We bought this Kenmore clothes dryer at Sears twenty-one years ago:

The dryer served us well, but for the last year it’s had the unfortunate new feature of occasionally ripping holes in our clothes, and sometimes setting them on fire. 

Not “on fire” in the sense that flames were involved—I don’t think—but rather rendering them lightly singed.  

All of this was caused by a drum no longer aligned properly with the body, leaving a gap into which clothes could get caught, and then spun around with much friction. 

It is a testament to my ability to procrastinate, and my dislike of the appliance purchasing and delivery experience, that I was willing to have my clothes torn to shreds and set alight to avoid fixing the problem. 

But I finally overcame that: Olivia and I popped in to M&M Furniture in East Royalty on Saturday morning, talked to the friendly and helpful Helen Tran, and picked out a sleek, modern LG DLE3600W. Total time to purchase: 15 minutes. Consumer Reports was not involved, meaning my father is turning over in his grave (and perhaps that I will live to regret my haste).

The new dryer arrived today, and was hefted into place, and installed, by a capable crew of two, who also carted away the fire-dryer.

I’ve dried two loads of laundry in the new dryer so far, and none of my clothes have caught fire. Which you think would be a kind of baseline for a clothes dryer, but still seems amazing to me in light of recent practice.

It being 2021, the new dryer is, of course, also wifi-connected, meaning that I can, from my phone, stop it, start it, and tell how much time is left until the clothes are dry, from anywhere in the world!

I am unclear as to how this is an improvement over the previous “the clothes are dry when the dryer stops” method, but I’m game to experiment. In theory I can also say “Alexa, dry the clothes,” but I haven’t got that set up yet.