Getting laundry dry!

[Weelady77]

How on earth do you ladies get your washing dry in this weather?

I'm lucky enough to have a balcony that I can hang clothes out on clothes horse if it's raining then bring it back in at night to air but it's still taking ages to dry! I've got a tumble dryer but it's a small one only really use it for underwear as it costs a fortune to run

lots of people grumble about extractors when in fact they are just they are turned off/worn out/cheap and ineffective.

I expect you have a standard 100mm fan. It is probably a cheap "builder's" one, and you could swap it for one that would be more powerful and quieter at modest cost.

A bathroom with a good extractor can be used for hanging wet washing in, the extractor will suck the water vapour out of the house, and warm dry air will enter under the bathroom door to speed up the drying. Bathroom door and window have to be shut so the fan can create suction.

Shutting the door also reduces the amount of dust that the extractor pulls into the bathroom and drops there on every flat surface, or maybe that's just our house. Drying in the bathroom like this means you do lose warm air through the extractor but the important thing is that the water vapour doesn't accumulate in the rest of the house so it will be warmer and drier.

I put mine on clothes horses. I can fit both in my inglenook. Totally dry by morning!

But I do miss my bannister now I live in a cottage.

If a top is not dry .....I have been known to use the hair straightners, dry and ironed in a flash :)

Dry with straighteners hahaha I've never heard that in my life heard of a hair dryer but never straightners lol,

I've got a cupboard that would be great for clothes horse but unfortunately it's got all the shit of the day in there that can't go anywhere else Hoover ironing board golf clubs etc!!!

PigletJohn- that's really interesting about the cost of running a tumble dryer and using extractor fans. I have the choice of either and will get a clothes horse and try the bathroom. I suspect I have a cheap builder's extractor fan as you described it, but will give it a go.

A typical extractor will run for at least 50 hours on one unit of electricity, which costs between about 12p and about 15p this year. If yours is worn out and noisy, or underpowered, get it changed for a better one with a ball-bearing motor, and a higher extract rate (the cheapest ones are about 80 cu metre per hour nominal)