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Old formulas were pretty simple, and just dry chemicals. It’s possible some of it may have degraded but it will likely still work. If it’s clumpy, sticky or discoloured, it’s probably reacted with itself and the air and may not work well. Some of the compounds may just disintegrate over time...

Ariel in the UK originally launched as a high suds, enzyme formula aimed at top load machines (mostly non automatic), which were still dominant in 1969 when it launched. Bold was marketed towards automatics. Ariel launched two years earlier on the continent and may have been an automatic (low...

Miele seems to automatically run a prewash on the W1 machines if you select heavy option on the soil level query for the auto dispenser. The only time I could see it as being useful is if the clothes are actually soaked in something that's going to wash back into the water, like maybe something...

I remember we'd a microwave from the 1980s, bought in Ireland and was branded Electrolux, but it was definitely made by Tappan and looked very similar to some of the US models of that era, although obviously it was designed for 230V 50Hz power. It was a pretty large, flat bed machine with a...

@Turbomatic: Induction technology was possible in the 1970s / 80s and companies like De Dietrich sold induction appliances, but they were E X P E N S I V E and very niche because the technology required to make fast oscillating currents was complex and very pricy. The same kind of chip-based...

Once you go induction, you’ll never go back!

There's no requirement for sockets here in Ireland to have switches. They're just an optional extra. They're commonly installed, but they're absolutely not required. Appliances sold here would be more or less identical to those sold elsewhere in the EU, other than the fitted plug being...

Mine seems to hover around 225V - 232V, although the original spec here in Ireland was always 220V What I heard was the firmly stated opinion that it’s just a bureaucratic fudge to harmonise isn’t actually quite true. As transformers are replaced, the target voltage is 230V, so eventually...

There wasn’t really a decision to move Europe to 220-230V after WWII, rather that was already the most dominant standard in Europe before WWII. Some countries, very notably France, used 127V, 3 wire systems. Other countries, like Italy, had 127V for lighting and 220V for power, charged on two...

To be quite honest, Edison was the salesman of his day. He was clever, but he was very good at packaging and marketing. In modern times, someone like Musk for example, has a lot of echos of Edison's showmanship.   DC was extremely impractical for distribution. You could not transform the...

A slightly unusual public arts project using the telephone as a medium. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/dial-a-seancha%C3%AD-irish-folklore-on-your-phone-1.4673952 If anyone would like to listen to a very retro art project, replicating one done in 1988 by the County Clare Arts Office, you...

Diazed was a very solid system and was used here well into the 1980s. Some electricians were quite slow to move over to MCBs, so you'd have still found plenty of 1980s boards with rows of Diazed fuses and an RCD.   We still continue to use a single Minized switch-fuse isolator as the main...

Old Irish Installation This was probably the absolute smallest, cheapest, and most basic 1940s/50s setup here and was often found in houses that took the most basic package on the Rural Electrification Scheme after WWII.   ESB (power company) provided a very simple combined meter and fuse...

Well, yeah. Although the majority of Europe uses the same plugs.   CEE 7/7 plugs are used in all areas of Europe except:   1. UK, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta (BS1363) 2. Switzerland (national standard, unique to Switzerland). 3. Denmark (national standard, unique to Denmark, used along side...

Some American dryers use 240V for the elements and 120V for the motor and controls. They won’t necessarily run on a U.K. 230V connection which is 230V Hot to 0V neutral. There is no source of 120V. Also they’re uneconomic to run at U.K. energy costs. They draw up to 5.6kW vs a European heat...

I don’t know about the U.K., but you can buy Speed Queen gas dryers here in Ireland in both LPG and natural gas varieties. They’ve been around for years and are very popular in some more rural areas where bulk LPG is common and houses are pretty spacious. They’re the 230V model to EU...

Under older British wiring regs, and it is going back quite a long way, they didn’t accept that you could safely plug a small appliance into a 15 amp circuit. So you had different sized plugs that got progressively bigger as the rating went up. There was also a system of 2 pin, non-grounded...

Yeah, I would imagine work-from-home had a huge impact but I think it’s been a slow drift too. I’ve never worked in an environment where I had to be “suited and booted” - in fact, one of the fears is wearing a suit might make you look like a bank manager lol I think there’s definitely been a big...

Other than the self service machines you find on some garage (gas station) forecourts and carparks, they're as rare as hens teeth here these days. There are a few places that take in "service washes" but they often take several days to come back again. Mostly it's aimed at bulky bed linen etc...

Haven’t really found a Miele heat pump particularly slow tbh and is is genuinely extremely gentle compared to other techniques as the clothes aren’t exposed to high temperatures. You can get Speed queen gas dryers here though if you’re particularly inclined, but I think they may be LPG only...