washer dryer or...

sniggings

just about to buy a new washer,not sure whether to go for a washer/dryer?

moved into a small flat, it has gas central heating, can't decide whether to just dry the clothes around the flat or use a dehumidifier but would a dehumidifier take ages to dry clothes and cost more than a dryer?or is washer/dryer the best option?

beedeedee

Well - I'll get shot down in flames by many - but personally I'd always go for a washer dryer........it's not compulsory to use the dryer on every wash! In fact, I rarely do because I have a line over the bath and use radiator racks, hanging down in the airing cupboard to give extra drying space, then tumble when nearly dry for a max of 10 mins, to soften or fluff stuff up. Wouldn't be without one myself.

AnnieO1234

If you possibly have the space I would get a separate dryer. I personally wouldn't be without mine, but back twenty years ago thereabouts as a kid I walked into our kitchen to find the combined one on fire. It was a common fault on those machines but I just wouldn't run the risk.

I also advocate an upstairs dryer - it's quieter and much easier to shift the laundry away. When we remodel (ha! If?) I want to move the washing machine upstairs as well. After all it's where we get undressed and it doesn't make sense to have to lug laundry up and down the stairs.

X

ispookie666

I have a dryer, dehumidifier and a airer. I dry my clothes in the converted garage (into a storage room). During winter I run the dehumidifier (you would need one which can run at low temperatures when the outside temp is low). Rest of the time the windows are left open for the clothes to dry. I have not used my drier in 4 years.

robatwork

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

I also advocate an upstairs dryer - it's quieter and much easier to shift the laundry away. When we remodel (ha! If?) I want to move the washing machine upstairs as well. After all it's where we get undressed and it doesn't make sense to have to lug laundry up and down the stairs.

Why we persist in designing houses with washing machines in kitchens I don't know. Why would you mix dirty clothes with food? As you say makes sense to put the washer in a bathroom like most of Europe does - it's upstairs where you undress, there's plumbing there, and if it's a wet room then a little leak won't matter.

Snakey

I dithered over this earlier this year having just bought a flat which I've been warned is prone to condensation and mould (a problem with the entire block, apparently). It doesn't look as if hanging things over radiators is going to work for me in the circumstances, but everyone said washer-dryers were expensive to run and inefficient and broke down a lot.

In the end I decided to go for a decent washing machine and dry everything by hanging it out of the windows where possible. The pound shop round the corner was happy to sell me a little round plastic widget for hanging socks and pants, and everything else gets hung over the curtain rail right next to the open windows, or outside off the stays when the weather's really nice.

It's too early to say how well this will do me over the winter (and also, it clearly wouldn't work for a family of four or anything like that), but so far so good and there is a launderette round the corner so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to lug a load over there for drying every now and then.

Dehumidifiers seem to be noisy, expensive to run, and you have to keep emptying them - I'm also not sure really how much use they'd be to dry laundry - but I never did any research into them so YMMV.

sniggings

cheers all, tried the dehumidifier yesterday, 8 hours later and the clothes were still damp, that was in a smallish bathroom too.

Decided to go for the washer and put a dryer in the spare bedroom.