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 June 10Jun 10 by Kyoto Kyle

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

If you have a closed controlled indoor AC environment, it can be a good solution. You do not need to dry your clothes outside in pollution and high humidity.

We dry everything outside under metal roof, so it is getting baked on sunny days.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by Hummin

Don't own one in Thailand.

Dry on line at house or balcony at condo.

Sorted.

3 minutes ago, Hummin said:

If you have a closed controlled indoor AC environment, it can be a good solution. You do not need to dry your clothes outside in pollution and high humidity.

We dry everything outside under metal roof, so it is getting baked on sunny days.

Exactly, and leaving them in the sun to dry faster has them losing colors. Best way is in an air conditioned room if you have time, especially on dry mode.

2 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

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.

Might last longer and ok for normal clothes, but for cacks, bedding and towels ideally you want to be burning bacteria away with hot water followed by hot dryer. The Otteri launderettes are ideal.

As to the op, dryers of old can last for decades. It is essentially a drum, motor and element. Similar today but much more complex and not built as sturdy. The LG's are good.

34 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Might last longer and ok for normal clothes, but for cacks, bedding and towels ideally you want to be burning bacteria away with hot water followed by hot dryer. The Otteri launderettes are ideal.

As to the op, dryers of old can last for decades. It is essentially a drum, motor and element. Similar today but much more complex and not built as sturdy. The LG's are good.

True and one reason I wish we had hot water .

3 hours ago, FolkGuitar said:

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.

The top and bottom combo units are great, though the capacity for each is less. The smaller footprint is worth it.

1 hour ago, daveAustin said:

Might last longer and ok for normal clothes, but for cacks, bedding and towels ideally you want to be burning bacteria away with hot water followed by hot dryer. The Otteri launderettes are ideal.

As to the op, dryers of old can last for decades. It is essentially a drum, motor and element. Similar today but much more complex and not built as sturdy. The LG's are good.

We have an Otteri closeby but have never used it. I worry somebody will put <deleted>ty, mildewed clothes in there and contaminate mine.

Honestly, you don't need a hot wash & hot dry. That's first-world thinking. Our washer heats up its own water but we rarely run it hot unless something is really rotten.

Here's a tip, if your clothes have that sour smell, add baking soda to the wash & rinse cycles. Otherwise, a scoop of borax in wash & rinse will have clothes smelling nice. Who wants to smell like a chemical spill!

1 minute ago, unblocktheplanet said:

The top and bottom combo units are great, though the capacity for each is less. The smaller footprint is worth it.

There are two of us, both very sports-active, so lots of wet clothes every day. We have to do a wash every other day, which fills the 12k tub.

A smaller unit won’t work for us, without having to do two loads or one every night.

2 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Exactly, and leaving them in the sun to dry faster has them losing colors. Best way is in an air conditioned room if you have time, especially on dry mode.

Inside out, no colour fading!

2 hours ago, Tidal wave said:

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

The vibrate function is a plus!

4 hours ago, Kyoto Kyle said:

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?

Grrrrr! I hate front loaders! You can’t put that sock in you dropped out of the laundry basket! “Save the earth, use less water”—<deleted>! Use twice as much electricity because they take twice as long to wash.

I don’t have a clothes dryer here in Thailand. Though I would use one on occasion, a) it doesn’t seem worth it’s idle time and b) takes up a lot of space.

The reason your clothes dryer lasted 30 years is because it doesn’t have any digits. Turn the dial, press the button and Somchai’s yer uncle, right?

Hot? Yeah, that’s actually how dryers dry your clothes! Turn your knob to the temp you want.

You really need all those extra “features”? All they are is to get you top buy a new dryer which will fail exactly when the warranty is up. Anything with lighted numbers and flat buttons is designed for obsolescence.

The trick is to keep fixing your old appliances as needed. They might not be as ‘dern or pretty but they’ll last you more than 30 years.

Ya need 20 drying modes?!? You just want your feckin’ clothes dry! And then you’ve got “smart”, “connected”, “WiFi”. Sounds to me like your dryer and other home appliances will soon be running you, not the other way ‘round.

Wanna watch your socks go ‘round, go to a laundromat. Maybe a pretty girl needs help folding her dainties.

P.S. Clothes dryers definitely wear out your clothes faster. That lint is your tee shirt! Much better to hang them to dry in the sun if you can.

I use a linear style drier, utilising the latest online facilitated renewable energy technology. Namely, solar and wind.

I have ZERO need for a traditional clothes dryer.

The best solution is to hang one's clothes in one's living room.

Crank up 3 ACs....FULL BLAST.

Turn on a large fan.

Then wait about 20 minutes.

Clothes are dry, sheets are dry, every thing is dry....IN NO TIME.

This method is far less costly than buying a clothes dryer, paying to have it hooked up with a through the wall vent, and...

Paying for all that wasted heat generation.

When I use my ACs this way, I get the cooling I need.

I get my clothes dry, FAST.

This is why, here on TV, I am rightfully thought of as being one of the few geniuses who post on the forum.

((When the humidity is high, outside, and when it is raining cats and dogs, my clothes dry...FAST....))

Edited June 10Jun 10 by GammaGlobulin

I have the same LG Dual Inverter, Heat Pump dryer. It’s next to the front loading washing machine. You don’t have to use the tank for condensate, ours is routed to the same waste pipe as the washing machine.

Don’t forget to follow the self-cleaning protocol every month or so. I buy bottles of distilled water from the car battery shop for that purpose.

These machines are very expensive.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by JBChiangRai

Why would anyone need a clothes dryer in Thailand ?

Clothes dry quicker outside in the shade

No – I don't 'use a clothes dryer — Sun and a bit of wind do an excellent job for me...

When I stayed in the USA during Covid, the appliances had been enshattified. They were high efficiency and low water usage, but they took forever and never got the clothes (or dishes) clean or really dry.

In Thailand, and in China, I hang the laundry inside and make no adjustments to the A/C even if it's turned on. I also hand wash and stack the dishes to dry, and I never have to run them through 2 or 3 times to get them clean. The only concession I made is to run hot water into the kitchen because Asian dish soaps don't work worth a flip in cold water. (I miss Dawn and Palmolive green)

I'll keep doing the same if I ever move back into my own place back home in the states. The only hinky thing I did was to install a drying rod in my living room in my apartment in Thailand. You can do that if you live alone and don't plan to run a lot of women through.

4 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

I have ZERO need for a traditional clothes dryer.

If you wore clothes it might be different.

4 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

paying to have it hooked up with a through the wall vent

A thing of the past. Dryer's, for at least the last 10 years, don't work like that anymore.

4 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

This is why, here on TV, I am rightfully thought of as being one of the few geniuses who post on the forum.

I laughed so hard when I read this that I nearly snorted a mouthful of coffee out my nose.

Who uses a dryer in this climate for gods sake!

22 minutes ago, BilllyGOAT said:

If you wore clothes it might be different.

A thing of the past. Dryer's, for at least the last 10 years, don't work like that anymore.

I laughed so hard when I read this that I nearly snorted a mouthful of coffee out my nose.

Far better OUT YOUR NOSE, than....

UP your nose.

Am I correct?

2 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Far better OUT YOUR NOSE, than....

UP your nose.

Am I correct?

Out yours or up yours. Either is correct depending on the situation.