Modern spin dryers

[luxflairguy]

After seeing the wonderful article in the Imperial forum on English washers, including spin dryers, I got to thinking about getting a spin dryer.
The web gives me 2 models. The Spin-X for $550 plus shipping and Laundry Alternative has one for $160.
I would love to hear from you all about experiences with either and is it a worthwhile investment. I wash in a Whirlpool Duet Sport frontloader and line dry the majority of my wash and am always looking for better rinsing and faster drying.
Comments, please!

Greg

 

[easyspindry]

Hello Greg.

I have the SpinX and have had it for at least 20 years. It's a great contraption for getting water out of clothes.

However, I had a Whirlpool Duet set with the fast spin and I found that the SpinX did not remove much more water from the clothes, so I stopped using it.

Now I have a 1959 Philco Duomatic, and I am again using the SpinX just before the dry cycle, and it makes a great deal of difference in the drying time.

There is no pump. The water free-flows out of the spout on the front into a container that comes with the SpinX, so that has to be emptied. I use a plastic half gallon milk jug.

The SpinX price seems a little steep to me. I think I paid somewhere around $300. But, like I say, that was several years ago.

Good Luck.

Jerry Gay

 

[launderess]

Have debated about purchashing a spin dryer from Europe for awhile now, to augment my Miele, but always pull back from "hitting the button".

A front loading washer with a final spin >1000rpms, and even better up to 1200rpms will extract much of the water from laundry to the point further spinning is not only unrequired, but may damage laundry.

Spin driers had a place on both sides of the pond when washing machines either did not spin or did so at very low rpms. While top loading washing machines and some commercial/laundromat washers still do not have very robust final spins, many front loaders reach speeds <1200 and even <1400 rpms. With those final spin speeds, especially if they are long enough at speed, you really do not need a separate extractor.

My vintage Miele has two spin speeds, 900 and 1100 rpms. At the former, bunging a load of heavy/thick items such as towels into my Hoover spin drier will yield about 1 cup or more of water. If the same load is spun at the later, then the water extracted by the Hoover drops to about 1/2 cup.

Less water is extracted by the Hoover if the items are light or medium weight, even if they are spun at 900rpms.

What does increase with prolonged high speed spinning is wear on textile fibers and creases. Some creases, even on towels will not fluff out despite a trip through the dryer.

At least in a washing machine, the load will be distributed evenly (one hopes), and thus much less creasing. Spin dryers to really run stable should be loaded to capacity, and that often means pushing laundry down into the tub. This is what causes so much creasing.

 

[jeb]

spin dryer

I have the laundry alternative spin dryer and like it very much. Acording to the manual it spins at 3200 rpms. My daily driver is a 4 year old wirlpool toploader and it cuts the drying time about 40 to 50 percent. There are some drawn backs; it will only do about half a washer load at a time,it's cumbersome to load and unload, you have to be careful your load is balanced. I have never had any trouble with creases in towels, polo shirts or anything that I wouldn't ordinarily iron,( it will spin some things dry enough to iron) but I tumble dry most of my laundry.