reverse direction dryers

[Marky_Mark]

I have found that American dryers that don't reverse do tend to ball up bedding.  I think it's a shame that reversing isn't an option as I suspect it might alleviate the balling up problem.

 

My Miele T1 heat pump dryer only reverses for 10 seconds every 5 minutes.  There is no logic/sensing/randomness to the reverse procedure.  It's a good dryer and can dry my American kingsized comforter, but almost always balls up fitted sheets and duvet covers.  I have tried drying them separately and all together but they still ball up.  I had a technician out but he couldn't do anything.  Miele have been promising an update that hasn't happened.  Very disappointing.

 

I took this photo when I tried drying the bedding with towels to see if the large load would help.  I loaded 13 items -- they came out as just 3 items!  The duvet cover had swallowed up 10 items knotted inside it.

 

I have an old Miele vented dryer from the 1980s that rotates equally throughout the cycle 1 minute in each direction.  This never balls the bedding and it dries just fine. 

 

[foraloysius]

I have an older Miele dryer that indeeds rotates equally. It doesn't happen often that my duvet covers ball up. Only now and then. When I add fitted sheets, it happens more often, so I dry them separately. No problems otherwise.

BTW, when I wash the duvet covers and fitted sheets together in my Siemens washing machine, the whole bunch of laundry ends up in one of the duvet covers rather often.

 

[henene4]

Miele Professional equipment

Either has programmable reversing or equal reversing, which works wonderfully.

On washers, I found that asymetric drum padles which induce a front to back movement, tend do make tangeling verry likely.
Our Panasonic (VG4 series) was the biggest contender for that.

 

[rolls_rapide]

I'm pretty certain the old Hoover Logic tumble dryers tumbled equally in both directions.

I've a vague notion that perhaps that model had two jockey wheels (edit: it did!). The fan was of the 'straight vane' type too, so would keep blowing irrespective of direction. Tumble action was 37 seconds in both directions.

 

[friscosudz]

I have a T1415 Miele that reverses. It's a vented electric model that was discontinued around 2007 or 2008 (i think), but there are similar models out there. It runs for about 3-4 minutes in one direction, then reverses for about 2 minutes. I typically iron my sheets / duvet on a rotary ironer, so I figured out a system that works well when running bed linens. I take the whole load out of the washer, shake everything out, and put it all in the dryer on the "rotary iron" setting. While the dryer is running, I turn on the ironer and let it heat up. When the rotary iron cycle finishes on the dryer, I take out the flat sheet and pillow cases (all of which may or may not be balled up inside of the fitted sheet at that point). The fitted sheet then goes back into the dryer by itself, on a regular dry cycle. I run the sheets and pillow cases through the ironer while the flat sheet finishes drying in the dryer. It only takes me about 5-10 minutes to iron the sheets and pillowcases, and it takes about the same amount of time for the flat sheet to finish drying. Once the ironing is done, the fitted sheet gets folded and the whole set goes back to the linen closet until the next rotation.

 

[launderess]

One great thing about my previous nursing education

Is one has known how to make beds with mitered corners for yonks. Once learned and mastered (back in the days when hospitals never saw fitted sheets and you got one if not more changes of clean linen a day), it is a snap.

As such once moved out on my own have rarely bothered with fitted sheets. This suits since nearly all bed linens are vintage to antique American or French that all predate the invention of fitted sheets.

 

[brucelucenta]

USA

It seems as though only in the USA can you not get a good dryer that reverses direction equally. I wish someone would come up with one.

 

[thomasortega]

Maybe one of the reasons is how MANY americans (specially millennials) to laundry.

Sorting clothes:

Sort the clothes in two piles - What can go to the washer, what won't fit in the washer.

Don't worry about colors, dirt level, lint "donators" or lint "receivers". Tide Pod should deal with everything.

Toss everything in the washer. Whites, light colors, blacks, that underwear with tiremarks, kitchen towels, mopheads, pet blanket, the dog, the cat, the hamster, the ferret, the door mat, etc. If something goes wrong, no problem, you can write a review saying how terrible that washer or that detergent is.
Then select normal cycle or "quick wash" or simply hit power and start, because it's 2017, who cares about selecting a cycle anyway? They should work or we can simply return the washer, sue the manufacturer, without forgetting the horrible reviews.

Then the clothes go to the dryer (if i don't forget the load in the washer for 3 days). toss everything, that's how dryers work. this is USA, our dryers are huge the clothes should dry.

Then there's the wrinkling. after writing a review about how horrible the dryer is and about the clothes that didn't dry, i can use Febreeze wrinkle releaser. if it doesn't work, i can write a review saying how horrible that product is.

In other words... no matter how hard you try to design a good dryer, modern consumers will always complain. so why spend time and money making them reversible?

Also, as they are huge and people mix sheets with small items, the tangling/rolling problem is somewhat naturally minimized.

Because of the F-word millennials I've made a washer with only ONE cycle (and of course i personally hated it). I have a folder with over 300 emails from customers asking me to make a washer that wasn't complicated to use, because selecting a cycle is not "user-friendly". Now i have tons of emails from people that saw the product features and loved to know they can just hit power and start buttons.

 

[combo52]

Reverse Tumbling Clothes Dryers

After reading this thread so far there does not seem to be any indication that RTCDs work any better than ones that don't.

 

First of all, all dryers seem to tangle fitted sheets

 

Second, If a dryer tangles in one direction and reverses for a while it may or may not untangle said clothing and it has no way of knowing when the clothing is actually tangled or untangled, so at very best it is entirely hit or miss.

 

Full sized dryers like WPs 29" machines [ widely regarded as the best clothes dryer ever on this site ] are built to function running in one direction, trying to make a 29" WP dryer to run the other direction would be stupid, it would take longer to dry and endanger clothing with excessive heat exposure to the clothing. You would face similar problems trying to make a MT SOH dryer reverse.

 

If you think about it the only reason that FL washers reverse is because it is so easy to do and costs nothing to do, and some tangle some loads anyway. Early FL washers in the US and Europe did not reverse and none had any problem  with tangling except models with slanted tubs.

 

Fact: all my vintage combination washer-dryers only wash and dry in one direction, NONE of them have the slightest problem with tangling clothing with the exception of the Easy combo that has a slightly tilted tub.

 

John L.

 

[foraloysius]

All European frontloaders have always reversed (perhaps apart from a model that I don't know of). Here's a video of an early Constructa (1953).

 

[DADoES]

 
Apparently when I dried a moderate-thickness queen-size quilt in a WP 27" (Calypso-match) dryer on the designated Bulky Items cycle and it came out rolled into a wad and still very damp (which doesn't happen in the SmartLoad) was a one-off incident?  ;-)

 

[revvinkevin]

Miele T1526 reverse time

I'm using my Miele dryer today and timed how long it runs each direction. It runs equal time in each direction, 1 min, reverse, 1 min, reverse, etc, etc.

 

[norgeway]

1960s

Philco dryers reverse tumble, but I think the cross vane Westinghouse dryers solve the problem pretty well.

 

[johnrk]

Dryer Size

I live alone. I seldom fill up either the washer or the dryer; I just don't generate that much wash. I don't like, and don't own, any poofy comforters or stuff like that. I agree with others that fitted sheets can be a problem at times. I'm also a very regular user of lingerie bags for wash and drying. So, for my needs, a reversing dryer would be of no particular benefit.

I just got this new BOL Speed Queen dryer, and I'd recommend against buying it. Oh, it's got fine size and though I wish it had a s.s. drum like my 17-year-old Kenmore had had, I really like the lint filter.

The problem with this dryer is that it doesn't have a moisture sensor. I didn't think I'd miss it since certainly in the distant past I had dryers without one. Well, I do miss it. I still haven't mastered, after a bunch of loads in the past month, where to place the dial to get adequate drying without just cooking the load. Oh, I'll learn to live with it--but I sure with I'd thought this out differently.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The 1960s Philco dryers ran the fan backward during reverse so airflow was reduced and I believe the heat was shut off, or at least the gas burner was, when that happened.

 

KitchenAid made a washer and dryer pair for dedicated dealers that featured a stainless steel exterior. The washer was a Duet, but the dryer was a custom made machine by American Dryer Corporation with two motors and it reversed.

 

The problem of tangling was tackled very well by Whirlpool in a few models that have variable speed tumble selected via a lever on the control panel linked to the belt/idler pulley mechanism . Sheets were tumbled fast enough that they did not have a chance to ball up. I have a WP gas two speed dryer that just varied burner input and air speed. On gentle is is great for drying a complete set of king bed linens without tangling. It has a glass door and I watched what happens on the regular air speed. The sheets get pulled against the exhaust grill on the back of the drum which interrupts the tumbling pattern and starts curling the sheets into a ball. On the delicate setting, a damper reduces the air flow and the sheets are not pulled against the exhaust grill. I have had some success with drying a full set of sheets in my 29" WP-made dryers by letting the lint screen get full which also reduces the suction at the exhaust grill, but not as dependably as the baffle controlling the air flow in the two speed dryer.