The clothes washer/dryer from Hell
The clothes washer/dryer from Hell!
Two Digital Gypsies Rating – 1 Star
Let’s face it. Living in America we take a lot of things for granted. Before we moved to England I could do all of my laundry in two loads. One load for jeans and dark colors, and one load for shirts, socks, and towels. Then after the clothes were washed I would just throw them in the dryer and an hour or so later they were dry. Then hang and fold everything and I was done.
In England it is a different story. Our flat/apartment in Bury St Edmunds is nice. It has wood floors, new appliances, and we’re the first ones to live in it. The fridge is small compared to what you would find in the States, but still is an adequate size for the two of us. The flat also has granite countertops and curved beams in the ceiling. Then there’s the clothes washer/dryer.
I don’t mean a combination unit where the washer is on the bottom and the dryer a separate unit on the top. Our Hotpoint clothes washer/dryer is a single unit. I was dubious how well it would work with a single drum to do the washing and the drying. I wasn’t wrong.
First the washer/dryer is tiny, it will only comfortably hold two pair of jeans. The first dial is where you pick which type your clothes are, “coloured” (as it is spelled in the UK) or synthetic. There are more than 13 setting to choose from on this dial. Next to the first dial is another dial in which you select the water temperature. Multiple settings to choose from here also. The final dial is the dryer settings. You can select “iron dry”, “cupboard dry”, or “hang dry.” Or you can select a drying time in minutes. We experimented with all the different dryer settings and the result was the same, everything came out wrinkled. The best I can figure is the “dryer” steams the clothes dry because no matter what dry cycle we select when the clothes are removed they are steaming. What we also found is if we used the cupboard dry setting or longer times on the minutes setting the dryer will steam the wrinkles into the clothes and we have to start over and wash them again because the wrinkles can’t be ironed out. Another annoying feature is when the washer/dryer is in the drying mode it sounds like a jet engine. The drum spins so fast and so long that it rattles all the cabinets in the kitchen. I am currently using the iron dry setting and Barbara uses the 40 minute setting. Still everything that comes out has to be ironed.
The last annoying thing about the washer/dryer is that there is no lint filter so hair and lint stay on the clothes when you pull them out. The only reason I gave the washer/dryer a one star rating is that it is only minimally better than washing the clothes in the sink or in a bucket. So if you’re in the States reading this post, smile and think about us the next time you wash clothes and use your dryer.
