Washer and Dryer experience

gigzernme · Post by **gigzernme** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:31 am

Hi,

I am moving to Finland in a few months. I just visited and one of the people I met told me how annoying their washer and dryer was. They said it takes forever to do a load of laundry because you have to continually empty water from the washer, and the dryer takes several cycles to dry. This is all as compared to doing laundry in the US with a decent washer/dryer.

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether this person's experience is typical...that is, did they just have a bad washer/dryer? Or, coming from the US, should I expect doing laundry to be much different and more difficult?

Thanks!

**Sponsor:**

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:53 am

This is how we do laundry in finland, bit cold in winter.

ilikepeanutbutter · Post by **ilikepeanutbutter** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:06 am

In America the washers are usually bigger. Here the washers are front loaders and run alittle on the small side. You can still wash quite a bit but sometimes you buy washers that have preset programs and you can't fix them (damn you whirpool lol). It's also hard to soak your whites in a front loader, but it's doable.

We have two dryers, one from the 90s that drys a big load in about 2 hours. We have the Whirpool 6th sense, it takes almost 3 hours to dry 2 duvet covers..it's insane and by far the worst dryer I've ever owned.

Laundry is alittle more tedious here, but you get used to it. I LOVE my Sini line dryer though, I couldn't ever find those in America.

Just my two cents.

Katrina

AldenG · Post by **AldenG** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:53 am

We had a Philips dryer in Helsinki in the 1980's that was better than American dryers of the time. One thing it did that most American dryers still don't do, 25 years later, was reverse direction frequently to minimize the tangling/twisting of large objects like sheets.

The main challenge was adequate venting. If you vent indoors through water you don't catch all the lint. It's bad for your health and for everything in the apartment. And in the summer, that's a tremendous amount of heat and humidity to be dumping into your apartment. Even in the winter it may well be too much humidity to push into your apartment, considering how many more clothes you can dry in a short period with a dryer compared to indoor hanging. It really is better to vent to the outdoors but you might have to adapt a window pane to do so.

If I were living in Finland I definitely would not be buying American brands of such appliances. The American ones are less well designed, more cheaply constructed, and have poor quality control. In fact, at one time they weren't even available in places like the Nordic countries (probably most of Europe, too) or Australia. I assumed it was because they compared poorly to the European brands that dominated those markets.

ajl · Post by **ajl** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:02 am

Washers in Finland heat the water so can take way longer than an American is used to,
since the washers in the US take hot and cold water from the tap and most can't heat
the water (my last one in the US could heat water for one setting, but one couldn't
choose the temperature 30 to 90 C as I can now). The front loader I had in the US held
a lot more, now we rent at a place that takes 5kg max.

We don't have a tumble dryer right now. We have an enclosed heated/vented drying
rack; we usually leave the door open and do not turn it on. We also use lots and lots
of drying racks but we did that in the US so we are used to that, many Americans
can't understand that dryers might not be everywhere. Tumble dryer is great to dry
things pet hair is all over, haven't had cats for a two years since our last ancient cat
died but hope to get some soon (and maybe a tumble dryer).

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:11 am

ajl wrote:The front loader I had in the US held
a lot more, now we rent at a place that takes 5kg max.

Out of curiosity: are washing machines in US of A bigger than ones in here? Quick glance at gigantti.fi seems to indicate that all front loaders are 60x60 cm (width x depth), or smaller.

ajl wrote:We don't have a tumble dryer right now. We have an enclosed heated/vented drying
rack; we usually leave the door open and do not turn it on. We also use lots and lots
of drying racks but we did that in the US so we are used to that, many Americans
can't understand that dryers might not be everywhere.

Dunno where you live, but if the apartment/house doesn't have motorized ventilation, which you adjust for drying period, I hope you know that mold likes warm and humid climate...

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:19 am

gigzernme wrote:Hi,

I am moving to Finland in a few months. I just visited and one of the people I met told me how annoying their washer and dryer was. They said it takes forever to do a load of laundry because you have to continually empty water from the washer, and the dryer takes several cycles to dry.

I have a stacked washer(AEG)/dryer(Siemens). I also dry washing outdoors in summer. The washing machine is normal EU size (5kg) which is big enough for us (2 adults and 3 teenage boys) I do on average one load per day I guess. I do not have to empty water out of it

it is plumbed into the mains, which is normal here. It spins the washing (you can choose how fast and how dry you want the spinning cycyle) and I find synthetics (like football kit) don't even need to go in the dryer. The dryer is almost brand new, and is really efficient. It dries things quickly and again I can choose how dry I want my washing ("damp for ironing", "cupboard dry" etc) - it is also A-grade energy efficient. There is a good filter system so no dust etc is released into the room and the ambiant humidity does not increase drastically (but Finnish houses are so dry anyway in winter, the humidity is not a problem). It is necessary to empty the water reservoir, but this is easy to do and does not need to be done every time I use the machine since it holds several litres.

It is possible to find top-loading machines (I still have one that came here from France), in fact I prefer them to front loaders but then you can't stack the dryer on top which really does save space.

biscayne · Post by **biscayne** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:20 pm

Well, many Europeans who have spent time in the US (myself included) feel that the system here is better. Most washers of my experience in the States, were simplified, almost child-like, there wasn't the same range of cycles which you typically find on a European washing-machine. For example, I never encountered one in the States which had a 90 degree celcius (almost boiling) cycle, and the cycles were much, much shorter. When my Finnish SO came to spend the summers with me in the States (I was studying) he complained non-stop that the machine didn't get his socks clean, and only when Granny did them for him back in Finland were his white sports-socks clean again................

Having said all that, nowadays, other than for towels and bedlinen, I generally wash everything on a short, cool cycle (30 celcius or the cold setting) because, really, nowadays, we are not technically "dirty" and we wash our clothes more for "freshening" purposes than to really deeply clean them. (exempt are FF members with kids, especially sporty ones

)

About drying - I dry on the clothesline as much as possible, in winter I dry on a "clothes horse" in the laundry room, and I use the dryer as little as humanly possible, because I find that it shrinks everything, even if it claims not to, and I really feel that it takes the quality of the clothes "down" a level. Airdrying is free, better for the environment too.

panda_123 · Post by **panda_123** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:15 pm

Hey!
I'm from Canada and our washer in our flat is small (has a cage on the inside that you pop open and fill with a small load...or a medium load of light/small items) - it does take awhile because the water gets heated - we only use 30 degrees to help keep our costs down.
For drying - there's an airy room above us with clothes lines for the bigger things like sheets or blankets. We are fortunate enough to have a balcony - so we hang our clothing out there and we have a wire rack for inside - for all the small things or light-weight items that may blow away easily.
I was advised (I'm living in Jyväskylä) that dryers are considered frivolous here - so most people hang their clothing.

Hope this helps!

maxxfi · Post by **maxxfi** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 4:56 pm

Besides, those who are living in an apartment in the bigger towns often have the option
to use a washing machine in the basement of the building , that is 'shared' among all tenants
who live in that building (a small fee is due, though).
For bigger families that require one wash per day it not very practical, but for singles, lone
students, etc. it can be a better choice than buying their own machine.

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:46 pm

I think it comes down to what you're used to and what you expect. If you expect flats to have huge tumble dryers that dry your clothes quick then you're out of luck, all appliances like cookers and washing machines are smaller and more sophisticated in europe than the US.
But why would you need a dryer anyway? Take the clothes out of the washing machine (after it's spun them at 1400 rpm they're pretty dry anyway) and hang them in the sauna or shower room. Since almost all flats and houses have forced air ventilation systems it's quite dry inside and the clothes will dry - and it will cost you nothing at all.

On the temperature front if you go to japan then their washing machines don't heat the hot water at all - they wash their clothes in cold water and think that hot water will damage the fabrics, so things can vary a lot around the world - but in similar way i'm sure all westerners arriving there think their clothes will never get clean.

I just bought a Bosch front loader that will take 8kg, it can do a wash in 1h and it's clever enough to know the amount of are inside and the time shortens if you only put a few things in. The only annoying thing was the front panel was in swedish (with finnish paper label to stick on front), so I ordered a front panel from the UK which will cost about 20euro.

btw in finland you're not supposed to run the machine unattended and should also turn off the supply tap between washes for insurance reasons, the same goes for dishwashers (it's always fun to see my finnish girlfriend try to find that tap in the uk or france since they don't bother with such pedantry).

umit · Post by **umit** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:35 am

When I was in the US (I have been to several states in the south) washing the clothes was a pain in the butt! None of the apartments I rented had washing machine or dryer. I had to use the laundry room of the apartment compound. Those big top loader muscle machines raped my clothes many times and never did a good cleaning... Once I used a tablet detergent and after the washing I recovered the tablet nearly unaffected in the pullover

The prices for the European style front loader machines were rocket high at the shops...

So, if you adopt your washing habits accordingly (washing in smaller amounts but more frequently) then I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the more sophisticated front loaders.

Here I have a balcony and an airy room in the roof with clothes lines... Never needed a tumble dryer.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:38 am

When I was in the USA, the washers were therśe stone-age ones that had a centrally sworling ... thingamajingie in the middle... so that takes about three hours and two socks for a cycle...

E Maya · Post by **E Maya** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:42 pm

Mine is a 5kg top loader that has options for 30 min, 1.5h, 2.5h washes, and programmes for wool, and clothes that need to be hand washed. Temperature options are cold, 30C, 40C, 60C, and 90C. It costs around 300 E and is about the cheapest and most common kind available in Finland, the kind all my single friends have.

I don't have a dryer. The only things I would use one for, are bed linens and towels, in my experience abroad they shrink everything. I hang my clothes to dry inside my appartment, which is not nice either, with the space it takes, and also I heard somewhere that it's not so good for the air quality in your living space.

Dry cleaning is expensive, so before I buy any clothes I check if they can be washed or not. If I get anything that needs to be dry cleaned, it really has to be something extra special, because of the cost of getting it done. I have to be able to wash/clean my clothes whenever I feel like it, or I freak out big time.

My only experience of washing clothes outside Finland, is from the UK and the US, in the UK the washing machines were similar to what I've seen in Finland. In the US, on the other hand, the only programme they had was for 30min, a friend from Canada said that was what she was used to too. I have to admit I was a bit suspicious about loading them full, since I'm used to putting less clothes in for, what to me is, a shorter wash.

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