Do you prefer drop down or side open dryer door?

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fan-of-fans

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I can see benefits of both. The drop down seems to be the more deluxe option. The wider opening makes it easier to access the drum, and I guess the door can make a nice shelf for placing items. However the side opening seems it's a little easier to get in the drum instead of having to reach across the drop down door. But smaller opening and no folding area in front.
 
 

 

Why settle for one or the other, why not have both??? 
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I’ve owned both, neither was particularly more convenient for me than the other. I do remember my mom’s Kenmore being a drop down style door and that it was broken by one of my siblings sitting on it, so if you have rambunctious young children around that might sit, stand, or climb on the door, a side opening one might last longer. I haven’t personally had that problem with my own children, but I think they know what would happen if they broke something like that, and they all do laundry so maybe they have more of an understanding of how bad it would be if they broke the dryer.
 
Side opening.  I've had both.  First was the GE with the ultra large drum and ultra large door.  Then I got the 1986 LK dryer.  Numerous times  I nearly fell in trying to reach the back of the drum to retrieve a small item or two.  I might have considered a side swing WP or KM dryer in December 1994 when I had to replace the dryer (motor froze up), but WP didn't have high-end features on side swing equipped dryers then.  Now that's no longer the case what with front load matching and high-efficiency top load matching dryers now offering high-end TOL features with side-swing doors.  
 
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Although I suppose both have advantages. I miss the door on my old KitchenAid/Whirlpool. When you pulled big stuff out small things didn't fall out onto the floor. The service department guys (from my teen days) often called them a "hamper door". </span>
 
That avocado Whirlpool is awesome! Never saw one like that. It even has wood paneling on the front! Does the fluorescent light have a switch separate from the timer?
 
I guess there is advantages and disadvantages to dryer doors the open straight down, but the door on WP 29” dryers is good since stuff doesn’t fall onto the floor when you open it. The WP 29” dryers with the door that opens all the way with the larger opening is good for large items, but things can fall out as soon as you open the door. Not many complaints about the WP 29” dryers with the porthole opening, but it might be kind of challenging loading larger items into the dryer, but things won’t fall out when you open the dryer door.
 
Grew up with a drop-down 1960 Kenmore Model 80, but now that space is tight in from of my machines, I'm glad the SQ has a side-opening door for the reasons everyone stated above.

The Whirlpool shown above with the option to open the door either way is cool! Have never seen that before.
 
Hey Appnut

Do what I did, buy a children's plastic rake from Walmart. They are great for retrieving those small items That huddle in the back of the drum.
Hugs,
David
 
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I should have mentioned that my clothes go directly from the dryer to being folded or placed on hangers. I use the top of both laundry appliances since I don't have the luxury of a dedicated folding area. I don't own a laundry basket. It works out well for me. It's the socks that fall out on the floor that bugs me. But front, side top or bottom, I hate folding.</span>

[this post was last edited: 6/9/2019-15:47]
 
Drop Down PREFFERED.....

and not so much for unloading, but for LOADING!....

drop clothing on shelf/door, and slide the clothes in, nothing dropped on the floor, or trying to toss items in, and missing the opening...

I think it was the Norge that had the Hamper Door, that stayed at a 45 degree angle position, so clothing just slid in...

any dryer placed on a pedestal is a breeze to load or unload....I had mine on a platform long before riser/drawers were ever invented...
 
'60 Norge

At about age six I was leaning on the halfway down door our new,not even hooked up yet 1960 Norge dryer,peering intently into its newness. Matching new washer by its side.

Under my 'leaning on' weight,the door suddenly folded to its full down position that I did not know it had. My chin hit the door opening and that's where MY chin scar came from.

I don't like how clothes fly out of our SQ if the side opening door is opened too quickly while drying. But it's easier to access laundry and works better with the 'w' doors it sits behind.
 
To me, it's fairly incidental that I should get this make of dryer and the previous owner of our house may have bought it for its drop-down door...

I think I am partial (no pun intended) to it opening either way, but could you imagine how awkward the usually right-side dryer door opening would be?! You often cannot overcome this obstacle without compromising space, or your brand, unless you could reverse the door's opening...

My parents washer and dryer are kitty-corner from one another, but my mom had a Maytag, the one make offering a left-side door swing, (before the wider-use of reversible dryer doors, which her current Maytag employees allowing the opening to the left) but somehow wasn't much bothered by that large door intruding to the right from her Bradford...

I remember something opening downward in school, so in my amazement said "it opened like a Sears dryer, or a Whirlpol dryer, or a door for an oven"--and got the bullying tease of another kid imitating me to the laughing embarrassment of the rest of our fellow students... No future AW.oeg members or appliance fans any if them were!!!!

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Of course, I forgot to mention that some laundry rooms I have seen & been in accommodate the more commonly right-opening dryer door opening, placing the connections on the appliance appropriately on that right, while the washer, there, to, in most installations, has remained along with all its connections on the left...

The floor plan in my mom's laundry is the same in a few other houses, so I as in the case of machines next to each other, see both door configurations (again, a lot of whom favor W-P/K-M) in that diagonally design...

-- Dave
 

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