My Laundry Experience in Dubai (So Far)

I know what you're thinking. Is this REALLY an entire blog post about laundry?? I'm sure this is completely uninteresting to anyone besides me, but I have devoted so much time and energy to all-things-laundry here in Dubai, so yes, it deserves a dedicated post!

The villa we are leasing did not come with any appliances, so we had to purchase them all upon our arrival in Dubai. Back before we ever began looking for a home in Dubai, I had talked with several people about the differences in US appliances versus how they are made and used here in UAE. It's not recommended to bring your US appliances to use in UAE due to the electricity requirements and differences. The washer and dryer situation in particular is very different. What I learned is that most people here use a condenser type of washer which is actually a 2-in-1 machine -- it washes your clothes and then spins them dry in the same appliance. Of course, the clothes aren't ever really DRY in this type of machine. So then, you are required to take them out and hang them to dry. Dubai is such a warm and dry climate that your clothes will quickly dry this way. But I have to admit, this process did not appeal to me and I was hoping to find a better way.

My research indicated that tumble dryers were available here but most of the older homes wouldn't be able to support the vented connection. So we narrowed our villa search to the newer homes that would support a tumble dryer. This became more difficult than we imagined, and it was also quite the joke that our #1 requirement for a home was a tumble dryer connection! We noticed that the newer homes had a small hole which we assumed was the dryer vent leading to outside.

One of the homes we viewed came with the washer and tumble dryer already installed. Perfect!

Washer/dryer connections at the villa we leased. That tiny hole is what we assumed was the dryer vent to outside.

We selected the biggest washing machine at Carrefour, which was 10kg and would likely only manage 1/3 of what I was used to. For the dryer, we compared the various sizes and realized that the drum of the 7kg dryer was exactly the same as the drum for the 9kg dryer. (Weird?) So we just went with the salesman's recommendation for the 7kg "vented" dryer, since we trusted that he understood our needs.



All I could say when the appliances were delivered was, "Thank goodness for manuals in English!" The functions and buttons were so foreign to me that I had NO clue how to use them. It was not intuitive, at least not to me. I had a load of whites ready to be washed so I followed the directions for the hottest setting meant for towels -- 90 degrees (Celsius, I presume). When I pushed the start button I was shocked at what I saw on the electronic display -- 2:27, which means 2 hours and 27 minutes for the cycle to complete!




I'm thinking this wouldn't pass efficiency requirements in the US, ha! And for the record, most of the other wash settings also take between 1:45 and 2:27 to complete.

When we were grocery shopping and went to find the laundry detergent, I noticed the aisle for laundry products was set up quite differently from my usual HEB store in Katy. There was a long aisle, and 1 side had the selection of detergents, while the entire other side was dedicated to both stain fighting products and fabric softeners--a big section for each. I was surprised and said to Jeff, "This is a ton of options for fabric softener and stain fighting. I wonder if the water here requires it?" Jeff later asked a coworker who confirmed my suspicions. And then after my first load of whites was finished, I noticed that there was still a stain on one of the towels (which had been washed at the hottest setting), which led me to understand that I would indeed need the stain fighting products for simple laundry now, too!

My experience using the dryer for the first time was not much easier. I had to read the manual to understand the buttons and functions. I chuckled at the instructions for the dryer settings which included descriptions ranging from "P1: clothes are extra dry and can be put away" to "P6: clothes are damp and ready to be ironed."

(Clearly the dryer manufacturer was unfamiliar with the fact that I haven't owned an iron for over 10 years now. And the funny thing is that our package of temporary home furnishings, which was very basic and limited, actually included an iron and ironing board. I asked if we could trade those for something else but nobody appreciated my humor at the time.)

For my load of whites, I used the hottest/longest setting. Jeff and I were observing how the dryer was working for that first load. Upon further inspection, Jeff noticed that the hole we had previously thought was for the dryer to vent the heat was actually connected to the washing machine instead. Huh?? The only thing the dryer was connected to was the power source. After all the fuss about needing a vented tumble dryer, it turns out that the dryer actually just vents out underneath the machine. I was thoroughly confused but it seemed to work fine (although it definitely heats up the hallway by the dryer).

And one more thing. The dryer comes equipped with this compartment that holds a rectangular container designed to capture the water from the drying cycle. Every few loads or so, you are supposed to take out this container and empty the water. So interesting!

I was pleasantly surprised that my entire first load of towels and other whites were completely dry and could, in fact, be "put away" as the manual claimed. I will say, however, that despite using Tide detergent and Downy fabric softener, the smell of the clean laundry was just not fresh and wonderful like I've been used to back home with my Febreeze-scented high efficiency laundry detergent. I'll have to work on that to see what improvements I can make, because to me there is just nothing like that clean laundry smell.


* Disclaimer: The above is simply my own personal experience so far. I'm sure I will learn more to improve or change my experience, and I'm always open to suggestions and tips!