The Westinghouse 5.5kg model has a stainless steel drum which is claimed to be better than the unspecified drum of the 4.5kg model (which would be adequate for us). Is the extra cost worth it?
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Hi @Bilbo, welcome to the community.
Washing machines have two drums, an inner and outer. The inner is what you see when you open the door. The outer holds water during the washing cycle.
While the inner drum may be made of a range of materials, quite often the outer drum is plastic and may be the ‘weakest link’. There are reports of bra wires etc becoming loose and ending between the inner and outer drums causing catastrophic damage to the plastic outer drum.
I would be too hung up on what the inner drum is made of… unless you tend to repurpose the drum after the washing machine dies…
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Clothes Dryer per your topic heading. Which model numbers?
Are you looking at a condensing drier or a low cost dryer with a resistive heater?
Have you looked at the fee content at
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Cheers, missed the heading.
Also in relation to dryers, the same advice applies. It is unlikely that a stainless steel drum will extend the life of a dryer. We have had two drier in the past, both which the drum has outlasted the machines themselves. Our current dryer is a commercial model which has a stainless drum with plastic paddles (possibly for aesthetics and also commercial ones in commercial applications get more of a workout than domestic ones). The previous domestic one had powder coated/enamel drums. Our first one as a Simpson domestic model and was a hand-me-down - it was about 30 years old before going to appliance heaven for recycling. The drum was in near new condition when it left us.
I personally wouldn’t worry about the construction material of the drum. Use other characteristics (features, size, price, drying times, energy efficiency/running costs etc) to select a dryer over solely buying based on it being a stainless steel drum.
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Others have talked about the drum, so I will skip that.
Weigh your washed laundry as it comes out of the washing machine, as the dryer loads are measured wet. Do this a number of times to get an idea of your average wet wash weight.
If you only do small washes and have a wet load of less than 4.5kg, you might be able to get away with the smaller model.
But, I suggest that you get a bigger drum than you think that you need. The more space the clothes have when tossed about, the faster they will dry. Conversely, if the clothes are compacted into a bundle, they will take a long time to dry.
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Agree, overloading any dryer means the clothes won’t dry quickly, causing higher power costs which will quickly outweigh the upfront savings of buying a smaller dryer.
If you plan to regularly wash blankets, doona or quilts, I suggest a minimum of 10kg. If your don’t wash them regularly, use a dryer at a laundromat as it will be a far better financial (and environmental) proposition.
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Another advantage of a larger drum is less wrinkling. If a drum is too full wrinkles can be essentially ironed in by the drying process.
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Thanks for your comments everyone. We went with the larger model and are very happy with it. It is definitely better than its predecessor which was virtually the same brand (Simpson) but the 4.5 kg size.
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