Spin Dryers
When we moved out to a farm, we decided to line dry whatever we could, but handwringing all our clothing, linens and towels is time and energy consuming. And the hand wringing was hard on my more delicate clothing. These electric-powered spin dryers do a fantastic job; the clothes come out just slightly damp and dry quickly. The dryers are also much gentler on stuff like sweaters, delicates and lingerie. Two years ago we bought a small counter-top dryer for the apartment we keep in the city (to avoid schlepping linens and towels). It worked so well and we were so impressed with it I then bought a larger one for the farm. The smaller one spins at 1600 RPM and the larger one at 3600 RPM, so they greatly reduce the time needed for line drying (probably only 1-2 minutes on average). They also help get much more water and detergent out of our laundry than a conventional washer does. There's much less detergent smell. We are most definitely not into the fragrances put in many detergents. It usually smells like nasty chemicals to us, so the more we can get out of our clothes and linens, the better. And avoiding the dryer frees us from that "cooked" smell.
Both systems are completely contained and the water drains into a sink or bath tub. We put the mini one on the kitchen counter (on the dish drainer tray) so we can load wet stuff right from the sink into it. It has a flexible hose that comes out of the bottom in the back, and you just snake that over to the sink and the water goes right back in -- makes it easy to use the same wash water and detergent several times, saving on water and detergent. The large one has a spout in the front at the bottom, which we position over the bath tub. My husband actually built a plywood triangle fitted with some rubber matting on the underside (so it wouldn't mar the tub). The larger one is especially great for cleaning and freshening up bed pillows. They're almost completely dry after only spinning a couple minutes! A couple caveats: you can't turn them on and go off and leave them unattended. And you do have to ensure they're balanced -- if the big one ever got away on you, I'm sure it could do some damage. But after using it a couple times, you get onto how to load for balance.
-- Christine Mank
Spin Dryer
$135
Available from Laundry Alternative
Mini Countertop
(pic at top)
$70
Available from Laundry Alternative
Favorite (15)
Keith Lang
How does this compare to simply putting the wet articles in the washing machine and setting it to spin dry?
Preston L. Bannister
Just to be slightly contrary - you get a similar or better result using one of the fancier washers. I followed the advice of Consumer Reports, and spent about $3K on a higher-end washer and dryer. When washing the washer slowly tumbles the clothes, stops for a bit, slowly tumbles again - much like gentle hand-washing. After the rinse the washer goes through a high-speed spin cycle, so much less water is left in the clothes.
The fancier washer uses less energy, less water, and the gentler wash means clothes last longer. Over the lifetime of the washer this is going to save you money - perhaps enough negate the difference in price against a cheap washer.
I tend to be a bit cheap where it makes sense - but in this case I'm convinced the extra money spent was worthwhile.
D W Dukes
So you are washing by hand? Pretty labor intensive. While front loaders cost more than that they actually wash the clothes and spin them pretty darn dry compared to a top loader.
Personally I think you would have been better off to buy a used front loader washer and not get a dryer. $70 or $130 are 10-20% of the price of a new front loader and would be more like 25-50% of a used front loader.
gzuckier
way back in the early 70s hoover sold a little mini washing machine in the US; i'm guessing it was a version of a european one, converted to 110, because in the movie Performance you can see one in use in London.
Anyway, it was completely different from a regular washer; the washing tub was separate from the spindry part. you would pull the clothes out from the wash and put then in the spin part (any drips were caught on top of the machine and drained back in) and shut the lid, whereupon the spinner would take off like a turbojet and extract almost all the water, leaving the clothes damp.
as a bonus for recyclers, that allowed you to reuse the wash water for more than one load; the drain hose for the spinner could be directed to drain it into the sink, or back into the washtub.
Corey
To be contrary to the contrarian:) You do not in fact get a similar or better result with the high-end washers and dryers, when compared to our larger, 3200 rpm spin dryers. The high end washers do spin much faster, and come much closer to than a regular washing machine spin cycle does. But our spin dryers remove more water from the clothes than even the top of the line front loaders, and this is easy to measure.
Actually one of the main reasons we introduced the larger, high speed spin dryers is to give people the benefits of the high spin speeds without the high price tag of a top end front loader. If you have the money they are great products, but many people can't afford the spending that much money.
wesley
I am not sure spending 70 or 135 dollars on something that just removes more water from clothes you are hanging on a line is really worth it. Those highend frontloaders just have more bells and whistles. We only spent around 1500$ for the front loading washer and dryer combined. It had the basics we use. Most of the time the fancy functions are seldom used. So spending another 70 or 135 bucks is of dubious value.
Moon
This is great. I've been looking for something like this for an apartment that is way too small for a washer/dryer. I found a small washer (now I'll have to re-find it!), but the dryers were all troublesome.
I was just about ready to steal the swimsuit dryer from the health club!
Conrad
I agree with the comment that a spin dryer extracts more water than a high-end washing machine. How can I say this? Because my family has both. As an experiment, we've taken a variety of items out of our front-loading Frigidaire Gallery washing machine (same guts as many other front-loaders) and run them through the spin dryer. Synthetic fabrics (as opposed to cotton and cotton blends) hold the least water, but we're always able to extract several cups of additional water from clothes that have been through our washer's spin cycle.
Front loaders are already better than top loaders at extracting water from washed clothes. However, they still can't match a really high speed centrifuge. That's why even industrial grade centrifuges are common in European laundromats, where energy costs make dryer time extremely expensive.
Moon
Wow. I got my washer and dryer today!
The jury is still out on the washer because I only did socks and it's hard to tell. They SEEM clean.
But the dryer is just awesome. I can't believe how dry the socks are when they come out of the dryer. I use the swimsuit dryer at the club and it doesn't even get close to how dry this is. I could almost just put the socks in the sock drawer, right out of the dryer.
Ken
www.clothesdrygreen.com has stainless steel spin dryers for $229.95 with fast shipping