Laundry a la Bretagne

[jamiel]

We're 1/3 of the way through a 3 week Europe trip, and checked into an Air BNB in Manchester, and were shown to the laundry room, where I got caught up. How fun! Two each 8 kg Bosch washers and heat pump dryers...bought some Ariel pacs at the Co-op....and the admonishment to not confuse the washers and dryers (apparently someone did recently and dumped detergent in the dryer).

Goodness, the cycles are long. Did a big load of heavy clothes (4 pr jeans, 2 rugby shirts, some socks and a couple woven shirts) and a small load of synthetics (underwear/socks). Tried playing around with spin time and added a rinse to each load...the dryer was wild, though. Tried using the dryer on "synthetics" and it was really ineffectual in an hour, but doing "cotton cabinet dry" for the jeans/rugby worked pretty well (I did split the load after an hour and it definitely helped). Took an airing rack back to the apartment and have the underwear/Tshirts hanging to dry.

 

[jamiel]

The receptionist is a sweet lady who is just as blowsy as you can imagine...bleached blonde and told us how much she enjoys visiting the US especially Las Vegas...she truly looked the part. She came down and showed me how to empty the water tank (smartly she uses it for mopping). The texture of the filters is interesting---so much finer than we're used to in the US. The lint captured is similarly fine and almost dusty.

 

[henene4]

You'll find that you can usually get away with using SpeedPerfect on basically any cottons load as long as it isn't packes.
Keep in mind 8kg in those drums is pretty full, what you described is definitely within the 5kg limit for the SpeedPerfect option.

The heat pump dryers really don't need many cycles - especially since they don't have real temperature modulation.
Just running a cottons cupboard dry or cupboard dry plus setting is fine.

The ultra fine filters help keep the condenser clean and the SelfClean system from gumming up.
Early versions had problems with condensate sensors getting erroneous "full" readings after a few years.

 

[petek]

I'd love to be there. My mothers from Manchester and I'd love to go back again now that I'm older and re visit some of the places we went when I was younger. There's a bust and some other pieces in the old Town Hall carved by my great grandfather. Most all of the stoneworkers and modellers were like him Italian immigrants. And there's a new concert Hall (Bridgewater Hall) with a maginificent piipe organ I'd love to hear. Here's a clip.

 

[jamiel]

Did a couple more...so interesting to have such flexibility in cycle selection. Was really surprised at the amount of water condensed out of a pair of jeans, a pair of cargo shorts, a couple long-sleeve shirts and a pillowcase in a 45 minute cycle.

 

[mrboilwash]

Have loads of fun on your trip and keep us updated!
The subject of the thread leads me to believe that you`re soon going to play with washers in France as well.

 

[jamiel]

No, it's been a bit of a trip but we're winding down.

We decided it might be fun again to go to Sitges Spain (Barcelona) for the Bear Meeting weekend (seasonal kickoff very end of April). Then my husband found a concert for a band (Elbow) he wanted to see up in Manchester on 5/14. Silly to go home between, so we planned a week half in London half in Spain then two in Manchester. Except...we had an unexpected memorial service to attend....there went the half week in London. Then....the venue for the concert (the ENTIRE reason for the extensive trip) is having severe problems...I'm slightly bored (Manchester's music scene is my husband's fave) and frankly don't particularly care for this kind of concert) so I'm a little salty. It does look like it's going to take place on-schedule (they've been rescheduling stuff right and left) and I did put my foot down that we'd be leaving for home early if they cancelled...

The AirBNB has been nice (never have booked and used before, but wanted a homebase) but not our "norm" for travel...

We just yesterday got a second key (communication error with the manager) so maybe we can not be joined at the hip...

Aaargh.

And I'm missing lilac season in Detroit (they're not native to UK, interestingly)

Andy Burnham says Co-op Live chaos 'hasn't been handled well'

Co-op Live hasn't had a smooth start, by its own admission

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk