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For those who live in high-rise buildings, drying clothes is an urgent problem. To hang out over the balcony is not very pleasant for ourselves, and not in all cities it is permissible. For many, the clothes dryer on the balcony becomes the way out. They have different models and ways of installation or installation.
Installation method
According to the installation method, a clothes dryer on a balcony can be:
- ceiling;
- wall;
- floor;
- hinged.
The most diverse in appearance, fastening, volume and execution
From the names, the features of the installation of each model are clear. Only clarifications about hanging clothes dryers may be required. They are usually small in size – 60-100 cm long, for 3-6 ropes / crossbars (pictured).
They are equipped with two or three large-diameter hooks, which allow you to hook the structure to horizontal partitions, for example, to a balcony railing. They can be placed indoors or outdoors, so the option is mobile and convenient. That’s just for storage, you need to find a place or make loops on the wall, for which you can hook a hanging clothes dryer.
Ceiling models
Clothes dryers mounted on the ceiling of a balcony or loggia are one of the most popular models. They are two planks with crossbars or ropes attached to them, on which linen is hung.
There are two main types of balcony ceiling dryers:
- With independent suspension of each plank. The most popular models in this group are called “Liana” and GIMI Lift. This is the same design, just Russian (Liana) or foreign manufacturers. They are easy to use, as they allow you to lower and raise one bar at a time, place them at different heights.
Ceiling-mounted clothes dryer - A single suspension for the entire structure. Several crossbeams (from 2 to 6) are fixed on telescopic hangers. You can only lower and raise them together.
The second option is easier to install, has a lower cost, but is less convenient. All planks are at the same height. This makes it difficult for laundry that is closer to the wall or in the middle rows to dry out. The second point: the dryer loaded with wet laundry is not so easy to lift.
Hanging dryers are a bit more difficult to install. All crossbars are attached to two planks on the ceiling, but each of them has a rope that allows you to lower / raise the rods for hanging clothes. So during installation, in addition to installing the crossbars on the ceiling, it is necessary to fix another bar on the nearby wall, on which the ropes are fixed. The bars in ceiling dryers of this type can be made of plastic, powder-coated steel (Gimi) or aluminum (Liana). You can find wooden crossbars from other manufacturers, but the ones listed above are represented by a large number of models.
Wall models
The most famous model is the wall-mounted clothes dryer on the balcony with twine attached to opposite walls. In home-made versions, hooks are driven into the wall or a bar is attached to which all the same hooks are fixed (these can be nails bent up). Between these hooks strings / thin ropes are stretched. This is a well known variant. Far from the most aesthetic, but the cheapest and very common.
An improved and ennobled option is a clothes dryer on the balcony with twisting ropes. It consists of two parts: a stationary one, which is attached to one of the walls, and a mobile one, which we attach to the opposite wall before hanging the laundry, and remove it when it is dry and removed.
There are several more designs of wall-mounted clothes dryers for balconies and loggias. They have a common feature – they are mounted on angled or T-brackets. And the structure can be very different. For a small amount of laundry, folding wall-mounted dryers on the balcony are convenient. When folded, they do not clutter up the space, they unfold and fold easily – you just need to pull the extreme bar and you can hang the laundry. It is also easy to fold the model – just press the extreme bar in the direction of the wall. Everything folds into a compact rectangle.
The disadvantage of these dryers is one: when closed, you can’t hang anything on them. And you can only lay them out in their entirety – you can’t extend one or two slats.
Also, folding wall-mounted dryers do not clutter up the space. They are a frame with stretched ropes or installed rods. The frame is movably mounted directly on the wall or in the housing. It can be fixed with stops, straps, chains. If you want to make a clothes dryer on the balcony with your own hands, these are the simplest, most reliable and compact models.
If necessary, it is folded back, the angle of inclination is determined by the side holders – thrust bars, but there are models with dense tapes.
There is also a wall version of the Liana described above. In this case, the bracket to which the slats are attached is fixed on the wall higher, the slat with adjustment threads on the same wall, but lower.
When installing wall models of clothes dryers, it is advisable to mount them using all the holes that are in the brackets. Then we can hope that even loaded to the maximum, they will not fall.
Floor installation
This group does not require installation at all, but floor dryers are usually made folding to save space. For the most part, they are made of thin metal pipes coated with powder paint. More expensive models can be made of stainless steel, but there are also wooden ones. The latter are mostly homemade. In any case, wooden ones are rare in our stores.
In any more or less large store, there are models with folding legs and reclining sides. And there are both simple models, and with electric heating. In this case, a low-power heating element is built into the tubes on which the laundry is hung. If the tube is touched while the heater is running, it will feel pleasantly warm to the touch, but not hot, so that even the most delicate fabrics will not be harmed.
Models of heated clothes dryers may have heaters in only one of the parts (as in the photo above) or throughout the entire working surface. In the second case, the power consumption is greater, but not by much, since the surface is heated only slightly.
There are a lot of folding floor dryers for clothes. After all, linen has always been dried since the person had clothes. Here the masters are trying to come up with something interesting, roomy and, at the same time, compact.
Selection options
The clothes dryer on the balcony is selected not only by design, but also by parameters:
- number of rods and their length;
- rod material;
- bracket material.
The material is clear. The best, but also the most expensive, is stainless steel. Just don’t confuse it with chrome steel. As a rule, chrome plating flies around very quickly, after which the metal begins to rust. Ordinary powder-coated steel behaves well, but only if the technology was not violated during painting. Otherwise, rusty spots will also “crawl”.
The combined version is very good: the supporting parts of the structure are made of powder-coated steel, and the lintels on which the laundry is hung are made of plastic. This type of dryers can be called optimal in terms of price / quality ratio. Modern plastics are a fairly strong material that can withstand the load from linen, it is not very expensive and does not change its performance characteristics for a long time. But in the supporting structures, especially at the junction of the legs of folding floor models, the presence of plastic is undesirable. There is still too much load for plastic.
The combination of characteristics will determine how convenient or not to use a particular model. For example, for drying bed linen, rods with a length of at least 2 meters are optimal. In this case, any part of the double set can be hung without folding.
The amount of laundry that can be hung at one time is determined by the total length of the rods. It is usually in the description, but if not, then you can multiply the number of rods by the length. Here we get the same characteristic. Here, of course, the larger the number, the more linen you can hang. But, on the other hand, the more space on the balcony or loggia will have to be taken under the dryer.
Photos of interesting ideas
A clothes dryer can also be original and interesting. There are models that are convenient and compact, there are those that surprise with the presence of technical “bells and whistles”. In general, interesting models are presented below.