I Feel Like a Dum@ss!!

Don't confuse something as the "British way" with what your husband's family does. I had a dryer before DW came over (my mum had one for years) What I've had to explain to her though is to let it complete it's cycle, it is a condensor drying and the last 5 mins of the programme is a cooling cycle to cool down all the elements.....switch it off whilst it's still hot and it eventually breaks down as I discovered once and the engineer explained when he came to repair it!

Wow, I didn't know that about condenser dryers, that's what we have. Good to know. DSS, however, loves to switch it off and on, so who knows how many times it's been switched off while hot!

Isn't that the same with all driers though or anything with a thermostat?

I thought it was all driers and things like kettles which were supposed to be left to switch themselves off.

I could be WAY off the mark here, so please do say if I've got it wrong.

We don't have radiators as our house is brand new and has central heating with air vents (a good ol' slice of home for me...YAY!).  What am I gonna do?  ACK!!

We don't have radiators as our house is brand new and has central heating with air vents (a good ol' slice of home for me...YAY!).  What am I gonna do?  ACK!!

Get a drier. 

we worked out it costs near £.50/hour and it takes something like three hours to dry stuff! Not worth it at all!

50p/hour to have things dry right away sounds pretty reasonable to me. Considering the laundry room in college cost $1.50 for only 20 minutes!

Tim has a dryer...but it's broken.  And the repairman came to fix it and the darn thing broke again, so Tim's pretty sure we will need to buy a new one.  But i don't find line drying/rack drying to be a big deal since that's how I dry most of my clothes in the US.  Tim's house has a fireplace, so we just set the rack up in front of the grate and it drys pretty quickly.   I also discovered if I had the racks over the bathtub and then put the fan heater on top of the hamper and aimed it at the racks, it created a "heat tunnel" and things dried off faster.

The only thing I hate is how stiff my pants feel when they're dried inside.  If it's a nice day and they can go on the line, they get a little softer, but they always feel so stiff if they are dried inside!

Get an airer!

It is a regional thing, I call it "the board"!

This caused a lightbulb to go on in my head.  It now makes perfect sense to me, especially when noting that someone else calls it a "side."  Since at one point (and still in some older houses) it would have been a separate piece of furniture -- a sideboard aka buffet!  

 

As for the dryer, we never used the radiator airers -- just big regular, unsightly clothes drying racks, and if I needed something right away, I'd turn a gentle fan on it.  

Get a drier. 

I'm sold on it and hubby said it was ok but I feel kinda guilty...like I'm going against the British grain and just being the typical, wasteful, spoiled American.  I think I will literally be the only person in the entire village with a dryer...oh well...we'll have to sneak it in the back door late at night whilst everyone is sleeping....shhhh...

You rebel. You'll be encouraging trick or treaters next


50p an hour sounds a bit high:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Home-and-Garden/Question688105.html

It depends on the wattage of your drier, and how much you pay per unit, of course. I have a condenser drier and it dries most loads in less than 2 hours, not 3. The timer starts at 2hrs 10mins, but it senses when the clothes are dry and stops in well under the length of a film on Sky Movies

And I know loads of people with them. I'm pretty sure you're not breaking any rules having one

I'm sold on it and hubby said it was ok but I feel kinda guilty...like I'm going against the British grain and just being the typical, wasteful, spoiled American.  I think I will literally be the only person in the entire village with a dryer...oh well...we'll have to sneak it in the back door late at night whilst everyone is sleeping....shhhh...

LOL... it's ok. We can't change who we are completely! Besides, if having a dryer is purely an American convenience, then why would they even sell them here? I am sure plenty of English people have dryers, too! Anyway, I am sure if it will make you happy, then your hubs will be all for it, just like mine was. He clearly sees that having a dryer was a necessity after all! 

LOL... it's ok. We can't change who we are completely! Besides, if having a dryer is purely an American convenience, then why would they even sell them here? I am sure plenty of English people have dryers, too! Anyway, I am sure if it will make you happy, then your hubs will be all for it, just like mine was. He clearly sees that having a dryer was a necessity after all! 

Yeah I don't speak for all of England but it's pretty unheard of around here...and since 2/3 of the village is his family, I just don't want to get any flack...even though most of them are extremely excited to share in American culture I'm bringing with me...dryers anyone?

I have a condenser drier and it dries most loads in less than 2 hours, not 3. The timer starts at 2hrs 10mins, but it senses when the clothes are dry and stops in well under the length of a film on Sky Movies

And I know loads of people with them. I'm pretty sure you're not breaking any rules having one

Interesting!  I've only ever had vented dryers, it stands to reason a condenser would take longer but I didn't realise quite how much.  I have a fairly low end vented dryer and most loads take about 45-50 mins, sometimes I need an extra 20 mins if the drum is full or there's lots of jeans.

I think one thing that throws Americans is that even if you see your neighbours hanging clothes out it doesn't mean they don't have a dryer.  There's no stigma to clothes lines here and often times we just hang stuff out because we like to!

Yeah I don't speak for all of England but it's pretty unheard of around here...and since 2/3 of the village is his family, I just don't want to get any flack...even though most of them are extremely excited to share in American culture I'm bringing with me...dryers anyone?

Well, just explain to your family that you can't put in a clothesline outside and you have no radiators inside, and not enough room for airing cupboards and clothes hanging all over the house, and I am sure they will understand why you wanted a dryer. 

My in-laws have a drier, we have a garden (with just the clothesline, nothing else the landlord won't let us either) and the drying rack inside. 

In our old house we only had one gas fired panel downstairs and clothes brought upstairs would get damp in the bedroom.   I am so glad we moved and the old house was built in the 80s. 

We don't have radiators as our house is brand new and has central heating with air vents (a good ol' slice of home for me...YAY!).  What am I gonna do?  ACK!!

If the air vents are in the floor just get a couple of drying racks and place over the heating vents - I do this with DD's clothes and they are usually dry the next day.