I know this is a home appliance topic, but it's a story of technological awakening.

For nearly 30 years I have owned the same clothes dryer.

It still works. It has never needed replacing. Other than occasionally cleaning the internal lint trap, it has demanded almost nothing from me. Because of that, I never really gave clothes dryers much thought. Once a machine can make wet clothes dry, I assumed the technology had pretty much reached peak development.

Apparently not.

Recently a friend showed me his dryer. It is one of those newer LG models with a dual inverter heat pump system and various other features and about 20 different drying modes that sound like they were borrowed from 2049. And it can also be controlled over WiFi by a smartphone app. LED lighting inside and large tinted glass window so you can watch your socks go for a tumble for a bit dryer ASMR.

I was genuinely surprised.

My old dryer can handle about 5 kg of laundry, which translates to roughly fifteen T-shirts before things start getting crowded. It also requires an exhaust hose that has to be fed out a window whenever the machine is running. Otherwise my place turns into a tropical rainforest complete with even more heat and humidity than usual.

The new dryer has no exhaust hose at all.

Instead it quietly extracts the moisture from the clothes, collects the water in a tank, and then you simply empty the tank later. That is the entire process.

No hose.

No window.

That alone impressed me.

Then I discovered that these newer dryers use dramatically less electricity than older models. They can run for much longer cycles, sometimes several hours, but still use less total electricity overall because they dry clothes at much lower temperatures.

Which brings me to another surprise.

Apparently I have been slowly destroying my clothes for decades.

My current dryer gets hot enough to qualify as a minor geological event. I never thought much about it because worn out T-shirts simply got replaced whenever needed. Looking back, many of them probably died from heat exhaustion long before their natural lifespan was over.

Since the newer machines use lower temperatures it means less shrinking, less fading, less fabric damage, and fewer towels that feel like they have been dried on the surface of mars.

The internal drum is also much bigger.

The model I looked at holds 10 kg of laundry, which is double the capacity of my current machine. I could dry an entire load in one go.

Another unexpected benefit is that I could actually leave the house while it is running. No more wondering whether the exhaust hose has fallen out of the window and started pumping humidity directly back into the room.

The whole experience was a reminder that technology quietly improves while you are busy not paying attention.

For three decades I assumed development of clothes dryers were one of those appliances that had reached its final form sometime around the invention of electricity.

Apparently not.

Anyway, I realize that many people in Thailand do not use dryers and will find this topic doesn't apply to them.

Some in Thailand even iron T-shirts after hang drying, which is a level of dedication I have never fully understood.

So I am curious.

Do you even use a clothes dryer, or do you prefer line drying? And if you are a committed line dryer, are you genuinely happy with those slightly crunchy T-shirts and sandpaper grade towels, or have you simply convinced yourself that this is normal life already?

I brought an older dryer with me when I moved here, but the wiring isn't the same, so I had someone change it for me here. Didn't work so I left it at that and just hang the clothes. using cold water and hanging has clothes lasting longer . My daughter has a new dryer and washer and they're somewhat high tech. They are good for drying quick when you need certain clothes. If one could make me a decent iced coffee I would be searching for that when we return to the states.

Dont know the intricacies of it, but we dont own a dryer! Everything is line-dried, and we certainly dont have crunchy shirts or sandpaper-grade towels!

I prefer sheets and towels dried in a dryer, but clothing dried on the line. Unfortunately, we don't have space for a dryer, so I have to make do. Or my wife does. She's the official towel shaker, softening them up after drying. That seems to work, but I wouldn't mind a dryer. If our current washing machine dies, we'll buy one of those combination units.

I found the article interesting with an uplifting message about tech advances.

i dry everything on the balcony except bedding, i go to the laundry they ha e massive LG ones i wash and dry there, I haven't got room to hangout sheets and duvet covers

10 minutes ago, FolkGuitar said:

I prefer sheets and towels dried in a dryer,

Towels especially. Nothing like a soft, fluffy towel when it comes out of the dryer.

Avoid washer dryer combo units, though. They are a jack of all trades and a master of none. Their washing and drying capacities are typically considerably lower, and they generally are not as durable or heavy duty as having two separate machines that each specialize in a single job.

A common alternative is to buy a separate washer and dryer and stack them. This provides the space saving benefit of a single machine footprint while still delivering the performance and capacity advantages of dedicated machines.

LG dryer model RV10VHP3W1 is a really good option. It covers all the functionality I mentioned in my OP. You can find it on Lazada in the LG flagship store.

Edited 53 minutes ago53 min by Kyoto Kyle

Yes she pegs it out every morning then gets it in and irons it.

No