Cycling UK Forum

tyreon wrote:Admiration for reohn2! Watching the pennies! And with him hanging out that washing on the line by the courtesy of Mr Sun and Mrs Wind,all dry and aired gratis! "That's the way to do it" Mr Punch. You can always spot a old timer CTC-er.

It's not been deliberately trying to be tight fisted,just the way it happened.
We bought a new machine,first Hoover,when we moved into a new house shortly after getting married,had it 15+year with a repair or two,then the repair man declared it not worth mending,so we bought Hoover no2(same model faster spin),another 14+ years passed by,with a couple of repair jobs IIRC when it died of the same problem(programmer?) as Hoover No1, and we bought the Hotpoint on special from Currys as was.
We also have a dryer,Creda 13+years old,that's only used in winter when clothes can't be dried outdoors on the rotary dryer.

I've never owned a dryer. Stuff goes out on the line and if it's too wet then we have an indoor thing that they all go on.

However it's caused me a bit of an issue of late, my waterproofs need cleaning and so I bought some stuff to do it with, but it needs a dryer to activate the water repellent.
So for now I'm as grubby a cyclist as I ever was...

kwackers wrote:I've never owned a dryer. Stuff goes out on the line and if it's too wet then we have an indoor thing that they all go on.

However it's caused me a bit of an issue of late, my waterproofs need cleaning and so I bought some stuff to do it with, but it needs a dryer to activate the water repellent.
So for now I'm as grubby a cyclist as I ever was...

I've never used a dryer, either. I use the outside line (I've got stuff on it now) but overnight I dry stuff on an indoor airer (rack) close to the wood burner, which I put on a low setting so that it provides a gentle warmth all through the night. It is still alight when we get up in the morning. And the washing dries well. I'm not sure that it would activate the water repellent, though. Could you simulate a dryer with very careful use of an iron, using a towel as a buffer?

pwa wrote:

kwackers wrote:I've never owned a dryer. Stuff goes out on the line and if it's too wet then we have an indoor thing that they all go on.

However it's caused me a bit of an issue of late, my waterproofs need cleaning and so I bought some stuff to do it with, but it needs a dryer to activate the water repellent.
So for now I'm as grubby a cyclist as I ever was...

I've never used a dryer, either. I use the outside line (I've got stuff on it now) but overnight I dry stuff on an indoor airer (rack) close to the wood burner, which I put on a low setting so that it provides a gentle warmth all through the night. It is still alight when we get up in the morning. And the washing dries well. I'm not sure that it would activate the water repellent, though. Could you simulate a dryer with very careful use of an iron, using a towel as a buffer?

Or just go to a laundrette and use the dryer, there?

We have two washing machines. Each do at least one load per day often more. At the moment each needs to be repaired on average once a year and you can reckon on 4-5 years before they need replacing. We've been somewhat lucky with the repair policies as both of our current machines are replacements for ones which have broken.

pwa wrote:Could you simulate a dryer with very careful use of an iron, using a towel as a buffer?

Not sure. Might be worth a bit of research. (I did consider an unsafe practice requiring a fan heater and a container. )

Vorpal wrote:Or just go to a laundrette and use the dryer, there?

I don't think there's a launderette near me (or at least I haven't found one).
It's not the end of the world, I don't have to sit next to myself on the train. It's just slightly annoying to have bought the stuff and can't use it.

Vorpal wrote:Or just go to a laundrette and use the dryer, there?

I've been a bit nervous of doing that, the instruction say tumble dry on low and the launderettes I've been in don't seem to have much control. I use an iron and it works fine.

My grandad had a top loader that lasted about 30 years. When he got rid of it, it still worked and I think he only replaced it because new ones were smaller and more economical.

Its funny how before the internet, older people somehow sought out whats the most reliable stuff to buy, they didn't need the internet, my grandad had a Honda in the 1980s or something, because even then they were known for being reliable, which I always laughed at since he fought in a world war against the chaps that sold him the car he drove later in life. I think its quite forgiving really.

To reactivate the DWR on waterproofs Goretex used to recommend ironing them with a cool iron (silk setting I believe), using a piece of paper between the iron and the garment.
This can take some time but does can good results.

Washing machines are strange things originally designed by probably a man to give the housewife more time. So now to save (usually the man) repairing the thing they are made to be thrown away.

I was told years ago to purchase machines with the slower spin speed and not to put to much weight (when wet) into the thing.
So somebody who puts lots of towels compared to somebody who washes mostly silk clothes will have to replace the machine sooner.

Since 1975 we have had 4 washing machines. First we were given a Twin Tub, only replaced when we moved.
The tiny kitchen we had was not big enough for it so a second hand Indesit was purchased.
That was eventually killed by Terry Nappies after about 5 years. For 3 months I had the pleasure of washing the Nappies by hand. With no mangle or dryer just rubber gloves.
Then we had a new machine bought from the Littlewoods Catalogue that lasted for about 15 years. Killed by boil washing my work Boiler Suits.
Now we have a Hoover about 12 years old never been repaired but the springs are starting to get weak.

30 years ago we were given a scrap Creda Tumble dryer that I repaired and we still use this once in a blue moon. It could do with new bearings again but for how much it is used it is probably not worth it.

It seems that spare parts are getting more expensive and new machines are very cheap so people will throw a machine away even if it has a simple fault and get a new one. Also the error codes often don't tel you what is wrong, parts are often not interchanchabe from make to another like you can with bikes and people are worried about rogue trader repair coming around so they will just get a new machine for £150.

We have a Whirlpool washing machine bought new in 2001 for £299. It looks a bit tatty and the powder drawer broke a few years ago (we put tablets in with the clothes) but it still works well

I think spin speed has a lot to do with it. Ive stuck one with a 600rpm spin speed back together with epoxy glue in the past (the big pulley on the back of the drum) and it lasted nearly a year. The one we've got now has 1400rpm spin speed. Ive never looked inside it but guess there's some clever stuff going on to achieve that without it falling apart.

Agree - the load is intrinsically unbalanced which is not something you'd ever design.

Tom Richardson wrote:I think spin speed has a lot to do with it. Ive stuck one with a 600rpm spin speed back together with epoxy glue in the past (the big pulley on the back of the drum) and it lasted nearly a year. The one we've got now has 1400rpm spin speed. Ive never looked inside it but guess there's some clever stuff going on to achieve that without it falling apart.

My Bosch has a 1400 rpm spin speed. They're programmed to ramp up the speed slowly to allow water to drain out and they measure the amount of imbalance and limit the speed based on that. If the load is off centre you'll never see anything like 1400.

Coincidentally Mrs P and I were just discussing yesterday as children when our parents bought 'the first twintub'. Back in the sixties.
The Hotpoint salesman came to the home with one and demonstrated their use. His party trick was to stand a two bob bit on its end on top of the machine while it was spinning. WOW, looks of amazement, [emoji50]it didn't fall over, but how fast was it spinning?
4,5,or 600 I can't remember.

I dread big load and fast spin machines. A single mother, who's machine I get called to look at, buys bigger every time. Which would be great if she stuck to the weight limits. Drums are for filling in her book [emoji28].