OT: Washer / dryer

[slider]

Hi Probably need another washer. How good are washer / dryers? I know several years ago they didn't have a great reputation. Have they improved?

[Doki]

We have a condensor drier (bought last year, Indesit), and it's pretty good at drying clothes. Most, if not all, washer driers are condensors. In general they don't work as quickly and use a bit more juice than vented ones, but I'd be happy to pay that for the ability to put a load of stuff in, set a timer and have it washed and dry / ready to iron when I get back from work.

[Dave Liquorice]

And more water, they take a trickle of cold water to condense the water vapour in the circulating air. This might be relevant for those with metered water.

At a rough guesstimate our old Hotpoint (long since deceased) took about 1l/min. Three drying periods of 1 hour per week is 9360l/year or 9.36m^3. I don't have a water meter so don't know the cost/m^3 of water is 10m^3 acctually worth worrying about?

[Scott M]

My 12YO Hoover doesn't consume any water when drying. Water is something like £2.50 / cubic metre (1000litres) inc sewerage.

[Scott M]

In a rush of blood to the head, I purchased a fairly high-spec Hoover washer dryer in 1997 (on good offer at CurOmiXons.) It's phenominally noisy; fast spin is like being on a Heathrow runway and the pump sounds like it's chewing gravel. The internal wire routing leaves something to be desired; a cable chafed through within six months and the dryer element cable was stretched too taut between drum and body snapping it after 10 years. And the 'digital' programmer seems to be nothing more than a snazzy front end to an ordinary one with a motor attached.

But....

It's still going strong.

[Matty F]

They do have the advantage of sterilising the machine if you use the dryer between washes. That's good if there are are people in the household with infections! My washer/dryer is around 25 years old so not very relevant. In order to wash full loads I had to fit a wider drive belt, and now the dryer speed is too fast to drop the clothes properly. I have a separate dryer as well.

[Frank Erskine]

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:39:54 +0100, "slider" had this to say:

If you set them to go straight into tumble mode after washing/spinning, you find that the washing clings to the side of the drum from the spin cycle and the tumbling is much less effective (on my Bosch anyway). Much better if you twirl the washing about by hand after spinning to loosen it from the drum, before tumbling.

[Bob Mannix]

The one thing you can never improve is that you can't do another wash until the tumbling's finished. Only useful where you really haven't got room

*anywhere* for a separate dryer. Like a flat. In that case they are good whatever as you have no option. IYSWIM IMHO.