Household Essentials 3000 30-Line Outdoor Parallel-Style Clothes Dryer with Aluminum Arms
by Household Essentials
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Household Essentials 3000 30-Line Outdoor Parallel-Style Clothes Dryer with Aluminum Arms
Customer Review: Great energy saver
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered this clothesline for my suburban backyard, largely to combat high electric bills from using the dryer. (It adds up quickly for a family.) It arrived in good condition. Installation consisted of: dig a hole 20 inches deep by 8 inches wide, add some stones to the bottom of the hole, mix a bag of concrete (50 pound bag is about right; 80 pound will give you some left overs), put 6 inches of concrete in hole, set plastic sleeve in ground, fill rest of hole with concrete, insert bottom pole section and make it plumb (straight; use a level), remove pole and drive a stick or dowel through the sleeve and into the ground (for drainage), then let the concrete dry according to instructions. The next day, insert the bottom pole section then add the top section and (GENTLY, to avoid damage to the lines) open it up.
The open/close action on the unit is very easy, but you have to watch out that the lines are on the proper side of the pole. Mine always gets a bit tangled, requiring a couple of attempts before everything is undone. One product improvement would be to reduce the number of surfaces (hinges/pivots) that the lines can catch on.
Setting the clothesline in the ground according to the instructions will place the lines about 73 inches (183 cm) off the ground. This is high enough for a good sized bath towel to clear the ground below. The overall height (top of the center pole) is about 82 inches. If you're working within a POA/HOA height restriction, you could always remove a bit from the bottom of the lower section using a hacksaw.
How well does it work? Great! Clothes get dry in a hurry here in the Texas sun. The lines have stretched a bit with the first few uses, but it's easy to tighten them. The instructions indicate they'll quit stretching after a few uses. The instructions indicate that the unit should be loaded evenly, which is easily done by simply rotating the upper section as you hang the clothes.
Any complaints? One, it's easy to tangle the lines or catch them on hinges when opening/closing the unit. Two, the steel main post comes with a thin coating of grease that should be removed before use. Third, the item is made in China.
Customer Review: very useful drying rack
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm very happy with this umbrella dryer. You're technically supposed to install it by digging a hole and filling it with cement and then putting the holding sleeve insdie, but I just put the sleeve straight into the dirt and it works fine. Not quite as stable, but certainly stable enough, and it skips that pain-in-the-butt installation step.
Once you have the sleeve in the ground, the umbrella sets up easily and can also fold up and be stored elsewhere, which is nice. I've found that the lines usually get a little tangled, but they're easy to untangle when putting the drying rack up.
Hanging the clothes on the rack is simple. One nice aspect about the umbrella is that it rotates, so you can just stand in one spot and rotate it around as needed while hanging clothes. It's got tons of drying space too. I could probably fit 3 full loads of laundry on it at once, except we never have more than one or two at a time.
One aspect my wife was concerned about is that in her experience, drying clothes outside on clotheslines tends to make them stiff. It turns out in our experience that's only been a problem for towels, but clothes stay reasonably soft and loose.
The only significant downside is that it takes a little while to hang the clothes up, whereas it only takes a few seconds to toss them into a dryer. Still, you're saving a lot of energy and money by not running the dryer, so I think it's well worth it. In reasonably warm weather the clothes only take about 2 hours to dry, which is quicker than I expected.
Overall I'm quite happy with this outdoor umbrella dryer.
Customer Review: a few tips using this clothesline
Summary: 5 Stars
We live in a pretty windy area. We cemented it to the ground using the green tube included, but we were weary of its capacity to hold up. We put a long piece of re-bar from the ground on the inside of the pole, and that helps a lot. The line does stretch quite a bit, but pull as taut as you can at first, and then if you keep the line clean by wiping down occasionally, it won't get the black marks from the sides when you have to pull it taut again.
If you put too heavy of a load all on one side, it will break at the hinge (this happened to us.) Unfortunately, we could not find an easy fix and quickly ordered a replacement.
Now that the cons are all laid out, here are the pros!
Once reinforced, it is pretty sturdy and lightweight! I can take it down myself as a average woman.
It is removeable for the winter.
It twirls around wherever you need.
The line is thin and sturdy and adjustable.
There are several lines to hang clothes on, it can easily fit 2 big loads! I always put my sheets, towels, blankets, and everything else out on the line (just disperse the weight ;)
Saves so much on my dryer costs!
Doesn't look unsightly in my yard, I think it is one of the better looking clotheslines.
I give this 5 starts because despite the few cons, it is overall a very awesome clothesline. I love it so much and use it all the time. Everyone should put up a clothesline for the summer!
Customer Review: 1PC 210' Alum Out Dryer
Summary: 5 Stars
It's the best foldable or umbrella dryer. It also rotates around the pole. I like this rectangular shape better than the V-shape one. I can hang more clothes, sheets, and/or blankets, all at the same time. It has enough space for 2 big loads of clothes. Everyone should have one of this in the yard. It's great for the environment. Beside saving energy, I've also saved more than $50-$60/mo not using my electric dryer. That's $600 a year. We are working on our deck and landscaping our yard. So, we don't have a designated location for the clothesline dryer yet. My husband just hammered it to the ground (instead of cementing it down as they recommended). It holds up just fine in the windy days. .
If you want your towels to be soft, don't over-dry them in the sun. Set the timer and take them in when they're slightly damp and put them in the electric/gas dryer with a sheet of Bounce for a couple of minutes. But if you left them stiffly dried, put a wet towel in the load in a dryer. It will help soften them up.
I have back problem so it does take me a little bit more time to carry the several trips of clothes out to the yard, hang, and pin down every piece. But I feel happy "harvesting" the sun energy and getting some exercise every day, (except for the rainy days. of course) GO SOLAR!!!!
Customer Review: Clothes line or not?
Summary: 5 Stars
Well lets just keep it simple. I have 80-100 degree weather here at Hidden Valley Lake CA. Why run the clothes dryer when it creates heat in the house when at the same time you are trying to keep your house at a bearable temp. A clothes line to dry your clothes makes it a no brainer.
Takes a little work(I didn't do it but husband did) to get it in the ground. From there my job is simple and saves money that I can put towards keeping the house at a good temp for the little ones and myself too!
Love the way it fans out and can fit lots of clothes on it at one time.
Clothes come in so fresh and so clean! Love it.
Thinking of getting one? This one is for you! Use it, enjoy it, save your dryer money, and put it towards having a nice cool house (78 deg.)!