Is your washer-dryer faster than a dung beetle?

Given that the lack of private outdoor space is becoming a growing aspect of metropolitan habitation the ability to complete the laundry indoors is a significant consumer desire.

What amazes me is that many of those who do have an outdoor space where they could stand a clothes drying rack or put up a washing line don’t do so. Exposure to the sun and air does wonders for the washing – and, truly, it’s not always raining. Obviously, people’s working arrangements do have a major bearing on this which means the industry does need to come up with efficient appliances for doing the whole job allowing people to opt in or out of the full drying function.

I have a Bosch washing machine only, no tumbler and my (spun) laundry dries pretty quickly in the utility room, the garden, or even over the upstairs banisters. If I were to buy anything for drying, it would not be a tumble dryer but a heated electric airer.

I don’t have room for separate machines so have to use a washer-dryer. When I use the dryer function though I NEVER use the auto sensor dry functions. They don’t work, it’s a waste of time and will go for hours without drying.

But I have no trouble at all using the manual dry. Normally 90 mins on manual dry is sufficient for an average- full load. I’m using a 4 year old Hoover machine, not sure model number.

I’m on my second washer-drier in 15 years, both Hotpoint Aquarius. Must admit the newer one I have now is a lot better at drying than the first model I had. My main gripe is that Hotpoint have failed to stop the washers from chewing clothes and it doesn’t matter how much or little I load into the washer, I still get holes in strange places on random occasions. Anything I can’t risk getting a hole in has to be washed by hand in my house. The drying time on my washer drier is about 90 mins on top of my 60 minutes ‘quick’ wash but that’s only when I put the clothes on a long spin after the quick wash before setting it to dry. If I don’t give it an extra spin, then it can take a good 4 hours for the clothes to dry!

I wonder how much tumble driers wear clothes. What is collected on lint filters is obviously from the fabric. Pointed collars on men’s shirts can become worn very quickly. If a washer-dryer can take up to 8 hours 20 minutes to complete a cycle, that could result in quite a lot of wear.

I have found my Miele washer-dryer to be invaluable, living as I do in an upstairs flat without a garden.

I wash towels, and whites, during the night as the electricity is 3 x cheaper with Economy 7.

It does use a lot of water and power but getting up to find the washing sorted is worth the extra expense.

I find it would overdry shirts, so now do these on the minimum setting, Smoothing+ and if I hang them promptly they rarely need ironing.

I am researching washer dryer cycle times as I am buying a new machine for my son (1st home!).I am staggered by the cycle times being quoted for virtually every type of washing machine. This is totally unacceptable waste of human time and 1trawl through the Internet shows that most people are fed up with complacency shown by manufacturers towards their customers need for faster cycle times, particularly at 40 degree washes. Some poor Mums are at their wits end with their washing machines, some are reverting back to hand washing ! This is the 21st century in case the manufacturers haven’t noticed and progress on this issue of cycle times for both washing and/or drying is critical for the vast majority of us. Washing on a 30 degree wash will not kill off bacteria in clothes and is only marginal for 40 degree washes,many of us work in food environments where higher standards are needed, so cycle times are highly important. Time for some serious discussion as to what customers want not what manufacturers want to give us. Would like to see minimum cycle times for each temperature range given for every machine produced by law. Progress urgently needed.

Hi all. We bought a Indesit Washer/Dryer combo. Can someone please help me. How do I wash clothes at a cold temp with the least amount of minutes. I know you need to have the temp knob turned to the snowflake but which number do I turn it to so that I does not was for 3 Hours. I am desperate.

Why has the onus been transfered from government departments who had the power to dictate to any business – do this or else -to a -“do it yourself ” attitude thereby giving most firms the “license to kill ” any truth about their products in sales talk/media while it helps the audience figures of Which and a number of other UK public concern bodies it places the general public in a – divide and conquer position where individuals have to take action themselves only to be rebuffed by de-clawed ngo/services .The general public are thus weakened in their ability to obtain justice unless they get together like a Union and fight against it. At the same time Legal Aid has been made harder for those wanting to take firms to court . Justice ? as they say in America- Justice my ass. BY the way I got an -Internal Server Error – for posting that seems the server has been “programmed ” to dislike some of my posts.

We have a smeg condenser dryer. Usually we have always had a vent dryer before which dried in no time.the smeg we have takes hours to dry even a couple of items and the drawer that collects the water during drying hardlyhas any water in it one minute and fills within seconds on another dry. It’s so frustrating. Wish we had never bought it. I washed a feather pillow , it took 2days to dry it. Jeans take 3hrs or more to dry. What can I do to make it dry any quicker?

I have had 3 washer dryers and the first two were both Ariston and current one an AEG. They all took a long time to dry and neither brand could fully dry a set of king sized bedding even with a much larger drum capacity on current machine. The fabric in the middle of the drum never gets the warm air to completely dry the clothes. Sensor dry is false as it senses the outer fabric against the drum which gets warm and dry. Fabric in the middle is often wet and radiator drying is required to finish them of. No washer dryer can ever fully dry a load in 2 hours. The best option is to air dry outside when suitable. Choose a washer dryer with a very fast spin to extract most water from heavy items such as towels and jeans. If no space to hang outside take half the load out of the machine and run two separate drying cycles and hang the finished items on a clothes airier to completely dry them.