Late Night Energy Examination

Unable to sleep until I answered the "washer/dryer combo, or separate appliances" question, I hopped on Google.

Here's what I found: those cute little combo machines that wash AND dry do so at great cost of time, energy, and money. Of course, this makes sense, given the convenience trade-off.

Another thing to consider when thinking about purchasing foreign-made appliances: do they have an American plug on them, and can they run American currency? I read plenty of horror stories of people who ordered them, only to find they can't plug them in!

One brand actually requires you to buy "stackable" washers and dryers, because the washer has to plug into the back of the dryer, then the dryer plugs into the wall.

Other complaints are that the machines (combo or separate) only last about 6 months before trouble erupts, and then erupts nearly constantly on these machines. And still others complain about the washing/drying time--up to 3 hours for some loads that contain towels, jeans, or other thick, heavy items. Longer drying times can be had with "ventless" units that don't vent their moisture to the outside.

Then there's the high-efficiency laundry soap...like there's a special soap for these things. M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G!! Dishwasher soap is also low-sudsing, or you can just use less regular laundry soap (or diluted soap) for each load.

No wonder the suicide rate in European countries is so high.

For countries that are supposed to be under severe water and energy crunches, the machines they churn out aren't really efficient at all when it comes to time. I suppose Granny with her washboard was more efficient under these terms (using less soap, water, and energy) than a modern-day appliance would be! Granny had all day to wash, but we don't any more. We also didn't have to worry about trying to plug Granny in.

I guess I was wrong about American appliances not being up to snuff. I'll be damned if I'm going to wait three hours for ANYTHING to get washed, or even dried unless I put it on the clothesline. Egods, I wonder what their dishwashers have in store for me--but that's for another restless night!!

I guess another car-appliance analogy is true: the more efficient one is, the more you have to give up for that efficiency, like time, space, and speed.

There WERE some cool features on them, though: self-heating water, time delays for both washing and drying, and accompanying drying cupboards. Maybe one day our American appliances will get self-heating water and time delays, so we could run them overnight when electricity rates are cheapest--oh Maytag! Whirlpool! Kenmore!

The answer to my question was LOOK CLOSER TO HOME AND FORGET THOSE FOREIGN LAUNDRY APPLIANCES FOR NOW!

Here's the MySimon page that sums up washing machine comparisons beautifully.