Newhouse Farm

[columbusrat]

Ideally, we'd all manage without a tumble dryer but if you're at work all day and have a large family and/or small house, you may need to resort to one on occasion.

So if you do decide you need a tumble dryer, what are the important aspects to look for? Are there big differences in efficiency? Are newer models a lot more efficient than older ones, and would this be enough to justify replacing an old one?

In the interests of openness, I'm not actually considering getting a dryer, just doing research the lazy way for a possible future BGI newsletter article. So thank you in advance for all your contributions (No one will be quoted without being contacted for permission first.)
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[Florence]

Having done the work all day with small house and large family - we managed without a tumble dryer. I'm fairly certain that this is a gadget that should be the last resort. If you have a launderette locally, could it be more cost effective to use the drying facilities there in extremis?
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[jives11]

I use one sometimes during wet/cold weather for sheets and towels.

A few things I'd look for are :

1) monitoring moisture levels in the clothes. Some dryers can figure out when the clothes are dry and so not keep running in a wasteful fashion.

2) Ability to reuse the waste heat. Some dryers are designed to not need an external vent from the house. I assume more heat is hence reused within the dryer. I think they have a tray to collect the water. but it would seem a better idea. You may get more secondary heating from such a Unit. I think John Lewis have a couple like this

3) A friend in Sweden as an air heat exchanger unit in his loft which draws warm air from different parts of the house, and uses it to pre-heat fresh air entering. His Tumble dryer vent hose plugs straight into this via a fluff filter. This way the waste heat is re-used

4) I'd always go for one with an offset timer to exploit E7

5) A gentle setting or better an ability to set the temperature. I'd guess the air flow only needs to be a few degrees above air temperature to work.

[treaclemine]

My mother managed beautifully with a proper passive southish facing conservatory instead of a tumble-drier when we were kids.

[greentwinsmummy]

we have one,I bought it in a dithy when found out 2 smalls were in my tum
even with them in cloth nappies I thnk I used it maybe once a month at the old place? here we use it more,reason being we have no way of drying clothes inside the cottage. The ceilings are very low so I lost my superb overhead line in the kitchen,I cannot sing the praises of these enough theres alot of heat up near the ceilings from cooking so if you can~use it.

My dads over 6ft tall & our ceilings 7ftish so theres very little room here.
Drying radiators isnt an option as we rarely use the oil fired central heating.
That leaves having a clothes horse in front of the woodburner,well as Ratty knows this place isnt nicknamed the Dollshouse for nothing on a rainy day we are all in here,theres no room to have clothes horse trust me,plus when yu dry inside the house you have to understand that al the moisture from the clothes goes into the atmosphere.

This cottage can be damp if not careful so if I am here on my own in the evening I have some in front of the woodburner & then run the dehumidifier.

Whats alot easier is making the most of line drying your clothes & I do appreciate you need to be home to do that. Straight lines are alot more effective than rotary type lines, & they need to be on an old fashioned pulley system,they were like this for a reason in *olden days* y'know the higher you can hoist your washing,the faster it will dry in the least wind Sometimes I might have mine out there for under an hour but its enough to get the worst off.

I then use the low setting on the dryer for 30mins & its dry enough to fold & put away.

Something I have really worked on here is resisting the urge to throw it in the machine regardless of the weather. Theres no point gaily stripping beds,empying washing baskets,humping piles of it on the floor in front of the machine if you cannot dry it
Dont be afraid of having a permanant pile of washing in the bathroom I say

Theres something been brainwashed into us all that we need to clear all the piles of it to be Sucessfull poppycock if it means 4 basket loads are then flung in to the dryer on high all day

When you think most folk these days own far more clothes than people have done ever before in history,its not as if we are going to run out of things to wear is it

Cant dry it? dont wash it,needs to be the mantra

Just edited to add maybe we need to be striking back up relationships with neighbours & folks who back onto where we live etc,if we are off to work & the washing is on the line,can you ask if they can keep an eye on it & get it in if they notice rain,this again is how it used to be done. I was so touched when I was out all day & my elderly darling neighbour took all mine in & dried it infront of her aga all folded & dried for me when I got back Soemtimes there are other folks around when we are not.
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[happymama]

I second the neighbourly idea ,but fat chance here!

Also the line being more efficient than the rotary - and HOW! Also, use a clothes prop, I've a narrow and very overlooked North facing yard and dry washing every day it's not raining out in mine but it's hoisted up quite high.

I can't manage in winter without my dryer, I've only a small 3-bed terrace and the kitchen is too low for an overhead, and my upper landing ceiling is too small for one. I've checked. I've no central heating.

Note: running a dehumidifier would to me seem contra-productive, since you have to dehumidify the whole room/house and in a tumble dryer you only dry the clothes. Dh's are very power hungry appliances, I'd never get one, I'd live with open windows first!

Use a few dry hand towels in the dryer, it increases the available drying area and makes the dryer more efficient. Those stubbly drier balls are rubbish, IMO, and don't work half as well as two old but still fluffy (essential) hand towels.

If you only dry one load of bedding a month, i'd be thinking about using a laundrette. The dryers are huge and it's £1 a tumble in ours, ironing dry for a full load of clothes (that's about two 7 kg loads) costs about £2. I would not buy another dryer because of this when mine breaks. It's not about to, it had a new motor in two years ago and apparently the bearing is indestructible.

Problem is our laundrette is 10 miles away!
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[mam miniog]

Hmm now you have got me thinking of straight lines instead of our rotary. In the winter we put things on the clothes horse in the old airing cupboard and open the bedroom window a touch, just a touch so we dont loose the heat thats in there. The boiler is long gone but we have a tiny radiator in there. I mostly dry socks & knicks and stuff in there. We have a dryer but its now about 22 years old. I wont replace it when it dies. It gets used only when desperate and I agree about not washing if you cant dry but Ive been as guilty of doing that as the next person and then have lots of things on chairs, airers, hangers for days then ... which isnt good at all. I love the idea of the neighbour helping out but we all work in our street so no one is here. I do think that if you have little uns and terrys then you might have to consider them as you cant always guarantee to have enough nappies then. Im not sure where I would put a line though and I think I would have to have permission to put a pole up high enough now.
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[happymama]

Remember those things you could get in the 30's onward that attached outside to blocks of flats and you had a pulley system to get your washing out over the street?

I SO want one of those for the back of my house!
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[pork]

Have only used about 3 hours tumble drying in total in the past 12 years and I reckon 45 minutes of that was by mistake. We have a big enough house to dry things on radiators and space for an overhead even with our low ceilings since we don't need to go under it most of the time.
MIL has one of those 4-line things people used to have in their bathrooms along her landing.
Last 'summer' I put washing out on the line when it was too hot for the heating but drizzling and put our enormous umbrella over the top of it. Dried beautifully as long as it was windy.
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[happymama]

I had a four line thingy over my bath in the last house for nappies on wet summer days, and I do need another. Mind you, we had lots more space, high ceilings in the right places and CH then, too.

The problem with my yard is that with two lines of washing out you can't use the yard. Even with it hoiked up overhead in the middle.
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[Bronze]

cant imagine how people coped without one when they have three children with d&v. Yet we didnt have one growing up
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[Chris Landyman]

I have a shower curtain rail/ hanging rail (2 Mts long) suspended from my (9ft square) bedroom ceiling. On 2 brackets for the purpose, it hangs only 4" from ceiling, and is excellent for hanging stuff straight from washing machine with window slightly open.
If on coathangers, stuff dries without loads of creases.

Dries fairly quickly.
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[little_owl]

I use mine for airing my clothes which I try to line dry they are usually in for only ten minutes. I pull them straight out of the dryer before it goes to the cooling period at the end and for the most part I don't have to iron anything which probably saves me over an hours work ( no ironing ) plus the electricity the iron would use.

I did try airing things on the Aga but scorched tee shirt doesn@t smell very nice.
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[columbusrat]

Thank you everyone

I don't suppose anyone has - or could take - a photo of a traditional overhead airer? Or any other photogenic airer - or even a tumble dryer come to that!

No pics of washing on line required though - I have plenty of lovely pics of GTM's smalls flapping on the lines!
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[KevB]

I'll do a photo of our overhead airer, once it's knickerless!

I grew up with one and installed another in our victorian semi. With 3 kids we struggled to cope drying with 3 washing lines, an inside overhead and a tumble drier! Mind we were both working too. Now the kids are all grown, we manage, most of the time, with the outside lines and the inside overhead drier/airer.
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