I haven't mentioned it lately but I love my stackable, energy efficient washer and dryer. I appreciate them every week but I've noticed that time doesn't work in the same straight forward fashion where they are concerned. I first noticed it with the washer. A typical wash cycle is 35 minutes. It even tells you this when you turn the cycle on plus there is a handy digital display so you can keep track of the time remaining. Theoretically then 36 minutes after starting a load it should be ready for the next load. But instead it will get down to two minutes remaining and stay there for 2-5 minutes. Which isn't too bad, when you get down to one minute remaining it can take as long as 10 minutes to stop. Actually at that stage of the game it stops frequently according to all outward appearance and sounds but after resting for a minute or two it will rotate one more time before returning to hibernation.
What I didn't notice until yesterday is that the dryer has a strange sense of time too. Again a typical drying cycle, according to the display, is 35 minuntes. But by throwing a dry towel in with a wet load you should be able to cut the srying time roughly in half. When I try this the timer cuts off about 15 minutes, this didn't seem strange. My understanding is that it calculates drying time by humidity levels in the drum. But after another five minutes or so it will add back ten minutes. In the end I'm always surprised to find that the machine is still running when I think it should be done or that it is done when I think it should have stopped.
On a vaugely related note it does appear that adding the dry towel really does cut the drying time.
2 comments:
Hmmm...this reaffirms my faith in humanity - machines are (sorta) fallible; or they're just too perfect:-0
My rice cooker does something similar-it seems to "know" how wet the rice is and/or needs to be, and that determines how long it takes to cook. Doesn't matter what the timer says!
Hmmm ... I'd be willing to bet your washer does that only on the permanent press cycle ... it starts up again to keep creases from setting in the clothes.
Am I right?
The dryer humidity sensor is probably fooled by the dry towel at first until everything mixes in together and begins to share the "wetness" so there is a real average instead of one really, really dry thing and a bunch of really, really wet things.
Anyway, those are my guesses!
Post a Comment