Onebyone

Be sure your dryer vent is at least 4 inches round. Anything less and your dryer will take forever to dry. Also be sure the dryer setting is set to auto dry not timed dry. Timed dry will dry clothes until that time is up, if dry before it finished the cycle it still keeps drying. A regular load takes about 16 minutes to dry in my dryer. A load of towels or cotton jeans about 25.

Peckish

Wow, that's pretty good, Onebyone!

Another factor with dryers is actually your washer's spin cycle. Years ago, when I was a new mommy, our washing machine died and we couldn't afford another at that point. My dad bought us the cheapest washing machine he could find. It washed just fine, but it didn't have a very fast or long spin cycle, so the clothes were not as wrung out as they should have been. My MIL came to visit and was convinced that our dryer was packed full of lint because it took so long to dry the clothes. She made my poor husband take the entire dryer apart one day while I was working. I came home to a cranky husband who had found zero lint in the dryer.

Austinite

We had a Sears Kenmore top loader mechanical agitator washer for 15 years, I can't remember what it was called but it was one down from the top of the line when we bought it in 2004. It was fantastic and when it died, I was so sad, spent days looking and finally settled on a LG top loader with no agitator. I was really skeptical about it but the clothes are coming out super clean, workout clothes are nearly spun completely dry, no issues with sheets or quilts and our water bill has dropped quite a bit (water is our second most expensive utility here, just under electricity.) There was such a difference in our laundry that I think the older washer was starting to die long before we noticed. A wash cycle is usually around an hour depending on load size and the dryer is less than half an hour, super happy with it! There is an option to add extra water to a cycle, I don't bother most of the time.

I miss the old dishwashers, my parents had one when I was in high school that sounded like a muffled lawnmower, probably used a ton of water but you put filthy dishes in and in an hour you had hot, clean, and *dry* dishes! Our dishwasher gets them clean but it takes nearly 3 hours for a basic cycle and half of it is wet so we have to let it dry in the machine or in the dish drainer.

Pennyhal

I've had fabric fade when detergent gets right on the fabric and sits there before the machine fills with water. So now I take the garden hose and fill the tub with a lot of water before turning the machine on to prevent this.