Washers and Dryers

Washer and dryers have come a long way from what they used to be. For centuries, washers were nothing more than a water source and something to agitate the clothing in soapy water, while dryers were some method to put the clothes out in the sun. Basically, a river, a stone, and a patch of sun. Modern washers and dryers still use the same theory, but in a much more controlled setting.

The first power washers were little more than hand washers with a motor to do the part that the human being had performed before. That is, the agitation of the clothing while in the soapy water. The clothes still had to be wrung out by hand. The next step was to invent a way to speed up this process too, and the first washers to do this were called wringer washers. They would typically have a pair of rollers that would allow wet clothing to be fed between them as they rotated, and this would ring the water out of the clothing. This was still a multi-step process though, as there would be one container for the soapy water, another container to be used to rinsing, and then the wringers to be used to start the drying process. Modern washers have streamlined this process even more by using the same container for the washing, rinsing, and wringing.

Dryers too have made great strides. The principal is still the same, apply heat to the clothing in order to speed the drying process, but there are many more features than that on the modern clothes dryer. For example, almost all modern dryers have some way to tumble the clothing as it dries, typically using a rotating cylinder. Warm air is blown into the cylinder as it rotates, and then exhausted from the chamber so as to remove the moisture that has been absorbed from the clothing. In addition, the temperature of the air can be adjusted as well as the length of the drying cycle. In fact many dryers can monitor the moisture content of the air inside and use that to determine when it's time for the cycle to end.

Washers and dryers can come in all sizes and configurations, whether it's top loading or front loading, side by side or stacking on top of each other, or even a unit that can do both washing and drying in the same enclosure. Gas, electric, energy efficient, and heavy duty are more options that are available. Whatever the user wants, it's probably available from one or more manufacturers of modern washers and dryers.