I believe the"120V means an electric kettle is inconvenient so Americans don't use them" argument is falsified by Japan and Canada where electric kettles are everywhere
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 July 2017 11:12 (six years ago) link
Maybe Americans are more impatient
― Lee626, Monday, 24 July 2017 11:19 (six years ago) link
Anyway I think there's more to learn about the capabilities of modern appliances in different household wiring paradigms by looking on either side of the Korea Strait than by comparing the US and Europe
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 July 2017 11:19 (six years ago) link
Japanese and Canadians are renowned for their patience, also Japanese have those kettles that keep a vat of water a tea temperature all day long.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Monday, 24 July 2017 11:19 (six years ago) link
Is it true americans dont at all use outdoor clotheslines?
True. Trying to think of circumstances where you'd see it... some rural homes maybe? Maybe the occasional suburban home. And in poor parts of a city, I guess. When I was 22, I lived in a pretty poor apartment complex that had clotheslines, which seemed very noteworthy.
― Je55e, Monday, 24 July 2017 11:37 (six years ago) link
But even at that apartment, no one actually used the clothes lines. Except maybe to hang a rug.
― Je55e, Monday, 24 July 2017 11:44 (six years ago) link
This is a fascinating discussion. BTW I have been seeing tankless shower water heaters cropping up in USian ads, so I was curious as to whether it would be a greener option than the big dinosaur in the basement, but it's apparent that they're still very wimpy:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/IHeat-2-5-kW-1-5-GPM-Electric-Shower-Head-Tankless-Water-Heater-AHSH2500/205602695?&cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|B|0|B-BASE-D26P+Water+Heaters|&mid=mEw9n1C2|dc_mtid_8903vry57826_pcrid_73529852738612_pkw__pmt__
And yeah we used line-drying some in my childhood, but usually only for towels/bedding. I love outdoor line-drying for its simplicity (air plus time) and the smell. There are so many situations when it's NOT adequate. It's raining, it's too humid, it's freezing, you don't have a lot of clothes, you need a particular item NOW (like a school uniform or church clothes).
Indoor line-drying is impractical in a small house that is full of rambunctious people. So you need another option, whether it's a laundromat trip or a dryer in your house. And once you have that, you tend to gradually switch over to using it all the time. Because why bother, except in those perfect situations where you have like seven damp beach towels and it's a warm, breezy day.
― leave your emu at the door (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 24 July 2017 11:51 (six years ago) link
Instantaneous electric water heaters are the absolute worst. Even the UK ones at 4kW only produce a dribble I can't imagine how poor a 2.5kW one is.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Monday, 24 July 2017 12:02 (six years ago) link
We line dry as long as weather permits (Minnesota), but then we do live in a low-rent neighborhood.
― by the light of the burning Citroën, Monday, 24 July 2017 13:43 (six years ago) link
Right, it's great when circumstances allow for it, but most people can't rely on it exclusively.
So you either have a dryer (of whatever quality) or you end up lugging trash bags of clothes to and from a laundromat, scrounging for change in the couch cushions, etpetercetera.
― leave your emu at the door (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 24 July 2017 13:50 (six years ago) link
"American dishwashers, toasters, and clothes washers take considerably longer than the rest of the world's."
in my experience with dishwashers and clothes washers, US vs UK, this is completely untrue.
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 15:08 (six years ago) link
instant water heaters: I lived in a house with one for a year and it was fine. but it does waste more water I think, because it still takes a few minutes to kick in.
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 15:09 (six years ago) link
Is it true americans dont at all use outdoor clotheslines
lol maybe during the GREAT DEPRESSION
― j., Monday, 24 July 2017 16:59 (six years ago) link
My dad, an infamous cheapskate, insisted my mom line-dry laundry all year round.... including in Montana and northern Minnesota. Things dry eventually, however cold it is, but it was pretty damn dumb.
― Je55e, Monday, 24 July 2017 17:23 (six years ago) link
shit dried on a line comes out stiff as a rock. this is fine for jeans and I dry all mine that way, but unacceptable for a towel
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 17:31 (six years ago) link
Love drying my laundry on the line outside. Yes, sometimes it will rain when you're out or at work but that's all in the game. The smell is great, and also I prefer the 'texture' of say a towel dried outside versus from a dryer.
I do have a washer with a 'dryer'. It centrifuges a bit making the wash not dripping wet, but it's pretty much useless.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:22 (six years ago) link
xp lol that's what I love about drying towels outside
Youse all don't have drying racks/clothes horses for inside?
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Monday, 24 July 2017 18:25 (six years ago) link
Present here in abundance, sir.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:29 (six years ago) link
Love drying my laundry on the line outside. Yes, sometimes it will rain when you're out or at work but that's all in the game. The smell is great, and also I prefer the 'texture'.
our neighbor seems to have a daily fire in his yard, year-round, so we get a nice wood smoke scent on everything. bonus. (he just persuaded another neighbor to cut down a tree in her yard and now has a great pyre of split wood ~12 foot high)(need to move)
― by the light of the burning Citroën, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:33 (six years ago) link
Yeah you can def do without that. And it's not as easy when you're in an apartment downtown somewhere I reckon.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:36 (six years ago) link
Personally I am looking at the ~ 1,000 square feet I share with six other mammals, and I am not seeing where I would put a drying rack/clothes horse that wouldn't either be intensely inconvenient, or trampled in minutes.
― leave your emu at the door (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:12 (six years ago) link
Yes I know they fold WHEN NOT BEING USED; the question is if I am drying four person's worth of laundry, when is a drying rack/clothes horse NOT being used?
― leave your emu at the door (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:14 (six years ago) link
In Europe everyone relies on it exclusively, jsl
Even in London where 1) it rains every goddamned day 2) flats are v small
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:35 (six years ago) link
I feel not enough has been said about Lee's magisterial post about dryers.
Also, getting back to the original article.. I have lived in London for about 10 years and have literally never seen a combo washer dryer. Is it possible the author is confusing the spin cycle for a dryer function? Its purpose IS drying... but only to the extent that you can hang your clothes up without them dripping all over the floor.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:37 (six years ago) link
"I prefer the 'texture' of say a towel dried outside versus from a dryer."
do you also wipe your ass with sandpaper?
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 19:37 (six years ago) link
since hot water cleans better
― Lee626, Monday, 24 July 2017 11:45 Bookmark
no
― r|t|c, Monday, 24 July 2017 19:42 (six years ago) link
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 19:37 (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
John Wayne toiletpaper
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:56 (six years ago) link
Would wipe
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 24 July 2017 20:06 (six years ago) link
I own one other person and we have quite a small apartment and it's a combo of dryer (proper dryer not a washing machine with a "would you like your clothes superheated, creased and smelling of rubbershit?” option) and clothes horse and must admit the latter is tbf pretty much a constant fixture
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Monday, 24 July 2017 20:08 (six years ago) link
"I own one other person"
I'm glad you let your slave wear clean clothes.
― akm, Monday, 24 July 2017 20:50 (six years ago) link
Rumbled
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Monday, 24 July 2017 21:10 (six years ago) link
Is it possible the author is confusing the spin cycle for a dryer function?
Nah, those new combo dealies are apparently dreadful at properly drying (and washing, I hear) yr shit.
As to our machines being smaller - i'd never wash a blanket at home anyway, that sort of thing's for the drycleaners surely?
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 03:26 (six years ago) link
Not in my land.
Also, Trayce? Some of us machine wash our pillows.
― Je55e, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 03:27 (six years ago) link
Oh god, I had forgot all about that horror ... I posted on facebook or something right?
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 03:29 (six years ago) link
Yeh I remember seeing that and chuckling.
(But I do do it)
― Je55e, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 03:35 (six years ago) link
Y'alls water and power bills must be massive.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 04:19 (six years ago) link
Recently moved into a new apartment and was really excited about having laundry on premises for the first time in many years. My mood was deflated when I realized the machines are small, the washer loads from the top, and with the dryer you can't independently set heat level and drying time (like if you want medium heat you have to have a 40 minute cycle). Now I miss my old laundromat with its spacious machines, front-loading washers etc. where I could do more than one load at a time.
Fwiw I grew up in a pretty nice American neighborhood and still line-dried all my clothes until about 1980. So did the next-door neighbors.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 05:22 (six years ago) link
If I line-dried where I live right now everything'd end up covered in bird shit, so.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 05:45 (six years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CISs0xtWoAAWFpv.jpg:large
tumble dryers are pure decadence, first thing to get banned in the new world order
― ogmor, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 08:21 (six years ago) link
respect Lee626, truth bombs
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 09:06 (six years ago) link
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, July 24, 2017 8:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I had one in Ireland until the last one broke and i had it replaced with a straight washing machine. I think we're in the same market at least at the moment as the U.K. I think I saw them over there too.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 09:12 (six years ago) link
Also, getting back to the original article.. I have lived in London for about 10 years and have literally never seen a combo washer dryer. Is it possible the author is confusing the spin cycle for a dryer function? Its purpose IS drying... but only to the extent that you can hang your clothes up without them dripping all over the floor.― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, July 24, 2017 8:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
We had one at our when you stayed and it was shit, I think we used the dryer function precisely once.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 12:49 (six years ago) link
haha i guess that's why i never noticed!!
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:24 (six years ago) link