Have the exhaust vents for your building been cleaned recently? That's exactly the behaviour you'd expect if the exhaust system is clogged by lint.

My less than one year old brand new LG washer dryer has a perfectly functional set of buttons to configure it, but it will not allow me to do so without connecting to their app on my phone over Bluetooth and giving them permission to read my web browsing history.

These machines were over $1000 and they changed the terms on the app a week after we bought it. Not that we'd ever connect it to our phones anyway.

I, for instance, cannot tell it to dry on low heat for a long time until it's actually dry. It is impossible to configure it manually, it beggars belief.

And of course they know full well how much of a nightmare it is to return appliances that heavy and expensive, so it's always a surprise. Why would I even think to look for such a ridiculous anti-feature? I'm not creative enough to think of these regressions since the 90s, what's next, I can't turn it on at all without a face id? The features have barely even changed in that time...

Same with my new television that wanted me to agree to terms and conditions after spending over an hour mounting it on a wall. They seriously weaponize the inconvenience of returning these things... thankfully I had an extra computer to connect to it instead but most people don't.

I think a regulation on appliances saying they must have all features that are standard or advertised available with no extra steps is a good start. Yeah, this person has an issue with builder kickbacks too, but the core issue is hardly limited to new construction or contractors.

We have an LG wall oven that had a binding arbitration sticker on it. Anyone that uses it enters into a binding arbitration agreement with LG according to the sticker.

Of course, there's no notice at time of sale, and by the time you see the sticker, you're looking at redoing brand new kitchen cabinetry if you return the stove.

I suspect it is not a legal contract (post sale, well after returns become infeasible). If it is somehow binding, when companies pull crap like that, I think the "I reject" path should involve them reimbursing you for your time and any sunk cost you incurred before being informed of the contract.

> it will not allow me to do so without connecting to their app on my phone over Bluetooth and giving them permission to read my web browsing history.

In your words, it beggars belief. So if you don't connect your phones to it, how do you operate it? Do you have some dedicated throwaway device?

It has a variety of default options I can select from. Some I can make limited changes to.

For the case I mentioned I have to run it on delicates, change the dry level to maximum, and then run it three times.

I just bought a clothes rack for the wet clothes. The clothes last longer anyway. Don't use the dryer anymore unless I need the clothes right away.

Steve Baer (Zomes, Nightwall, and many other inventions) noted in his book "Sunspots" that:

   * if a person replaces a solar powered drying technology like a clothes line or rack with a fuel-powered dryer, the GDP and/or other similar measures of economic health improve

   * if a person replaces a fuel-powered dryer with a solar powered dryer like a clothes line or rack, the same measures apparently get worse

His conclusion (in the 1970s/early 1980s) was these measures are clearly fucked.

In the UK a fatal road traffic accident increases GDP by more than a million pounds.

Living in the Deep South…that’s not an option lol

I live in drizzly Seattle. It takes about 24 hrs for the clothes to dry, but there's no mildew problem if your house is dry.

In the summer I sometimes put the rack out on the deck. The fresh smell of sun-dried clothes can't be beat.

I grew up in Phoenix. Drying the clothes consisted of:

1. taking them out of the washer

2. putting them on the line

3. going back to to the beginning of the line, and taking them off, as they are now dry

I'm not joking.

> The fresh smell of sun-dried clothes can't be beat.

I see your sun dried clothes and raise you one fresh cut lawn.

Haha, mowing the lawn ignites my hay fever. No thanks!

With a wife and 2 kids waiting 24hrs for strategic placed massive loads of clothes to dry just isn’t an option either lol Phoenix with that dry heat I bet was effective as a high end dryer!

Seattle houses are heated near continiously outside some summer hours, so the house interiors are relatively dry. In a place where you don't have heaters or ACs on a lot and the climate is humid, stuff stays humid.

I have the heat on maybe 6 months a year.

I had a roommate who used to do this (thus sending our utility bill up along with some other power wasting habits), and I once asked them the question I'm about to ask now:

other than for moments when you plan on wearing something as soon as it comes out of the dryer, what prevents one from using the normal dry cycle, and then letting whatever garments that don't get completely 100% dried-air dry in the closet or up on hangers on a shower pole or something?

Mold will grow on damp cotton clothes -- not enough to see with the naked eye, but some people are more sensitive.

Also important: some people live in areas with higher ambient humidity than other areas. If you live in an area where swamp coolers are a viable option in the summer, then of course you'll have trouble understanding why some people don't see hanging up damp clothes to be a reasonable option.

When you put these in a drawer, they don't dry. They get moldy.

Right, so you hang them, briefly, until they do dry. Then you put them away as normal.

With the premium that house space demand, a cloth track, even a foldable one, can ruin your living space for hours a week. And since there's a strong correlation by laundry and weekends, you'd get your living space stalled the days you need it the most.

Or, do the simpler thing and make sure they come out dry from the dryer.

This may be by design: A certain dampness helps during ironing.

Just something my mom taught me. In typical tech nerd fashion, I don't iron.

@dvtm if you're just going to hang your clothes up to dry, then what's the point of having a dryer in the first place?

Hanging clothes on a rack inside is easy, but hanging sheets inside is not. I use my dryer for sheets when weather or time of day makes the outside line not a solution. I also use the dryer occasionally if I need some particular clothes in a hurry.

I never put things through the dryer and then hang them though; my dryer works, and I don't even use the highest setting.

In some locations, it’s illegal to dry your clothes on an outside line.

This is not true. In fact, in the context of this discussion, the opposite is true, that is to say, there are many HOAs (i.e. corporations) that prohibit hanging clothes outside, but there are actually several state laws which ban such prohibitions, so this is actually a case where regulations are protecting people's freedoms, not restricting them, like your comment implies.

The county next to where I live has banned vinyl siding for the entire county. It's not an HOA rule, it's a countywide government rule. Wouldn't be surprised to find out there are counties or towns that have their own clothesline ban.

Maine, Arizona and Vermont all prohibit hanging clothes outside to dry.

19 states prohibit prohibitions by municipalities, but most states leave it up to the municipality to decide.

> Maine, Arizona and Vermont all prohibit hanging clothes outside to dry.

Are you sure you don't have that backwards? From what I can find these are "right to dry" states which have banned clothesline bans (eg your HOA can try to ban it, and the state overrides it)

You have this half-backwards: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin - these states all have "right to dry" laws.

> Now, amidst growing concern about wasteful energy use, clothesline proponents argue that the traditional method of drying laundry is not only cheaper but better for the environment. Lawmakers in some 19 states have agreed, enacting “right to dry” laws that prohibit clothesline bans,

> The exact nature of “right to dry” laws varies from state to state—while some prohibit clothesline bans directly, others recognize a right to use solar power that implicitly may preclude those in authority from preventing a homeowner from drying laundry in the sun.

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/20_right_to_dry_stat...

Not all people who own driers live in the US.

Which is absolutely infuriating from both a climate and a freedom point of view.