Not happy with two things in my apartment

Paddy Dreadful

I moved into a new apartment back in april and whilst I am generally happy there are 2 things I am not happy about

1.The clothes dryer is one of those hotpoint combi units and I have tried to set the program properly but it does not dry clothes

2.The freezer is a very small compartment in a mini fridge and it doesn't freeze any food I put in it

Do I have a case for compliant for these things to be either replaced or rent reduced?

MarkAnthony

Not on the dryer. It's the first thing I say to tenants - I don't have one, I'll get you one but they're crap, or you can have a separate until somewhere inconvenient or you can use the heated clothes horse I used for years with no bother or mould. Sensible tenants so with option 3, although they would have cause to complain hence I leave it open to them to change their minds.

Freezer, maybe. Is there room for a separate unit? Rather than make a big deal why not ask the LL if there is something they can do. Don't expect the neatest solution in the world if space is limited.

Rew is open to interpretation:

'Facilities for cooking and for the hygienic storage of food, for example, a 4-ring hob with oven and grill, fridge-freezer and microwave oven'

wench

Paddy Dreadful wrote: »

1.The clothes dryer is one of those hotpoint combi units and I have tried to set the program properly but it does not dry clothes

Have you cleaned out the filter?

See the video on the top right of this page if you're not sure how
http://www.hotpointservice.ie/appliances/washing-machines/how-to-videos/

awec

IMO it doesn't matter what you do to those combi-dryers, they are just rubbish.

The only thing they are useful for is when towels or clothes are almost dry and you need to give them a quick 20 minute blast. That's about all they can manage, if you put wet stuff in it'll come out just as wet as it went in.

air

I had a hotpoint combined unit & while not amazing it did work.
2 things that most people miss:
1. The Max load for drying is about half that of the wash cycle.
So if you want to dry a full wash you need to take out half & do it in 2 loads.
2. If you don't adhere to 1. above, there isn't enough room in the small drum for air to circulate.
This leads to 2 outcomes:
2.1 The clothes won't dry
2.2 The drum overheats and a resettable overheat switch trips.

Yours has likely been overloaded on the dry cyxle by yourself or a previous tenant.
If you pull out the machine and lift the lid you'll see the black rectangular thermoswitch in the middle of the foil covered hot air duct.
Press the small red button in the middle of it and you're good to go.

Chris_5339762

Dehumidifier. Everyone should own one, they're fantastic things.

The_Conductor

I'd suggest going the dehumidifier and clothes horse route too. Those damn combi things are a pain in the proverbial. When mine finally died- I replaced it with a large capacity washer (I have young kids), two clothes horses and a dehumidifier. I haven't looked back.

Peregrinus

As others have said, the combination washer/dryers are generally recognized as being pretty crap at drying clothes. Their only advantage is that they save space, which in an apartment is a relevant consideration. Because of space considerations an apartment wouldn't normally be equipped with a separate washer and dryer, so unless it's something stipulated in the lease I don't think you'll get much joy.

As for the fridge/freezer, the freezer compartment in a standard fridge isn't designed to freeze food - it's designed to make ice, and to keep purchased frozen food adequately chilled until consumption. The temperatures required to freeze fresh food, and keep it edible more or less indefinitely, are well below the temperatures that a fridge requires, and you need different cooling apparatus for the two purposes. You can get a fridge/freezer which is actually two separate appliances in a single case, but you need high-grade insulation to separate them, otherwise the fridge will make the freezer too hot, or vice versa. Your typical household fridge with freezer compartment does not do this. Again, unless your lease stipulates that the landlord will provide a freezer, I don't think you have much to go on.

There is, of course, nothing to stop you buying your own dryer and your own freezer and putting them into the apartment, if you have the space.

charlietheminxx

I just moved in somewhere with a similar situation and bought a freezer and a clothes horse. These were things I looked into when I viewed the place because I knew, as above, ice boxes in a fridge are not really suitable for freezing leftovers etc. Did you not check these things out when you viewed the place OP?

You can get small counter top freezers in Harvey Norman/DID for around €110 if space is a concern?

The_Conductor

charlietheminxx wrote: »

You can get small counter top freezers in Harvey Norman/DID for around €110 if space is a concern?

I got an under counter ex-display model 5* Beko for €100 in Currys.
Shop around- and don't be shy about putting offers on display models- even in the main chain shops- you may be surprised at the bargains you get.

GuitarMusic

If you are looking for a dehumidifier to dry clothes get a desiccant model with 'Laundry' or 'Turbo' mode installed. Some models also come with a louvre with which you can point the hot air that is being pushed out of the unit onto the clothes.

Several good dehumidifiers for drying clothes indoors are the EcoAir DD122Mk5, Meaco DD8L and the Delonghi DNC65.

The Meaco heats up the surrounding air by 10-12C when in Laundry mode which helps drying as well.