The name Brabantia will likely need no introduction to any homeowner – chances are you’ve got one of their waste bins somewhere in your home.
Enter the Brabantia Lift-O-Matic rotary dryer.
This is like the Rolls Royce of clothes dryers. It comes with with a long steel spike for the ground, to ensure it doesn’t blow over even in the strongest winds. The spike fits flush , so you can push the mower straight over it when you cut the grass – there’s even a red cap to go in the top of the spike when you remove the dryer – the little slot on the cap allows you to clip it to the line when not in use. The dryer itself has an aluminium pole, making the device light and easy to lift in and out of the hole. The arm mechanism is extremely easy to open and close, the wires remain tangle free and, being the Lift-O-Matic model, you can even adjust the height of the dryer on the pole – handy for airing duvets and things. All the lines that join the dryer arms are individual, making them easy to replace should one break in the future and the lines also have quite a grippy surface. The only thing it doesn’t come with is a cover, but one is available for purchase separately.
Unlike other clothes dryers, this one actually saves electricity – it doesn’t use any – all the spinning around it might do is purely powered by the wind and the warmth of the sun does all the drying. Yes, with the electricity saved by line drying for 6 months a year, you can drive 1600 miles in a new electric car.
Backed with the usual excellent Brabantia guarantee, the Lift-O-Matic rotary dryer will pay for itself in no time and for double the savings throughout the winter months, you could look at one of Brabantia’s indoor drying solutions such as their Bathroom drying rack.
This rotary dryer features arms that turn smoothly, even when loaded with laundry, allowing you to work at leisure. Use our exclusive ‘Lift-O-Matic’-system to adjust the dryer to your ideal working height, hang your wet wash and let the wind do the rest! Additional features include washing lines can be retensioned and weather resistant, coated-steel arms. Includes closable concrete spike and a protective cover with an integrated bag and hanging loop. Diagonal span width of 125 inches. Carries a 5 year guarantee.
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In many ways solar power for our homes is a nice idea, but out of most people’s price range. There is one case, however, where this isn’t as true. What would you say if I told you that you could buy a solar powered clothes dryer for less than $15 (or a high-end, top of the line model for under $50)? What if I told you that it would make your whites whiter and could dry your clothes in less than half the time of a normal dryer? Not only that, but it is easier on your clothes so that they will last longer. This amazing dryer doesn’t heat up the house the way a conventional dryer does and can even leave your children with fond memories of it’s use. Yet, despite all of it’s wonderful attributes, this solar powered clothes dryer is anathema to most HOAs. Can you guess what I’m talking about? Yup, it’s a clothesline…
They are generally frowned upon because they are considered “low class” or “trashy”. (Which is really funny since Martha Stewart is one of the biggest proponents of line drying clothes.) The bottom line is that there are some times when a clothesline is much better than an electric dryer. In Arizona small things are frequently dry by the time you finish hanging up the rest of the load and your sheets don’t get as wrinkled. Plus, there is nothing nicer than standing between two wet sheets hanging up laundry on a hot day. (Really, I’m not a masochist, we don’t have that type of humidity so it is lovely and cool.) Having grown up with both I’ve been missing having access to a clothesline and finally decided that I don’t care about the HOA and installed one that I can pull down when it’s not in use. I spent less than $15 for everything I needed (including clothes pins) and only took a few minutes to install. If this one works half as well as I foresee we will be installing more eye bolts and making some extra removable lines with clips on each end so that we can hang even more of our laundry out. I am really looking forward to saving electricity and money. (Especially since the A/C won’t have to work as hard to keep the house cool on laundry day.)
How about you? Have you ever used a clothesline? How did you like it? Would you consider trying it again (or even for the first time)? If you don’t like a clothesline or agree with the HOA that they should be outlawed, why?
