It Does What Now? – Dryer Adventures

I stare at the dryer, trying to deduce if it’s filling with water, if it’s always had water in the door, or if it’s a washer/dryer combination unit and I didn’t realize it. Just as with the trash last week, it’s the everyday things that are surprising me in Germany. I’m not in Texas anymore, or South Carolina, or Colorado, or Washington, or Kansas for that matter.

Once the machine finishes, I open it to find dry cloths. Yay! And a tank on the inside of the door that’s half full of water. (I wish I’d gotten a picture of this!)

Was it always that way? I struggle to believe I wouldn’t have noticed when I filled the dryer. Upon further investigation, I find the tank detaches and can be emptied. I empty it and the next time I do laundry, I keep an eye on it. Sure enough, it fills with water. 

It’s at this point that I realize the dryer has no vent hose out the side of the house. The unit and its companion washer are tucked away in a tiny closet that doesn’t even have a light. Just a tiny window. I’ve resorted to using my phone’s flashlight if laundry goes beyond daylight hours, which it invariably does because the washer takes two hours and the dryer three. 

But I digress. I eventually learn that the dryer is a condensing dryer. They’re common here. Instead of venting out the side of the house, it pulls all the water into a tank that you empty when you clean the lint catch.

I thank God that the dryer in our temporary housing had the tank on the door or I might not have realized what was happening. A friend of ours shared that he didn’t understand why his dryer was leaking water when he first moved here because the tank wasn’t visible. 

 Even laundry here has a learning curve! 

Blessings,

Jennifer

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