Is there a point to expensive clothes dryers? Where to buy?

[joslar15]

Well, I didn't think there was anything but hype and snob appeal with BMW; couldn't have been more wrong!. Maybe you should find some high-end dryer owners.

 

[Bruenor]

Do what I'm planning on doing. Put a clothes line out back.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Those HE front loaders are expensive, but they are on a whole 'nother level compared to the traditional top load stuff. They use A LOT less water and the washer can spin the water out so fast that dryer times are drastically reduced. Add in the fact that there is no agitator to tangle, stretch, and rip clothes and it's a pretty impressive difference. Plus, you can wash comforters and other large items in them. If a person has the extra cash, those are definitely the way to go.

Snip

^^^^
This


I used to have a fav shirt that I bought several of so I'd have some for a while, I got a hole in one of the sleeves right after we got the new washer/dyrer. I had these shirts only about 5 months when we had to buy the new combo.

We noticed very quickly that the clothes keep their shape and were not stretched out and retained their color (that darn agitator will beat the color out). Other than the new purchase we did not change detergents or water quality and determined very fast that it was the agitator that was quickly ruining the clothes.

Now the down side, we have 2 dogs that like to shed, and washing the top blanket does require a second washing because of no agitator to remove the dog hair from it, but that is a mild worry compared to longer clothes wear and water/electric savings.

 

[Fenway]

Mrs. Fenway did that for a bit and the aftermath when I get home isn't worth it.

Do what I'm planning on doing. Put a clothes line out back.

 

[Bunnykid68]

My parents went the high end route of buying the so called GREEN front loading setups. Lasted a year and they could not stand them anymore. The washer used a lot less water but it ran a whole lot longer which meant it was consuming electricity. The washer took at least 30 minutes longer to wash clothes. Do the math, they did, would you rather pay for water running for 30 minutes or something running on electricity for 30 minutes?

 

[Rob377]

Coupla differences to look for:
sensor dry. Why run it longer than you need to?
Stainless drum. The cheap units are usually painted or powder coated and will eventually chip and rust.
Capacity: more capacity means faster drying on big loads. If you're washer is a little dinky thing it doesn't matter so much, but if you have a high capacity washer, it matters.

Some dryers are more efficient than others. The Bosch units, for example, the whole back plate is vented, as opposed to the little 6" vent plate in most dryers. They move ALOT of air and use less heat.

The steam dryers will also have a "steam refresh" cycle. It's pretty neat, about a 20 minutes cycles that lets you clean stuff you can't wash, or don't have the time to. Eg. you go out and you're around smokers, now your jacket reeks. Throw it in the dryer and the odor is gone. Also good for knocking out wrinkles.

Some of the fancier Samsung Dryers have a wool drying cycle that's guaranteed not to shrink wool items. Dunno if it actually works though.

 

[Brandon]

We have a set of the HE washer/dryers from Samsung. (They sit on the pedestals) The big thing about the ones that are more expensive is it almost takes all the guess work out of how long, what settings blah blah blah. You can also get a pair that talk to each other... (not sure if Samsung has these or not)

They also sense the weight and adjust the times/temps to match whats in there.
Ours also has a steam option which has its on benefits and is used more then one would think.

The cheap ones not much wrong with them, if your not to rough on them and dont want to spend the money on them, i think you could get a good few years out of them.

I can also tell you that when I first started delivering appliances for Lowe's GE had a huge recall on their electric dryers because the elements were jun. Whirlpool seemed to be the best seller and Samsungs we never had an issue... (didnt sell as many but never did we have to bring one back or stop working on us)

For what it is worth I delivered appliances for roughly 2 years. YMMV

 

[snowrs]

The best part of a front load machine is they can double for your TV if it happens to die, pretty soap bubbles.......spinny spinny