[zemnmez]

all the places I grew up in england, we would have a wooden rack (just some wooden slats attached to kind of metal hangers) with a small winch above the boiler in the boiler room. When the washing was done, my mum would put the washing on this rack, either between the slats or hung from hangers. It was obviously quite effective and efficient, but I don't miss it at all with a modern dryer.

Having moved to the US recently though, I do miss integrated washer-dryers that I could set to complete by the time I woke up so I got to wake up to warm clothes for flights and meetings I was stressed about. They're totally absent in the US, and people who have used them give me weird anecdotes about how 'they don't dry clothes properly' or 'they don't let you go through as many clothes as fast' -- while the latter may be true, the washer-dryer means the entire process happens without you being there, like if you were asleep.

[tannhaeuser]

Can't believe they don't have washer-dryer combos in US, of all countries. Another argument I heard is that they're not as long-lived as separate appliances, but mine (Bosch) is still going strong after 12 years or so (save for a plastic door handle I broke apart early on in anger when the thing wouldn't open unless waiting for a minute after program abort ;) Bit more expensive than a plain washer though for sure.

[elzbardico]

In average, americans, even if not overweight, are pretty big fellows. Try fitting lots of XXXL clothes in a Korean Washer-Drier that usually limits loads to some 8kg when using the drying cycle, even if the machine is rated to 12kg for washing, and you'll see the point of a separate drier.

[zemnmez]

This is the kind of thing I mean when I say "Americans give me weird anecdotes". 'Americans can't use washer-dryers because they're more fat than everyone else in the world' has got to be the strangest case of American exceptionalism I've ever had to read.