Problem with finding economical drying

[john east]

Small terraced house in north london has a problem with drying clothes in winter time after they come out of the washing machine. They have been spun dried in the machine, but need hanging up to dry completely.

The House has central heating also with a vertical drying radiator in the bathroom, which will take a few items but obviously not much. A small drying rack has been affixed to the top of the drying radiator, which will take a few more clothes.

An *economical* solution is being looked for, to get the rest of the clothes dry . There is ' no ' room for a heated tumbler dryer, which anyway would use quite a lot of now expensive electricity. They already have two stand alone wire clothes drying racks.

Current thinking so far is to perhaps rig up some small oscillating electric fan to operated in the bathroom to get the air moving around, and hence enhance drying and stand the two drying racks in the bathroom. Another idea is to get one or two of the very small 15 watt electric pad heaters (used for standing under containers when fermenting wine) and placing each one in the middle of a clothes horse. (not much heat, but apparently we have been told that 'air flow' is the key factor.

Grateful for any advice, thanks.

[NT]

you need something cheaper, a ceiling fan is reasonalby good. An oscillating fan won't perform nearly as well. A 15w heating pad is going to produce so litle airflow as to be of little use.

NT

[js.b1]

Tube Heater of 240W 4ft length can be had on Ebay for about =A326 delivered. Beware the surface temperature gets pretty hot.

You need to provide adequate ventilation otherwise your next question will be "how do we get rid of the black mould and windows running in water despite being double glazed" :-)

A more costly solution would be a dehumidifier. You choose a smallish room, hang the washing so air can flow freely, then run the dehumidifier.

[NT]

Heating them without movement makes them stiff. Youre better off with just a fan.

NT

[stuart noble]

We still put ours out on a rotary drier. Even in winter it eventually dries providing it doesn't actually rain.

[Scott]

I used to have an extendable clothes line (four lines) that could be extended across the bath and would retract when not in use.

[Bob Eager]

A lot of ours goes on a Sheila Maid in the utility room. Enough air movement in there to do a reasonable job, but if one has low ceilings it may not suit.

[Dave Liquorice]

Must be a someone from the tropical south. B-)

Max today 0.6C, min -4C, currently -2.2C. Clothes will dry at sub-zero temps but it takes a very long time and as the water in them is frozen it's hard to tell when they are dry and when you bring 'em they get damp again due to condensation...

[Scott]

I can confirm that the bath was in the bathroom :-)

[Nightjar]

When I were a lad, our bath genuinely was galvanised iron and put in front of the kitchen fire to be used.

Colin Bignell

[ARWadsworth]

Ours was full of coal:-)

[polygonum]

Don't know why but that just woke up a memory of a truly horrible dry cork mat and undissolved bath salts in very cold cast-iron bath. Deeply deglazed. In the bitterly cold winter of 62/3.

What a horrible memory...

[ARWadsworth]

Since I was 4 years old I have lived in a house that has had gas CH, apart from that time I made a complete f*ck up and asked BG to install a gas meter in a flat I rented.........

[Newshound]

Looxury...

Did anyone see that line on the "Scientists in Antarctica" prog which said they avoided sending people of a dour nature, so they never sent Yorkshiremen.

[Nightjar]

We had part of the coal cellar for that. The house did have a bath room, but use of it was not included in the rent for the rooms we occupied.

Colin Bignell

[7]

The way we solved the problem was to leave a window partially open preferably with the Sun pointing inwards. Ideally the top part of the window is open to carry out the moisture. Put the racks near the sun facing window. A small 40W oscillating fan (about 15 pounds in ebay) set at lowest setting. Don't cover the radiator with clothes - that delays the drying. 40W fan running at lowest setting from

12 midnight to 6AM is very economical and would have dried most of the clothes. The last bit of moisture can be taken off thicker / urgently needed items by placing on radiator for about 20 minutes. Most items would be dried by sun by the evening. If you stretch the items of clothing whilst hanging them to dry, then you probably won't need to iron them either because many every day items will dry stretched giving an ironed look - save more energy.

[geoff]

In message , polygonum writes

62/63? 7 years old

I remember walking near the banks of the Severn just outside Welshpool and ... woosh - disappeared into a 9' snow drift. They had to come and dig me out

best winter ever. We built an igloo in the playground of the Belan school

[Mr Pounder]

Ahhh, the joys of living in the toilet of the south of England. My mum had a clothes horse in the 1960s. You still have one.

We have a tumble drier in the garage and can afford to use it. Move north young man.

[Andy Burns]

+1

we moved out of that house when I was four.

[Andy Burns]

We used to have a Flatley ...