welcome to england. probably less than 2% of the population have individual washer/dryers and i would say the vast majority just have washers and no drying facility beyond what we call an 'airing cupboard'. the concept is to put the wet clothes on a slatted shelf close them in this cupboard and wait for them to get mouldy. we then throw them out and buy new clothes at primark and repeat the cycle.

Zeppole, your last post cracked me up! :-)

First, thank you for all the help. The suggestion to push the 1/2 button was brilliant. I wish I had gotten the delicates vs. normal instructions earlier though (thank you for replying with such detailed instructions BillBarr).

All of our underwear is slightly a different color now--the pure white stuff is now a beige color since I washed on "normal" and probably should have washed on delicate....I did manage, by accident, to start the dryer last night and managed to then have clean and dry pajamas to wear. I put in a load at bedtime and then got up this morning and started the dryer....big mistake. I forgot what was in there and dried 2 of my bras. They are now ruined. I will have to start a new post asking for advice as to what department store to go to for those--will require a fitting since US/UK sizing is different! :-)

I presently have some of the jeans (and jean shorts) in to wash. I think I will hang them to dry. I am scared to put them in the dryer unit now.

So, does my American washer/dryer eat that much more electricity, or why do they have such inefficient units here? I can understand the allure of a combo unit, with the limited space in a flat, but wonder why they can't seem to make anything more efficient.... That was a rhetorical question, obviously! :-)

Thanks to everyone for your help. I knew I could count on fodors.

Oh, and janisj, I used your advice on my one night through transit a week ago and pricelined an airport hotel for a really good price. I think it was you that also advised me to use justairports for car service and we did that yesterday. Very easy and efficient. Thanks!

kellye asks:

"So, does my American washer/dryer eat that much more electricity, or why do they have such inefficient units here?"

Your US dryer vents wet air to the outside through a big pipe. "European" dryers condense the water and send it out through a drain. No hole in the wall required but not very quick.

Again walkinaround
seems to visit or inhabit this strange third-world country called England.
I personally have a Bosch washing machine and separate dryer.
The dryer is the condensing type, but the type that vent to the outside are very common.
At this time of year, I hang my washing outside when it's fine and just use the dryer to fluff up towels etc.
The airing cupboard is for putting freshly ironed clothes to make sure that they are thoroughly dry.

Walkinaround just likes to exaggerate :-)

Most people I know have separate washers and dryers.

If you end up with a combined washer/dryer, they work fine, but the big downside is that you can't dry the full load you washed. The dryer capacity is lower than the washing. So you have to take out half your stuff before switching to dryer mode. Anyone whose found that the drying part isn't working well is probably forgetting to do that...

What is the model number?

hi again,

i'm afriad that many holiday cottages and flats may have combo units [what a wonderful phrase] to save space - i plead guilty to that myself.

the idea is to allow guests to wash what we hope will be a few items whilst they are on their hols and get them dry if the weather is inclement - we provide a line for those few days when hanging things out is a viable option. after all, and this is not a sly dig at the OP, holiday makers don't normally want to do a full wash, towels, sheets etc.

one of the problems of welcoming guests is how much to tell them when they arrive - too little and you get problems like this; too much and you can see their eyes glaze over while they are wishing desperately that I'll leave them alone so they can have a cup of tea.

Kellye - good luck with the underwear hunting. stores such as M & S have a measuring facitilty when you want to replace your bras as do Harrods and john lewis. what a great excuse to buy yourself something new!

regards, ann

regards, ann

so far [pause for me to touch a lot of wood, cross my fingers, hold my thumbs etc.] no one has complained.

perhaps I'm too scarey?

I really wonder about walkinaround. Where does he/she really live? Not in any part of the UK I've ever known certainly. Every one I know has a separate washer and dryer, except one friend who lives in a tiny flat and has no room for both items. The trick, as others have said, is to either only wash a half load, or take half out before drying.
Ann, it sounds like you have a good set up there, with lines and the option of a dryer. Can't believe it ever rains enough in Cornwall to need it though ;)
A lot of people, not only in the UK but also throughout Europe hang their washing out on a line to dry - it is free, the washing smells wonderful, and there is less ironing involved. Only when it is really horrible weather do I use my dryer.
American friends seem to find this a strange, quaint thing to do, whilst they happily put their washing in a dryer in So Cal while the sun is shining down on them. Do people hang their washing out in the US? I can't say I have ever seen it, other than with the Amish, but I haven't really looked it's true. Maybe with the increase in fuel costs it will become fashionable again.
I do miss an airing cupboard though - since the idea of a hot water tank is unknown here there is no airing cupboard.

i stand corrected and rightly accused of exaggeration. 40% of uk households own separate clothes dryers.

15% own combis

25% own dishwashers (if you were wondering).

I live in Central London, and I will say that every house/flat we looked at had a combo unit. And that was about 20 properties.

In the US, I don't know anyone who still hangs the wash out to dry. Even my 88 year old grandmother has a new, HE dryer (and lives in sunny, hot Texas). Upon my eventual return to the US, I will be using my dryer less often. I am amazed at how much I've been able to cut back on laundry and my consumer habits in general, although that is another topic for another post...

Slightly off-topic, but I live in a village that is trying to be Britain's first carbon neutral community.
http://www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk/

We have a solar panel which today, for example is giving us free hot water.
Our fuel bills have gone done drastically and I feel positively guilty when I use my dryer.

MissPrism...many towns and villages in the UK are going through this. there is a big scramble to get government money for stupid projects that do not contribute positively to green living. in my area, a massive solar canopy was created. it took over a year to build with traffic redirected out of the way (more petrol use while driving around it and more idling time). it costs millions. the solar panels do not even create enough energy to light the new lights that turn the area under the canopy into daylight at night...never mind contributing to the overall power grid. built under the umbrella of a programme to make the area carbon neutral. a complete waste of time and money and an outcome with effects opposite of what was intended. there are many such examples of projects under initiatives similar to the one that you cite.

Ah, there speaks the
walkinaround
that we all know and love ;-)

At least we now know that walkinaround lives in or near Woking. That explains a lot maybe.

Put those wet jeans ON...walk around outside in them...dry before you know it.

40% of all UK households actually sounds a little high to me. Do they mean homeowners? Or everyone? I can't imagine that, for example, 40% of London apartments have separate washers and dryers...ditto for people renting, most rental units that we've seen don't offer separate W/D.

FWIW, we do not have a dryer and have managed without one for nearly 4 years. There is no place in our cottage to put one. We brought our full size Miele washer with us from Belgium, swapping out the cheap washer that came with the cottage (I don't like washers that try to rhumba across the room during spin cycle).

It takes some fine tuning your schedule...on sunny dry days, we wash three loads, starting early in the morning and having stuff out on the line or on the drying racks until evening. On wet or cold days, we do one load in the evening, spread it out over drying racks placed strategically around the living room just before we go to bed and it's usually dry enough to put away in the morning when we get up.

While this can be annoying and we have to pay close attention to the weather forecast, we've gotten to the point that we prefer the crispness of air dried bed linens and towels. And my husband's shirts seem to be lasting longer and looking better.

I never use a dryer on my jeans at home, I always put them on a rack to dry. I guess it depends on how you know they fit, but that would shrink them too much for me (and it is much harder on the fabric). So I would just do that (put on rack).

It is true at home, I put them in a dryer for about 5 minutes first, mainly to speed the drying and get wrinkles out, and that step helps a lot (more for the wrinkles). I hate those teensy European washers, I had once in an apt. and it was impossible to use and pointless as nothing fit in it but stuff you could easily wash by hand anyway.

Now we should open a new thread:
"Why can't Americans operate simple electric/electronic devices? :D

hetismij: &quot;<i>American friends seem to find this a strange, quaint thing to do, whilst they happily put their washing in a dryer in So Cal while the sun is shining down on them. Do people hang their washing out in the US?</i>&quot;

Unfortunately, not many. I'd love to but my garden just doesn't have a place I could fit in a clothesline. Or, I'd have to take out my gorgeous but messy Crape Myrtle tree. . . .

But I do use a drying rack for some clothes. When I lived in the UK I did dry everything outdoors (or started them out doors and then got drenched bringing them back inside to hang over every chair in the house after the downpour started :) )

It is crazy I know - but a lot of CCRs in the States (rules applying to residents in specific neighborhoods) actually <u>forbid</u> outdoor clotheslines :O It is called &quot;Visual polution&quot; !! Miscreants can be fined or a lien placed on their home.

Kellye: Glad I could help.

There are some lovely lingerie shops in London - splurge a bit ;)

This whole thread has brought a smile to my face! I thought I was the only one who couldn't figure out British washers and dryers...

A few years ago we stayed in a semi-detached home while my husband worked in London. The house came with a washer, and we thought we'd be oh so modern and get a tumble dryer as well. I wondered why all the neighbors turned out to watch the dryer being unloaded from the truck and installed in the kitchen -- it turns out they wanted to know who was foolish enough to get such a contraption.

The washer and I never negotiated a truce the whole summer we were there, and I tried to understand it by reading the incomprehensible directions. First off, the hot setting, which I would use to wash towels, socks, etc, at home boiled the clothes and shrunk them to microscopic sizes. Secondly, one of those airplane socks was stuck on the top of the tumbler, and when I washed all my daughter's clothes in the next load, they turned a pretty shade of robin's egg blue. She was 5 at the time, and was distraught that EVERYTHING she owned had turned some shade of blue.

The modern dryer we rented took about a day and a half to dry anything. And we tried the half load trick. The washer was so small, though, that putting half a wash load into the dryer amounted to no more than a pair of socks and a t-shirt.

In the end, I had my husband bring home a laundry line so we could hang our clothes out to dry like all the sensible people in our neighborhood. My son (6 at the time) was terrible embarrassed that his boxer shorts were hanging outside where everyone could see them, but it sure beat waiting for days to have dry clothes.

I feel your pain, Kellye!