bit of pipe which I can attach at the bottom. Problem is, it isn't long enough be about a foot to reach a suitable outlet, and I'm thinking if it's pumped out then the pump mightn't be man enough to do the extra distance. It's a;so a narrow pipe, compared to a washing machine, but I spose it has less water to shift.
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I found out today that gas tumble dryers are available.
Gas fridges are also still available.
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The tumble dryers in laundrettes are gas powered aren't they? Very good at drying - but expensive in 20p pieces to keep turning.
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>> Does yours have the ability for the drain to be plumbed in?
Yes, we have the pipe, but the drain is a little to far away. The water collects in a drawer at the top - its just like the drawer in the washing machine for the powder so its no hassle to pull it out when it needs emptying.
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The drawer sounds just like ours. No hassle emptying. And it's a reminder you need to empty/clean the lint filter. And frequently clean the heat exchanger.
I wonder if it's the plumbed in or vented ones that people forget about cleaning and risk fires?
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Up thread Stuartli wrote: "Costs £5 or less to dry a number of bedding sheets and other laundry because the dryers are so effective. Much cheaper in the long run than a tumble dryer.....:-)"
It never is cheaper! £5 per week, as against maybe 50p per week - two hours' peak rate electricity on the most expensive possible contract. Gives you £4.50 per week towards your tumble drier.
And as for convenience... trogging your sheets down the road. And then putting them in a tumble drier that has had god-knows what put into it previously. Some people dry things that haven't been washed, like that morning's bath towels. And then your sheets go into it. Ugh.
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I wasn't aware that launderettes even existed these days, apart from the larger outfits that seems to be targeting commercial businesses such as hotels. Surely a business model that can hardly work given the mass ownership and relative cheapness of domestic appliances.
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Our local laundrette always looks busy. Also does a lot of service washes. So they use a lot of the machines themselves.
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Same here the village laundrette has been going for a long time. The one near where I was brought up has been going for 40 years and there's always plenty in it.
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Not everyone has room for a tumble driver. Lots of people live in small flats or share properties.
You often find them in areas where thereis a large student population.
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I think there's always a demand for them regardless of area, ours fits in none of those segments.
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>> Not everyone has room for a tumble driver.
Ours is out in the shed. In our previous house we had a double decker set up. i.e. a special bracket so the tumble drier could be mounted on top of the washing machine to save space. As all appliances go under the worktops in our current house, we had a washer/drier combo for a while as there wasn't room for two separate machines. God what an unreliable POS that was.
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We had a washer dryer. Apart from a design flaw that meant it shorted the circuit board, it was also useless at drying clothes. The drum in a washer/dryer is too small to allow clothes to move around to dry so you have to take a load of washing out. And it didn't have a sensor.
Pleased with the cheapish Beko dryer we have. It works well and I've not calculated power usage but the electric bill didn't go up much when we got it.
Never let it run when we're out and make sure the filter is cleaned every time it's used.
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>> We had a washer dryer. Apart from a design flaw that meant it shorted the
>> circuit board, it was also useless at drying clothes. The drum in a washer/dryer is
>> too small to allow clothes to move around to dry
The wash load is generally higher than the drying load in washer-dryer specs.
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It is. But even the dry load struggled to get dry in a decent amount of time. But there's so many inefficiencies - well there were in the one we had.
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Well the Whirlpool has just started playing up.......a week before its first birthday. Loud thunk every time the drum starts which gets louder over time until its deafening plus it has no idea when the clothes are dry
Called the service line to be given a long explanation that I would be responsible for the call out charge if its something I'd done followed by a hard sell into paying for the extended warranty. Had to be quite short with the guy and point out that I thought it was taking the mic to try and sell me an extended warranty on something that had already failed in the first year!
Engineer coming tomorrow.
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Sounds like the drum has come loose from the mounting.... happened on ours, but then it was 5 years old and is well used (not a catchey-firey Whirlpool!). Repaired it by drilling out the rivets and fitting bolts instead.
>>Engineer coming tomorrow.
Unlikely.... fitter perhaps!!
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>> Unlikely.... fitter perhaps!!
Or even a technician.
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Well, the Man has been, and a jolly nice chap he was to.
He took it all apart, put it back together and everything is quiet again, but in his opinion there is too much play in the motor drive shaft which had caused the fan/motor to move (its all one unit)
As its under warranty he has ordered a new motor / fan as he expects his fix may only last a few weeks before it gets noisy again.
I quizzed him and he tells me that my dryer is generally reliable and not one he gets called out for often, and also one he likes working on as he says its well built, but has been designed to be easy to work on. Apparently a lot of new dryers are pretty inaccessible without removing the drum but on mine he could get to everything by just popping the top off then removing the side panel
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Types of tumble dryer - rtj70
