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For the entirety of my life, we've hung or clothes to dry inside. No dryer. No, they don't smell bad. Yes, even with small kids in the household. No, there is n
by morsch 4y ago
For the entirety of my life, we've hung or clothes to dry inside. No dryer. No, they don't smell bad. Yes, even with small kids in the household. No, there is no problem with mold. No, it doesn't take forever, I'd estimate twelve hours most of the year, depending on how fast you spun them (typically 1200+ rpm).
Yes, the evaporating cools down the room, though I can't say I ever noticed it. In terms of energy efficiency compared to a dryer, it's much better in summer, and not much better in winter, though you get a humidifier as a freeby.
Yes, it's a chore, a full load takes about ten minutes to hang, and it's real boring work.
- forgotmypw17 4y agoClothes last much longer that way, too. The dryer wears down clothing very quickly with friction.
- dijonman2 4y agoWashing does, too. I launder my clothing grouped by fabric density to avoid “pulling”. Works reasonably well.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoI wear ASICS/Uniqlo/Next/Adidas/Express/etc level clothing ($5 to $30 per item) and it lasts many years (5+) even though I use washers and dryers constantly. Cannot imagine additional longevity would be worth all the work of manually doing it.
- perfectstorm 4y agoit depends on the fabric materials used. not all of them are prone to degradation from dryer heat. i didn't notice it until my wife told me about it so now i make an effort to dry my nicer clothes on a stand rather than in the dryer.
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoThat’s mostly sport wear brands. You can’t wear that at work in most of the world. I doubt Uniqlo clothes last five years while tumble dried. I hand dry the few t-shirts I own from them and after three years I wouldn’t wear them as anything else than bed wear.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoI am wearing a Uniqlo undershirt right now that I bought before 2018. I don’t see any wear and tear. When I used to wear business casual, I wore Next brand clothing and shirts/trousers looked the same to me even after years of drying and cleaning them. The part that starts showing wear is the fold in the collar, but that only happens a long time after I have gotten my $20 or $30 worth. I am sure there are some visual differences between top tier clothes and what I wear, but I am okay with it as long as what I have looks clean and presentable.
- forgotmypw17 4y agoWhen you collect dryer lint out of the filter, that is all material that has worn off the clothes.
- doublesocket 4y agoThis very much depends on your local climate and the building itself. Definitely not possible in the flat we live in during the winter unless we run a dehumidifier.
- buzzdenver 4y agoWhere do you live? Winter is when people traditionally use humidifiers because the air inside tends to be dry. (Cold air outside has a low absolute humidity, so relative humidity will be low when you heat it up inside.)
- mellavora 4y agoA lot of EU heats by steam/water radiators. These don't dry the air the same way forced air heating does. You are right about absolute/relative humidity, but our basement feels damper in winter than summer.
- sbradford26 4y agoForced air and radiators dry the air equally. Steam radiators sometimes can add humidity to the air it is limited and only when they are initially heating up before the valve closes. What causes dry air in the winter is the act of heating air up. Relative humidity is based on the temperature of the air, so if there is a fixed amount of water in the air, as you heat it the relative humidity goes down. So in the winter cold air slowly comes into the house via air leakage. This air is heated up which drops its relative humidity down. I have lived in houses with baseboard heat and with forced air, and recently converted my house from baseboard heat to forced air. There is no real difference in the relative humidity in the house.
- ihaveajob 4y agoThe way I understand this at the gut, conversational level, is by noticing that hot air can carry more water, therefore it will dry your skin faster, which is what "feels" like the air being dry. Heating doesn't remove water from the air, as you explained. But that's what people assume when they argue that "heating doesn't dry the air" as I've heard in the past. Using relative humidity is a good explanation.
- scythe 4y agoGoes quite a bit faster if you point a fan at them in my experience.
- chiefalchemist 4y agoPro tip: when outside, have the white items get direct sun. It's a (lite, no pun intended) natural bleach of sorts.
- mattmanser 4y agoHave you only lived in one climate? One type of house? There are a lot of different buildings and climates where you will have problems hanging laundry indoors. It definitely can cause mould, it definitely is a health risk without paying extra for dehumidifiers. And dehumidifiers are not great for the environment either as well as costing extra. So two good reasons to hang out rather than in. Plus hanging laundry outdoors dries them much, much quicker too. They can be dry in 2 hours most of the time, compared to up to 2 days inside.
- morsch 4y agoOne climate, various houses old and new.
- ihatepython 4y agoNot if it's raining
- dopidopHN 4y agoDryer did not exists and human have been drying clothes in most climates in the last few thousand of years. That being said : I see what you mean. I grew up in France ( dryer don’t exists ) and it’s easy to dry stuff there. Except maybe in winter. Now I’m in Louisiana… yeah, it’s humid. But if you put things in the sun it does dry super quick too.
- watwut 4y ago> Dryer did not exists and human have been drying clothes in most climates in the last few thousand of years. Yes, and most of that drying happened outside. Also, moldy rooms and people having to deal with mold were a thing in the past.
- dopidopHN 4y agoI’m sorry but I can’t see a dryer as something else than a luxury. I used one for the first time when I was 30 something, that might be why. Yes sometimes stuff don’t dry so well. Then hang them differently. Take advantage of the sun. Idk . I caved in for the AC: the us climate is different, AC is needed. But for dryer I will stand my snobby European ground :p
- hombre_fatal 4y agoYour message would be much better without all the combative yes/no assumptions that the reader had any one the assumptions you thought you were dispelling. You can simply delete them.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoI hang my clothes to dry inside as I live in a small appartement in the city. It goes quite quickly even you spun normally. Tumble drying and fast spinning destroy clothes and it’s a big no with wool. Is it unusual in the US? Then again, if I had the space, I would definitely dry them outside. Nothing beats the smell of clothes hung outside in the sun.
- hn_go_brrrrr 4y ago> Yes, the evaporating cools down the room, though I can't say I ever noticed it. How does adding latent heat reduce the sensible heat? Are the clothes washed in very cold water?
- sophacles 4y agoWater evaporating absorbs energy - the transition from liquid to gas takes more energy than changing the temperature of the water, so drying the clothes is a net reduction of energy in the surrounding air. It relies on the air not being saturated (and for real effectiveness, requires relatively low humidity). It's quite popular in dry climates in the form of a "swamp cooler". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler
- hn_go_brrrrr 4y agoThanks, that makes sense. I should have realized this given removing latent heat adds sensible heat.
- lelanthran 4y ago> How does adding latent heat reduce the sensible heat? Are the clothes washed in very cold water? You're not adding latent heat to a room, you're adding water, which when evaporating uses up the heat energy in the room which cools it down. Look into how swamp chillers work.
- hn_go_brrrrr 4y agoAdding water to the air is literally adding latent heat. That's what the term means. Point taken about how that decreases sensible heat, though, thanks.
- HideousKojima 4y agoWhen I lived in the Czech Republic for two years I didn't have a dryer, had to air dry my clothes. There wasn't a smell issue, but my underwear felt like sandpaper compared to how it felt after going through a dryer.
- gpvos 4y agoI find my clothes smell nicer after having hung outside rather than inside, and e.g. towels are softer due to blowing in the wind. I only hang them outside in summer. No need for a dryer of course. Just another n=1 anecdote.
- Brian_K_White 4y agoThis story is about hanging laundry outside. I think this is either irrelevant, or inconsiderate if the point was to suggest "They should just be ok with this other thing I was ok with instead of what they want to do." without the excuse that what they want is somehow bad for everyone else. She's not raising chickens, and even the bit about the horrors of seeing "unmentionables" is ridiculous and deserves no consideration at all.