Monday, November 13, 2023

CLOTHES DRYER QUITS.

     Today my clothes dryer did some funny things which made it so that it didn't work. The timer would go from 29 to one and quit. One time it went from 41 to 34. Skipped 34 to 9. skipped 3 and 4 and went to 0. Needless to say we didn't get many clothes dried. 

     We got this dryer in March of 23 so I hope there's still some warranty on it. With all the computer boards on everything these days you really don't know what the problem is. 

     Now on the farm my mother had the same clothes dryer for 35 years. It did not have a warranty. It broke a few times but was working again in a few minutes. All you had to do was tie the wire together again. Mother's clothes dryer was outside made of wires set around a pulley at each end. Mother took her clothes basket out side and pinned the clothes to the wire. As she needed more space to hang clothes she used the pulley to move the clothes already on the line. 

    It didn't take long and the clothes were dry and fresh smelling.

    Winter weather made this clothes drier very painful to use. Working with wet hands in freezing weather was painful. The clothes would dry a bit and then she'd bring them in as they were frozen stiff. She's hang them in the house until they were dry. 

    So I'm wondering if I should put a couple of posts in the yard, buy a couple of pulleys and some wire and dry my clothes outside? 

50 comments:

  1. If you lived in the climate I do, I'd heartily endorse outdoor drying but it's not so simple up there in the cold north.
    i don't even own a dryer, which I have regretted on a few occasions but not too many

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    1. You're right it's not that simple to do outdoor drying here.

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  2. A wire and pulleys might actually be useful if your clothes dryer isn't rapidly repaired ..Decades ago my mother had a long cotton clothes line strung across our backyard during the summers,our clothing and linens smelled so fresh and wonderfully clean. -Mary

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    1. The sun was good for the clothes. Thanks for visiting Hiawatha house.

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  3. I would love to have a clothes line outside. I still remember having to hang clothes in the dead of winter. Brrr. But the smell of freshly dried clothing can't be beat.

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    1. Outdoor lines in your rainy weather would be a waste of time.

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  4. Have you forgotten "frozen" in the winter instead of fresh and dry??

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    1. I have not forgotten and I'm joking about an outdoor line.

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  5. I still use your mother's method but without the hi-tech addition of pulleys! If they don't dry like that I hang them in the small spare room with a de-humidifier.

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    1. I never thought of the de-humidifier. It would work here where the air is dry.

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  6. Dry clothes in the open air? Perish the thought.

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  7. Why not?! That is all I have..and for drying indoors a rack and a dehumidifier

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    1. the de-humidifier is a new one for me. Humidity is always low here so it would work.

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  8. Wow, that is a fairly new dryer. I would be lost without a clothes dryer.
    I hope you are able to get it fixed. Take care, have a great day!

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    1. It will be fixed. It's still on warranty. The clothes line is not practical anymore.

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  9. I don't think that I have anyone who has used clotheslines since sometime in the 70s. That also would have been my mother. I kind of like to see them on the rare occasions that I do.

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    1. You don't see them today. It's a little too dusty and dirty in the city.

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  10. So funny! Sorry to hear about your dryer but you made a good post out of it!

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    Replies
    1. It made me think of what happened a long time ago.

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  11. I remember bringing in frozen pillowcases from my mother's laundry line in the cold Colorado winter. In Colorado they did dry fast, though. My dryer is a little buggy...about 14 years old and probably will need a new one soon.

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    1. Colorado would be dry as well but you've got to be tough to hang the clothes in the winter.

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  12. My dryer is old and has no computer parts to it. I hope it keeps working for a long time!
    Hope yours is an easy fix and it's under warranty!

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    Replies
    1. This dryer replaced one we bought in 1970. The Micro Manager was heart broken when it could not be repaired.

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  13. We use a clothesline from April to November. There is no machine quite as good.

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    Replies
    1. It's good for your clothes to be in the sunlight.

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  14. Is it a mechanical timer or a digital one? A mechanical one would most likely be an easy fix. A digital one is probably going to end up more complicated to troubleshoot.

    I used to design washers and dryers for a living. From my perspective, with globalization, all the manufacturers are getting parts from the same suppliers and forcing them to get cheaper all the time. This has also been called the Walmart effect. The result is that we end up with washers and dryers full of cheapened parts to the point where failures occur much more often. The company I worked for (an employee owned company) had a different mentality in that we designed our machines to last decades. We weren't the cheapest by far, but we were still a pretty big player in the industry from places that wanted machines to last more than the cheapest route.

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    Replies
    1. This one is digital so an old guy like me can't fix it.

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  15. I've a laundry tree outdoors, and a clothesline in the basement.
    Our 15-year-old dryer died on us, and the repairman came and said it was well-worth fixing. Manufacturers don't care if they fail, there have been a lot of Marketplace shows on this issue.

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    1. The dryer we have replaced one we bought in 1970.

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  16. I sure remember my grandmother had, what she called, a “clothesline” out in her backyard. I can recall her taking the clothes out of the washer, running them through a “wringer” and then hanging them on the clothesline. It seemed to work just fine, except, like you mention, when the weather wasn’t cooperating.

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    1. Those old wringers did the job. I remember turning it for my Mom.

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  17. They sure don't make them like they did in the old days. We use a drying rack and have never had a dryer in the last 44 years.

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    1. This dryer replaced the one we bought in 1970,

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  18. Ugh. At less than a year old, I hope it is covered by warranty. It certainly does not hurt to have a back up dryer. I have a drying rack in the bathroom over a heating vent.

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  19. Hurry and get that warranty service on the blasted dryer. We don't want you freezing your hands! The old Sears Kenmores seem to last longer. Maybe it's just a misadjusted drum belt. (My 49-year-old electric can opener just died. My kids say the new ones don't last long.) Stay warm! Linda in Kansas

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    1. This dryer replaced the one we bought in 1970.

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  20. Well, you can do that if you want to, but I will never go back to drying clothes on a line.

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    1. And I'm joking when I talk about outdoor drying.

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  21. Yes put up a cloths line! I recall bringing in frozen clothing...but they smelled really good when they thawed out:)

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  22. Just call the repair company. Better than catching pneumonia!

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    1. Yes , well will call the repair man. The outdoor line is just too much work.

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  23. Kay of Musings: Luckily, we’re able to hang our clothes out in the sun throughout the year. Most of my friends just use a dryer though. Art just prefers using sun energy. However, today the wind was so strong, we had to bring it in and hang it indoors.

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  24. Given a choice I'd always prefer line-dried clothes, but I've never lived in a climate as cold as yours! Hope the drier can be fixed without too much drama.

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  25. Glad you have the warrantee on that dryer. Nothing like the smell of freshly washed clothing on the line. Great in the summertime but I remember helping my mother bring them in after a winter's night, stiff with the frost and equally stiff as a board :) I think that was my favorite time, lots of giggles ensuing.

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  26. Hope you can get it fixed how awful.

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  27. I use a laundromat a short walk up the street

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  28. the strategy of businessmen is getting to so hard to approach by customers these days .
    they have decided to make things only for shortest while and i see how it's working successfully for them but burdening people 's pocked heavily
    from broom to wall clock or name anything ,everything is short lived and getting old and broken more quickly with each passing day
    wondering what to do and where it will end

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