New Laundry web pages

Olwynmary wrote:

I think you guys missed my salient point. DD did not buy - or even choose -
any of these machines, she is over there for 4 years because her husband is
serving our country over there, and she has to make do with whatever houses the
military makes available to her, and, what's more, turn each house into a home.

I was simply pointing out that not all front loaders are "the greatest thing
since sliced bread".

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.


In rented furnished houses over here you will get the cheapest washer or
washer/dryer combo that can be fitted into the space, and the cheapest
dishwasher too. They will be smaller (so more loads), less powerful (so
slower to heat up), and have lower spin speeds (so clothes take longer
to dry) than you might choose if you were buying. Also remember that
washer/dryer combos do not usually take a full load to dry: you either
do more half loads and work them straight through, or take half out and
dry in two lots. Even my mum's TOTL Bosch washer/dryer (she lives in a
flat with a small kitchen) will only dry a half load at a time.
Landlords will not put expensive equipment into rental property because
most tenants are there short term (typically 1 year to 18 months) and do
not take care of the equipment as if it was their own. Landlords expect
to have to rip it all out back to the walls every 3 - 5 years to keep it
up to date anyway, so it isn't worth it.

How do I know? I have a friend who looks after the rentals for a local
estate agent, and who owns two small rental properties of her own (known
as Wendy house 1 and Wendy house 2: they are her retirement plan).
Between every tenant they redecorate and clean the furnishings. Every 5
years or so they clear the houses and start again from bare walls and
floors. Her agency's typical tenants are visiting academics (University
town) who are surprised at how small and expensive UK houses are, and
how solid. Most of the older properties she nannies are stone or brick
built throughout. Even new build ones seem to have more solid interior
walls than many of her clients are used to. Only the Japanese seem to
think we have large houses.

When comparing top loaders and front loaders, you need to compare those
at the same level: TOTL front loader with TOTL top loader, etc. So if
you are used to a top loader that takes a 15 lb load, compare it with a
front loader that takes the same, rather than with a front loader that
takes a 7 lb load, or with a washer/dryer that takes a 10 lb load that
has to be split for drying. If someone has been used to a larger top
loader, shoving them in rental property with a cheap and cheerful
smaller front loader is bound to be a disappointing experience.

On the other hand, we once lived next door to a USAF officer and his
wife, who brought all her massive US domestic appliances with her to
the UK (and then needed a shed load of transformers for them!), and
deeply envied my mum her front loading automatic (a Hotpoint Keymatic
Deluxe, circa 1970) that fitted into the kitchen so neatly and did the
washing for a family of six while Mum was off doing other things, or did
it over night while we were asleep. We kids were, of course equally
fascinated by the fridge so large you could have a winter holiday in it
and the washer large enough to scrub an elephant! And by the fact that
they were a fashionable Dark Brown rather than a rather clinical and
boring white...
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

If someone has been used to a larger top
loader, shoving them in rental property with a cheap and cheerful
smaller front loader is bound to be a disappointing experience.

Precisely. Disappointing, frustrating, infuriating, etc.

On the other hand, we once lived next door to a USAF officer and his
wife, who brought all her massive US domestic appliances with her to
the UK (and then needed a shed load of transformers for them!),

Which is why the USAF advised her to sell all her appliances before they went,
and only take her furniture (which she still had a heck of a job fitting into
an English house).

Fortunately, as I said, she is now in base housing, with an American size
fridge etc., for which she was extremely glad this last summer.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Olwynmary wrote:


Fortunately, as I said, she is now in base housing, with an American size
fridge etc., for which she was extremely glad this last summer.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

To keep food dry, I presume. Hasn't been hot here at all, just very
very wet...


--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Kate Dicey wrote:
Olwynmary wrote:


Fortunately, as I said, she is now in base housing, with an American size
fridge etc., for which she was extremely glad this last summer.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.


To keep food dry, I presume. Hasn't been hot here at all, just very
very wet...



Americans don't tend to travel well, especially military
families and corporate families who live in other
countries because of their work and not because they want
to explore. There is a tendency to "take home with you"
as in the case of household furniture and appliances, and
shopping in PXs rather than local markets. Also,
Americans don't shop often, usually no more than once a
week, and rely heavily on processed and preserved food in
cans or frozen.

Many Americans who have lived overseas this way never
learn a word of another language, and have no idea of the
local cultures. When these folks are forced by
circumstances to live "off base" or outside the corporate
compound, they experience difficulties in adjusting.
--

Joanne @ stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us
http://bernardschopen.tripod.com/
Life is about the journey, not about the destination.

Americans don't tend to travel well, especially military families and
corporate families who live in other countries because of their work

When these folks are forced by circumstances to live "off base" or outside
the corporate compound, they experience difficulties in adjusting.

Not my DD!!!!!!! She flatly refuses to live inside the base, always waits for
"outside the compound" housing. Her three kids are all in Brit schools, the
family has joined a Brit "leisure center", she buys most of her groceries at
Tesco et al and the kids' school uniforms locally. She just goes to the base
for certain U.S. groceries etc. to which they are accustomed and which they
would really miss.

Also, Americans don't shop often, usually no more than once a week,

True, that is the "custom of the country" over here, where distances are so
much greater, and the supermarket tends to be several miles away, not just
around the corner.

and rely heavily on processed and preserved food in cans or frozen.

Frozen, yes, how else can one enjoy out of season or imported things like, for
instance, orange jiuce in England without paying a small fortune for fresh
oranges??? Also, frozen veggies are very often "fresher" than those which
have sat for a week in the greengrocer's shop before one buys them. Cans - no
way, except for the emergency shelf.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Olwynmary wrote:

Sounds as though the OP's daughter either had a cheap machine or didn't know
how to use it fully. Most of my friends have children's washing to do and they
don't need four hours to do a load of washing.

The machine was probably not being used properly. Happens all the time.

Top loaders certainly don't wash better than front loaders.

I think you guys missed my salient point. DD did not buy - or even choose -
any of these machines, she is over there for 4 years because her husband is
serving our country over there, and she has to make do with whatever houses the
military makes available to her, and, what's more, turn each house into a home.

True, but it's also very easy to use any machine without getting the
best job out of it.

I was simply pointing out that not all front loaders are "the greatest thing
since sliced bread".

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Yes of course. The same can be said for top loaders. My enormous top
loader here in the US doesn't actually hold any more washing than my
smaller UK front loader. The cabinet is huge but the tub in it isn't. It
says it has 6 cycles, but only has 3 cycles. Only 3 wash temps, while UK
machines have more, including a boil cycle for sanitising.
Fortunately here in the desert, we don't need a dryer. The 'laundry
room' in this house has a socket for a dryer, but there isn't any room
for the machine itself with the washer in place LOL!

(Olwynmary) wrote in message news:

I think you guys missed my salient point. DD did not buy - or even choose -
any of these machines, she is over there for 4 years because her husband is
serving our country over there, and she has to make do with whatever houses the
military makes available to her, and, what's more, turn each house into a home.

Actually, I had got it...

I was simply pointing out that not all front loaders are "the greatest thing
since sliced bread".

....and I think perhaps you mistake *my* point. What I'm saying is, I
believe that for an equivalent capacity, a front-loader will do a
better job while at the same time being gentler on the clothes being
washed. You described machines with inappropriate capacity for the
context of your DD's life. Okay, fine... but it would have been just
as inappropriate if they had been top-loaders with the same capacity.

Tom Farrell
http://www.tomfarrell.org/laundry