How Do You Solve A Problem Like Bed Sheets?

[foraloysius]

I have California King Size duvet covers and fitted sheets. Washing is not much of a problem although sometimes a pillow case ends up in the duvet cover.

Drying however is more of a hassle. The duvet cover wrinkles terribly when dried in the Miele condensor dryer. So I just put it in there for 20 minutes together with the matched pillow cases. Then I hang those items up to air dry further. The fitted sheet and the other pillow cases are dried in the dryer without a problem.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I have seen pictures of huge pocket washers that are used in hotels, ships and the like. The tub was divided into three sections, each of which was loaded and unloaded separately. The reason for the pockets was that they prevented sheets from balling up as they would if they had the whole 360 degrees of the drum in which to tumble.

 

[lordkenmore]

I haven't kept exact records, but I honestly recall very little trouble with sheets, regardless of size, or material. (I've had everything from "normal" sheets to thick flannel sheets, and sizes I've washed have varied from Twin to Queen, with a couple of single King type sheets.)

The only time I had trouble was with a WCI Frigidaire. Not that a WCI Frigidaire would cause trouble. Oh, no, of course not. But there would be air bubbles, and it was hard to get the sheet to go fully under. I'd often have to pause the machine, and fiddle with the sheets to get them to go under.

Sheet: "But I don't want to go under! I'm scared of deep water!"
Me: "Tough luck, sheet. You're going deep washer tub diving today!"

Current Whirlpool DD appears to have zero trouble, although I do wonder how much faster my sheets are wearing when washed in the Shredmore.

 

[tomturbomatic]

More on drying sheets

In 1962, my parents finished off a studio in our basement for my brother and me so that our baby sister could have our bedroom. Some adjustments had to be made to the ceiling of the staircase to the basement so that involved some work to deep shelves in our den closet, an area that I had not known existed. When stuff was pulled out of these deep shelves, there were a couple of OLD Better Homes and Gardens, both December issues, one from 1947 and one from 1951. On page 173 of the 1951 issue there was an ad for a General Electric Laundry with the washer that John had and traded to Robert and a beautiful dryer with a square glass window with dramatic horizontal ribs molded into the glass. When the dryer is operating there is a light bulb and germicidal bulb under the perforated drum and the ribs in the glass catch that light and the orange glow of the heating element in the upper left quadrant of the cabinet. I know this because back in 1962, I looked at that dryer and really wanted it and several years ago one in like new condition came to me. It is indeed a 1952 model.

This afternoon, I used the 1952 to dry the top sheet while the bottom sheet and pillow cases dried in the 1968 GE electronic control dryer with the 7 chrome buttons in a horizontal row. The big king top sheet dried in 20 minutes without balling up which surprised me because the dryer has a slow tumble speed. While there is the heater in the upper left quadrant, this dryer seeks to keep the items tumbling in the middle of the drum where a strong air stream blows upward through the tumbling load. The heater does provide strong radiant heat, but the air flow in the dryer causes the air to flow over the heater where it is warmed before being blown into the tumbling load. I started it with the heat on HI and after the heat cycled the first time at 10 minutes, I checked the sheet and it was almost dry so I turned the heat down to LO. When the dryer shut off, the sheet was a comfortable temperature to hold. The reason I turned the heat down is that this dryer does not have any cooldown period at the end of the cycle. Like old Hamiltons of the period, it has the air discharge at the bottom right of the dryer. Next week, I will see how it dries the two sheets together.

The bottom sheet and pillow cases dried in 15 minutes in the 16 year younger GE without balling or rolling up.

The 1947 BH&G had a fabulous article about pressure cookers and was the first time I saw the Revere Pressure Cooker which I have in the collection now.

 

[washerlover]

Dustin92, I had the exact same thing happen to me in an 80s GE dryer -- melted the mattress cover! That dryer was waaay too hot, it had to go...it's probably a Toyota by now.

Not being a fan of frontloaders, I can't comment on bed linen wash day, but my Norge/Wards machines always managed to deal with the billowing bubble effect and pulled those sheets right under!

 

[jetcone]

The Neptune was never a problem

with sheets, and the new Speed Queen is super with them. Its the dryer where I get massive black hole balling. Once I lost a pair of socks for two weeks, until the sheets came off the bed to wash and lo and behold in the pockets were my socks for two weeks. Somehow the SQ tucks thing away in there. 
But I'm gonna try that balling technique of loading thats interesting.

Oh and the Easy top loader look out sheets you don't have a chance with that Spiralator !

 

What gets my goat is when I go to friends and stay over and they open the linen closet to reveal PERFECTLY SQUARE FOLDED FITTED SHEETS ! HOW THE HELL DO THEY DO THAT!

I have been shown the" fold into pocket" method and still end up with a giant wad !!

 

 

 

[tolivac]

Don't have a problem with sheets--to keep bedclothes cleaner---TAKE A BATH OR SHOWER BEFORE GOING TO BED!!!!!!!I HATE going to bed dirty!!!Not only bedclothes-your matteress will benefit too!!!And when the sheets are off the matteress for washing--I go over the matteress with my Kirby.

 

[brib68]

King and queen sheets do just fine in my LG front loader. I don't think I've ever had sheets ball up in the washer. Once in a while pillow cases will get rolled up in the fitted sheet in the dryer. I think the flat sheet got balled up maybe once in the dryer. Certain sheets seem more prone to it than others.

 

[ronhic]

Beko/Blomberg

The good old Zanussi Westinghouse we had never failed to spin at whatever speed you asked it to....and never gave rope issues.

 

The Beko/Blomberg is a different beast with spinning though.

 

With sheets, if you wash two Queen sheets and a couple of pillow slips, then about 20% of the time they spin at 600rpm. About 40% at around 1000rpm (which I can live with) and the rest at 1200/1400rpm. So one in five loads of sheets gets respun....though this is improving now that I have readjusted the feet.

 

This machine does prefer to have at least 2/3 of its capacity used rather than smaller loads.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Drying report on 1952 GE dryer

This afternoon, I put both of the king sheets and the pillowcases in the GE. In 25 minutes, they were dry and not balled up. YAY GE!

 

[tomturbomatic]

After three weeks of testing each Sunday, I can report that the 1951 Hamilton 975 E electric dryer successfully dries a set of king sheets and pillowcases in 25 minutes without any tangling or balling up. I set the heat control between Medium and High and with the 3 minute cooldown at the end, the items are pleasantly warm when the dryer stops. I load one sheet toward the rear of the cylinder and one to the front.

 

[johnrk]

Affinity & SQ

I just got rid of an Affinity FL and it did all sheets and towels beautifully. However, it did get anal at times about balance. I don't like sleeping under sheets or blankets or anything unless it's really cold, so for most of the year I only have a fitted sheet and a bunch of pillowcases. It never balled anything up.

With this new SQ 432, I haven't seen any tendency to ball up things either, including my big pet blankets. I also haven't seen any tendency to overly twist things as I've seen with some other TL washers.

My dryer was an early 2000's Kenmore/GE until a few weeks ago and I loved it. Had a stainless steel tub that never caught anything on it. Other than seriously overheating on 'regular' setting, this new SQ dryer doesn't tend to ball up things, and in fact, is probably a little better than my former dryer with that. I had to laugh, reading a former posting, about someone's socks disappearing for a couple of weeks in the pockets of their fitted sheet! With me, it tends to be those little dryer sheets that'll show up down a pants leg or in a sleeve.

 

[yogitunes]

the Maytag Neptune.....claim to fame of being able to wash 10 King Size sheets in a single load....

 

[wayupnorth]

Since its just me, my sheets and towels go in one full load but I tend to find a washcloth in the end of a fitted sheet in the dryer every so often. So what, I have had these Maytags 35 years now and am used to checking corners from the dryer. My Auto Dry takes about 40 minutes for a full load of towels and sheets, while the same setting takes 20 minutes for shirts and pants.

 

[johnrk]

wayupnorth

A dear friend and old colleague of mine in KS bought a new Maytag washer in 1985 for her graduation present from college.

She still has that machine, with a marriage and a grown child's worth of wash and farm-dirty laundry as a constant. All she's had done is a few repairs over the years to the timer.

She's been through three or four dryers, but that Maytag just continues to run and run. Over the twenty years or so that we've been friends, it's become a joke for me to ask about that machine.

Those Maytags were worth every penny of their extra cost.

 

[wayupnorth]

Yes, John, those Maytags were definitely worth the cost. One repair to the 511 washer and zero to the 410 dryer. Back 35 years ago I paid over $1000 for a mid line pair but never regretted it. If it was still now the "Old" Maytags, I should be in their ads instead of the family with a dozen kids. Now, I'd give them 2 years and their new Maytag goes to the scrap heap.

 

[johnrk]

wayupnorth

There are people, possibly you also, who could state with knowledge what the weak points are on the GE Filter-Flo machines. I've heard that the transmission could be a problem, etc.

However, the only thing I ever had trouble with was the timer on one of them. The other two never gave a bit of trouble. My mother bought a Filter-Flo for her home in the 80's. She had a huge woman who was half gorilla (she actually managed to tear the chain out of one of the ceiling fans by accident!) who managed to break mama's timer on hers twice in a year. My mother forbade her to do anything but load and unload it; she'd have to get mama to set the dial and start it. Never broke again after that.

Do you agree that the fewer people who operate an appliance like your washer, that they give less trouble? My sister, a tiny little 5' female, just manages to be hard on her washers and other appliances, though she's not 'rough' on them as far as I can see when I visit.

How I wish I'd saved either of my last two Filter-Flo machines and dryers! I left them in homes I sold, never thought it'd get to today's sad situation.

 

[mrsalvo]

Laundress, how nice to see your thread. Can't imagine washing sheets in a Twin Tub, what work!!!

I'm Joan Crawford OCD when it comes to my linens, even when I was working 45-50 hours a week I took the time. My mother wouldn't have it any other way, rest her soul.

In our house we have 1 queen size, and 2 full size beds, one of those is a guest bed that never really gets used, 3 pillows on each bed. Linens are changed once a week but laundered only twice a month to save on utilities. Wash day is 8 sheets, 12 pillow case covers, 12 pillow case liners. SQ T/L 432SP. Hot water wash, set to normal or less with 15 minute soak, 1 cold rinse with extra water added. In the summer I'll add Clorox 2 with the detergent. Every once in a blue moon I'll add some fabric softener, but not usually. A load is usually 3 sheets, unless it's high thread count then 2, plus some pillow cases. Have found I can wash more that way and not overload the machine, at least not too bad. Had a couple of instances of billowing and roping so I started loading the tub in 4 quarter sections, grabbing the sheets in the middle, and haven't had any problems since.

ALL LINENS ARE LINED DRIED ON A CLOTHESLINE, as with most everything else. (Found that a dryer can shrink my clothes, not good for a middle aged male!! LOL.) Linens are carefully, and correctly, folded and placed in the linen closet for rotation.
Linens are folded so that fitted sheets, pillow case covers, and top sheets are together and not separated. See picture below. This saves A TON of space in the linen closet for other items and everything looks so neat and clean.

"What gets my goat is when I go to friends and stay over and they open the linen closet to reveal PERFECTLY SQUARE FOLDED FITTED SHEETS ! HOW THE HELL DO THEY DO THAT!
I have been shown the" fold into pocket" method and still end up with a giant wad !!" LOL. LOL.
Jon, I think there is a Martha Stewart video on YouTube that demonstrates folding fitted sheets, somewhat anyway. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. My 86 year old Dad does a good job of folding them, but had to teach him. You can do it!!!

Barry

 

[johnrk]

mrsalvo

If you line dry, do you have to deal with humidity that much? Down here, 20 miles from the Gulf, it stays so humid that line drying can take a really long time, particularly if the sun isn't shining and it's not so hot. When my last dryer died a several weeks ago, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a clothesline and pins for my back yard. I thought stuff was never going to get dry! One time fooling with that, and I bought that SQ pair. I know we get more rain than you do up there in Oktoberfest country, but I don't remember from the time I was at UT in Austin, whether it was unusually humid or not. Plus, I was a teenager in college and didn't mind the lack of a/c like I do now in middle age!

I admire your obsession with your bed linens. I have queen sized beds in three of the four bedrooms here, and a single hospital bed in the fourth for when I need it. I don't have overnight guests that often, so it's usually about once every couple of months that I'll strip and wash the guest room linens. For the adjustable hospital bed, I just pull that single off and wash/dry it and back on the bed.

I love lots of pillows, though, and I wash all the pillowcases and protectors weekly with the hospital sheeting. I sleep many nights, because of the ruined spine, sitting in a wheelchair so the bed doesn't always claim me. And I wash the linens covering the wheelchair at least weekly, and often more depending on the amount of time I spend in it.

I was washing a load about an hour ago down here when I'd just put the clothes in the dryer, went to use the half-bath in the utility room, and the commode didn't re-fill after p*ssing. Called the police and it turns out they had to cut off the water locally because some damn drunk hit a fire plug. I got my 432 done just in time!

And yes, we just had a 'cold' front come through here Saturday night just south of Houston, people all bundled up because it's around 60F outside. Just amazing...

 

[washdaddy]

the apartment I live in supplies each tenant with a Frigidaire stack unit in each apartment. For as long as I have lived here no matter how I load the washer, it will tangle up the sheets into a long tangled mess if the fitted sheet is in the load.
For the most part, I come to live with the aggravation. Other times I will wash the fitted sheet by itself. The dryer will also ball the load up if the fitted sheet is in the dryer but I except that since I've never had a problem with the load coming out dry.

 

[mrsalvo]

John,
If the sun is out the clothes will dry. Yes, it takes longer this time of year so I try to get them out early. In the summer they dry faster on the line than in the dryer. Really love the smell and feel of line dried sheets. I freshen up the guest bed sheets about twice a year, we never have over night guests these days.

We could use some rain, everything is bone dry, keep watching the weather forecast and it's always the same.

Barry