Korean Job Discussion Forums

[daveeslcafe888]

Hi Everyone,

All the new teachers and I are wondering why there are no electronic clothes dryers in Korea? (Save for the few at a laundromat).

Can anyone explain why?

I'm just curious, as it would seem like a great convenience to import.

Thanks

[northway]

The explanation I've heard is that Koreans think they wear out clothes really quickly, which is somewhat true. Also, there are a lot of caregivers in families (mothers, grandmothers, etc.) whose job it is to take care of the housework, so the time saving aspect of a drier isn't as relevant as it is in the West.

[radcon]

They are available in Korea. They are not popular among Korean housewives however: 1) Korean houses are small 2)The driers they do sell are expensive. I have one and its one of the best purchases I have made here in Korea.

[SeoulNate]

they also waste a crap ton of electricity

[glassandshells]

so how does one go about drying their clothes during the winter??

[highstreet]

same way you do in summer, with a laundry rack

[fortysixyou]

[sojukettle]

There are few ( if any ) stand-a-lone dryers.
Most people have a combined washing machine / evaporative dryer in the one unit.

Wash and dry in the same machine - save space, no need to move loads , set and forget. Efficient. !
But, practically it isn't; it doesn't work well for full loads, takes a long time so if you want to do more than one load it can take all day.
But it does save space and for small loads it works well.

It is a huge fallacy , urban myth that there are no dryers in the ROK.

sk.

[alice_w]

So where can one buy a clothes dryer? Gmarket? If so, what's the Korean words for it? I looked at zKorean.com couldn't work it out.

I'd LOVE to own a clothes dryer!

[TheUrbanMyth]

[SeoulNate]

Usually you can find a coin operated place (In Seoul) to take your stuff that you would like machine dried anyway.

At all four of the places I have lived (all in Seoul) I have been able to find coin laundry mats within walking distance of my apartment. Usually they do take some extensive searching on the internet to find though.

[denverdeath]

[weso1]

It's changing. For the longest Korea, like other Asian countries, was really poor. After the war, dryers were just a luxury few could afford. They were like Thailand today, were very few dryers exist.

But many new apartment buildings that are being built (or have been built in the last 5 or 10 years or so) have been made with dryers installed. We don't see them that much because most foreigners tend to live in villas or small room officetels. But I suspect in 20 years or so, dryers will be as common place as they are in the West.

[JSC]

Go to an LG Best Shop (those purple/pink colored stores that sell only LG branded products). They should have standalone dryers that you can check out.

I have one. Since I usually do a separate load of colors and whites in one "sitting", it significantly cuts down the total time for doing two loads of laundry. It's definitely a luxury to have one and undoubtedly raises my electricity bill, but for me it's worth it.

[AsiaESLbound]

Remembering how my mother hung clothes in freezing Winter weather years ago, I used a clothes horse on my freezing cold veranda last Winter. They took longer to dry, but it works and it's economical. I found my very powerful Korean washing machine to be hard on clothes though.