European Front Loading Washing Machines

[Keith R]

Well, Danny, everyone has to evaluate their own situation and preferences. In the four years I lived in SD, we had 7 people in the house the first yr, 6 in the 2nd-4th (we made a young cousin move out once gainfully employed), always with two little (4 yrs old when we moved there, 8 yrs old by the time we left) twin kids, complete with uniforms and their tendency to go through clean clothes like a hot knife through butter. In those four years, I think I can count on one hand the number of times we had to deal with rain preventing us from getting dry clothes. So for us, buying a mechanical dryer just never seemed worth it...

[Danny W]

Originally Posted by Keith R

Well, Danny, everyone has to evaluate their own situation and preferences. In the four years I lived in SD, we had 7 people the first yr, 6 in the 2nd (we made a young cousin move out once gainfully employed), always with two little (4 when we moved there, 8 by the time we left) twin kids, complete with uniforms and their tendency to go through clean clothes like a hot knife through butter. In those four years, I think I can count on one hand the number of times we had to deal with rain preventing us from getting dry clothes. So for us, buying a mechanical dryer just never seemed worth it...

Keith - I love your post. It sounds like you have a full life! - D

[Keith R]

Jus re-read and amended my original post -- the way I wrote in a hurry probably made it sound like I had more than 2 kids. Because they're twins, it certainly seemed that way at times! LOL

[Keith R]

A question to Danny and others who want to buy a mechanical dryer anyway, inspite of all the persuasive arguments we make in favor of line drying -- would you like to see a Green Team piece that also addresses things to keep in mind when selecting and buying a dryer? Would it be helpful?

[reracked]

We have a front loading FAGOR.
It's a spanish brand imported by Fereteria Americana and sold by Carrefour.
Runned like a charm for 5 years.
We bought for about 8000RD$ if I recall well. Nowadays they go for more than 25000RD$!!!
Some rust on the metal case due to the darn salty water from Juan Dolio and lately the drain pump dyed. 750RD$ for a brand new one in SDQ, half the price from Europe!
The thing runs EVERY day. I am a happy owner

[Keith R]

You ran it everyday for five years???? Wow! No wonder why the pump gave out after only five years!

[Simon & Nicky]

Can I point out a couple of things? First off I have a six month old daughter who gets through more clothes than Moss Bros. And secondly I thought I was being "green" by buying a gas dryer. I thought that when you burn gas you don't get any nasty emissions am I wrong?

[Keith R]

Originally Posted by Simon & Nicky

Can I point out a couple of things? First off I have a six month old daughter who gets through more clothes than Moss Bros. And secondly I thought I was being "green" by buying a gas dryer. I thought that when you burn gas you don't get any nasty emissions am I wrong?

I didn't say or mean to say that burning LPG created dirty emissions. What I said was that the production of any power derived from fossil fuels -- including this one -- had to include greenhouse gas emissions -- it's the nature of the industry. By contrast, line drying doesn't entail any greenhouse gas emissions.

And let me reiterate what I said before -- the series is entitled "personal choices" precisely because we all make our own choices based on our weighing of our own priorities, needs, wants, etc. All the Green Team is trying to do is give you the information tools you need to "go green" as much as you choose to go.

That's why it occurs to me (mentioned above) that maybe we should also do a blog piece on what things to keep in mind when buying a mechanical dryer, if that's the route people chose to go....

[Keith R]

For anyone who might be still interested in the issue, we just posted on the blog an entry on what to do if you choose to go with a mechanical dryer...