So, here’s the deal. I just bought a used dryer off of someone. I thought that lady luck was on my side. It came just when the first cold spell comes. YEA!!!
But not so fast. I take the dryer home and immediately put it to use. It’s USELESS!!! It makes the clothes hot but they still feel damp. I’ve tried doing one piece at a time (60mins) and that still doesn’t do the trick. Soooo, I’m thinking that I should just do it the right way, get a brand spanking one.
Here’s the question- If I can save this thing, would one solution be to replace the motor? I’ve looked inside and there seems to be nothing that would block it from operating right. It is old, maybe 5 or so years.
I’ve told this story before about my wife buying a crappy plastic dryer here instead of a good steel American dryer… after having the thing installed and using it for a week, she became concerned that the clothes were not being dried. She called the service guy to look at the thing, thinking there might be something wrong with the connection…
Nope, the service guy explained… “you gotta hang the clothes up until they’re 80% dry, and then put 'em in the dryer”… I was dumbstruck at this suggestion, but, it made perfect sense to my wife and her sister.
[quote=“Tigerman”]I’ve told this story before about my wife buying a crappy plastic dryer here instead of a good steel American dryer… after having the thing installed and using it for a week, she became concerned that the clothes were not being dried. She called the service guy to look at the thing, thinking there might be something wrong with the connection…
Nope, the service guy explained… “you gotta hang the clothes up until they’re 80% dry, and then put 'em in the dryer”… I was dumbstruck at this suggestion, but, it made perfect sense to my wife and her sister.[/quote]
I’ve used Taiwanese dryers before and they’ve worked,takes longer but they do the job. BUt this dryer went all night and all day(today) and things still weren’t dry. I don’t have the space or money (now) for an American dryer, believe you me, I would have one. But anyone who could suggest a good taiwanese dryer brand here I would appreciate it a LOT!!!
What does make sense is that you have to spin-dry the clothes before putting them in the dryer. I trust you do that, Nama & Tiger?
I still think there might be some problem with the airflow - either inside the drier or to do with where the machine is positioned. Could the air inflow or outflow be up against something that is blocking the free flow and dispersal of the air?
[quote=“Juba”]What does make sense is that you have to spin-dry the clothes before putting them in the dryer. I trust you do that, Nama & Tiger?
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My dryer of 5 years just died. I had another dryer before that and it lasted about 3 years. That seems to be the norm for a Taiwanese dryer in my experience. So, this last Sunday I got my third little dryer.
You can’t just throw your whole load in the dryer and expect them to dry like you can with a big US dryer. I usually put about half of my load in the dryer (the half I don’t mind shrinking) and hang up the rest. Do not overstuff these little dryers and ALWAYS clean the lint filters. Mine has two–lint and an airtake filter in the front that also needs to be checked and cleaned. Forget about using dryer sheets with these things, unless you want to smell like a walking, talking Downy baby all day.
It also helps to unravel the clothes after they come out of the washer rather than just throwing them. Blankets need to be babysat–unraveled and put back in every so often, or they won’t dry.
Both my dryers were Sanyos–these are a little thinner and taller, better if you have a small balcony. I really hope you are using your dryer out on the balcony–I would not put a major used appliance inside. I always think of my friend who bought a huge used dehumidifier, left it on one day, and came home to find a melted, burning mess of plastic on the floor. Hope this helps.
I spin dry from the washer. As for the load, I’ve only been puting in little hand towels and undies and socks. The dryer is on my out side balcony so it has room to breath.
Any price for american dryers, and can I find them in a small size?
Sanyo I assume I can find at carrefore, right?
I’ve heard that it takes 4 times longer to dry clothes in a dryer here in Taiwan because dryers here run on 110 volts, whereas in the US dryers are plugged into 220 volt power supplies.
Nama, did you buy that NT600 dryer that was advertised this week? If so, thank you for saving me NT600.
As for dryers, I am lucky that a self-serve laundry mat just opened near my house (150 yards away) with big powerful dryers. Clothes bone dry in 20 minutes.
This is seriously a case of not understandig drier culture.
I have had American and European friends, a Taiwanese wife and a Dutch defactoe . . housemates, neighbours, you name it. Tigerman is on the money.
What North Americans and some Europeans expect is sometthing that dries from straight outta the spin cycle. Elswhere in the world, that has been a very pure energy luxury, and in any case, if you are living somewhere hot, prefferrably dry, you hang 'em snd they dry. The aforementioned laundry accomplices all lived, as i did, in very arid climates, Perth in Wstern Australia, Canberra in summer as the extremes, and it was a joke how they used the driers.
Places like Canberra and Perth you hang your clothes for an hour in the meaner days and they are dry as a bone. But still these people switched on the drier. It was part of their wash cycle, simple as that. They came from cold wet places, places with little dry direct sunshine.
Driers in Taiwan are for those wet weeks when the shit on your balcony won’t quite dry.
I’ve been pretty happy with the Whirlpool I picked up at Costco. Takes a good two- two and a half hours to dry a load, but hey, it does the job. It’s not full size by american standards, quite compact, cost around $5k and has been going strong for four years. And the best part about it is the clothes come out soft, not rock hard like what you get when you air dry them.
What an interesting thread. I didn’t realize everyone else had the same experience as us. Dryers just don’t work well in Taiwan. I agree with all of the above comments about making sure to spin as much water out of hte clothes first, untangling the clothes, not drying too much at once, and making sure again that all lint traps are clean and air is flowing through as it’s supposed to (is there a broken fan?). But even then, maybe it’s just so wet here and the dryers are so weak that one can only dry clothes 80% and then needs to hang them up. Just one of those things about Taiwan. But don’t worry, the warm season is just 4 or 5 months away.
When one discovers a problem rather than trying to fix it, just spend 20 years justifyin why it sucks, or say something profound like “you just don’t understand taiwanese culture.”
Right now I am really enjoying listening to people expalin why taiwanese people don’t need heat as they desperately buy up every space heater in sight!
Oh yes, I know those dryers. When we moved in, our landlord bought us a brand new dryer - I don’t know where it was from but it didn’t work anything like I was used to. Anyway, we had the same problem with things not drying until we took out the black circular lint pad at the back, which I think you are expressly told not to do in the instruction booklet (you’re just meant to clean it). There was another lint pad at the front, which we kept. Anyway, the clothes dried fine from then on, but because the rear lint pad wasn’t in place, we had to scrape the wall behind the dryer down regularly. I’m not sure it was a great solution, but at least we got dry clothes out of it in reasonable times.
Ther problem essentially in a nutshell is that Taiwanese tumble driers are what we in the electrician’s trade call, U/S, which means “Utter And Complete Crap” and no amount of arsing about with fans motors or filter can make them un-crap.
Just as people are now paying five times what Europeans pay for front loading washing machines, so Taiwanese people back in the “what-is-this-Thing-you-call-‘Microwave’? I must-have-one-to-go-with-my-electrically-adjustable-chair” days were shelling out big bucks for quite good tumble driers which worked. I had a full size Made in America one in my rat-infested dungeon in 1992 and it was fantastic. All the lights along Roosevelt Road dimmed for a second when I turned it on and everyone knew “That Bloody Foreigner who eats smelly cheese and listens to Metallica is doing his washing again.”
Then of course the copy-catters stepped in and started making “tumble driers” that used 110 volts (maximum possible power therefore being 2200 Watts, about the same as a child’s hairdryer in the UK) and they were obviously not as good as the big GE ones from the States which ran on 220 volts and took as much electricity as they bloody well pleased thank you very much. They would have their own fuse at the board so you could give them 20 or 30 amps if they wanted. I think mine drew about 6000W?
Anyway, you drier is probably not broken. It’s just crap. See the way the dial goes up to 120 minutes? Would that ever happen at home? No of course not, but it shows you that it is common here for clothes to take 2 hours to tumble dry. I would just do very small loads. Overnight. Or do what I do. Stay drunk all winter, then you don’t notice the smell as much.
Sorry, as I now do here in the semi-arid climate of HK I forgot the constant months of wet foot scoot commuting . . really, hasn’t rained much in eons.
Can I bore you with what a perfect sunny day it is here in HK today? Warm in the sun. . . pity I’m in a cubicle prison with the freaking aircon set at mid-summer levels . . . a particular HK gripe. :fume:
It seems to be a lesson I am having to learn here in Taiwan… 
Yes, I do.
and socks. The dryer is on my out side balcony so it has room to breath.
