Avoiding the Clothes Dryer Is Expensive

notion.so

3 points·sbolt··5 comments

I do think that dryer is an unnecessary appliance to have. Much of third world uses a combined washer drier, which not only saves an appliance but also is more convenient and saves time. I don't know why Americans still prefer to have seperate washers and driers.

Anecdotally, combo washer/dryers are less reliable than separate machines. Maybe because there are more components that could break?

Don't know about third world, but compared to Europe and Asia, large homes with space for two machines may be more common in the US?

But isn't it mighty inconvenient to transfer wet clothes from the washer to the dryer, which the combined machine avoids.

In third world I think only combined machines are available in market usually.

>Anecdotally, combo washer/dryers are less reliable than separate machines. Maybe because there are more components that could break?

Simply combining the two machines into one unit increases it's chance of failure even without changing the reliability of the washer or dryer. You don't consider your dryer broken if your washing machine breaks, but you consider your washer/dryer broken if either the washer or dryer function breaks.

But is reliability the main reason? Is then the same not a concern in Asia?

I would guess that perhaps a major reason is mindset, Americans were always used to two machines, while most Asians have only ever seen and used a combined machine.

Think of it this way, will people who are used to combined machine be likely to switch to seperate machines? My guess is they wont.

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