European combination washer/dryer on some decks of Viking Ocean ships

[Nippy Sweetie]

That was in response to @Jim Avery. They must have different machines in America. That's all I can think of to explain your complaints. 

Perhaps wily manufacturers make more profit by selling two machines for the one function? 

[Jim Avery]

4 minutes ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Literally never happens with ours. Just not a problem. 

These are very common machines here.

Must be different.  An improved design.  We loved the space saved as it was a small living space but had to live with the extra work for 7 years.  Has to be better than what we had.🍸

[Goosebear Mum]

Well, 20 minutes in our washer dryer at home, and clothes are almost dry. Hours, and they’d be on fire or dolls clothes!

 

[Haqdeluxe]

On the Viking Venus as I type...

For deck 4 we have the expected washer/dryer stack but with a new twist. The dryer door now has an integrated monitor and there is a PlayStation 6 wedged in between the washer/dryer stack. Great fun!

[Clay Clayton]

During our nomadic two years, several of the Airbnbs had the combo units, but we just usually hung thr spun clothes up to dry as otherwise it took several hours for the combination process to finish a load. We found that we would rather do two loads and hang them up and be finished the next morning when we woke up rather than spending two days for the machine to do the same. 
 

We first encountered the combo machine at an apartment hotel in Barcelona in the early 2000s and if you thought the Viking hieroglyphic instructions bare bad, imagine them in Spanish😳.  After trying to do one load and it never getting dry, we gave up.  Cut to 15 or more years later and we are back at the same great Barcelona hotel and they have the same machines.  Except this time we knew more about them and how better to use them.  It still took too long but we at least got dry clothes! 😂

 

I wonder if some of the difference between their efficiency in the UK and in North America is due to our voltage being 110/120 rather than 220/240 ?  Though since I’ve never encounter one in the wild in the states I don’t know what voltage they use. 

[CurlerRob]

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I wonder if some of the difference between their efficiency in the UK and in North America is due to our voltage being 110/120 rather than 220/240 ?  Though since I’ve never encounter one in the wild in the states I don’t know what voltage they use. 

 

That piqued my interest, as our standalone dryers run on 220 in NA. I looked up a GE combined model at Home Depot and it was 120V - may be something to the lower dryer voltage 👍. Perhaps someone with better engineering smarts than I can weigh in?   🍺🥌

[Pushka]

11 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Six hours?! It's nothing that that here at home.

It's been my experience in Australia as I posted earlier. Cycles take hours. 220 v. And then not a complete dry but always dampish. 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Pushka

[Nippy Sweetie]

This forum is to discuss cruising rather than laundry machinery which obviously vary enormously from country to country. Looks like UK/Europeans have different machines. 

[Iloveketo]

9 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

This forum is to discuss cruising rather than laundry machinery which obviously vary enormously from country to country. Looks like UK/Europeans have different machines. 

I’m sorry, but since the different machines on the Viking Star significantly affected my last cruise, I wanted advice on how they worked. I will be back on the Star in September and may need to use them. I was also curious if other Viking ship have them. I don’t care about people’s opinions on them. I just wanted to know how to use them, if I end up needing them. So, this question definitely has to do with cruising on Viking. 

[Nippy Sweetie]

Ok @Iloveketo. I don't know about the washer dryers on board but with my machine I set the programme according to what's being washed, set spin speed then set drying times and press to go. I'll attach a photo of my machine. It's not very good as I can't get far enough back to get the whole control panel in. Galley kitchen!

[Pushka]

4 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

I’m sorry, but since the different machines on the Viking Star significantly affected my last cruise, I wanted advice on how they worked. I will be back on the Star in September and may need to use them. I was also curious if other Viking ship have them. I don’t care about people’s opinions on them. I just wanted to know how to use them, if I end up needing them. So, this question definitely has to do with cruising on Viking. 

Totally agree it's relevant. And helps me plan what to take but I don't think Mars have the combo so that helps me. My experience is that I wouldn't use them but go searching for the singles or make sure I didn't use the dryer function. 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Pushka

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

22 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

I’m sorry, but since the different machines on the Viking Star significantly affected my last cruise, I wanted advice on how they worked. I will be back on the Star in September and may need to use them. I was also curious if other Viking ship have them. I don’t care about people’s opinions on them. I just wanted to know how to use them, if I end up needing them. So, this question definitely has to do with cruising on Viking. 

In my opinion, no worries about bringing this topic up!  I do a lot of laundry on board and really would have been caught off guard if I found the combo units. So thanks for bringing this to our attention! 

[seaquay]

Just back off the Star and can confirm deck 5 has 4 combined washer/driers.  Even though I live in the U.K. and have had a combined washer/drier previously, getting clothes dry in these was impossible.
 

 It’s obviously a recent switch as the instructions in the laundry fixed to the wall indícate separate  machines, a photocopy of the instructions for the new machines is stuck on top of them.  
 

Having read the instructions I still couldn’t get clothes dry and by having combi machines washing/drying  cycles were much longer so restricting the number of machines available at any one time.

[Jim Avery]

'a really bad move on Viking's part.

[Iloveketo]

20 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

'a really bad move on Viking's part.

I’m hoping it is a temporary solution because of supply chain issues and not the way of the future… I will be interested to see if they are still there when we are back on the Star in September. 
Instead of having the detergent put in by pressing a “button”, Viking had a container of Tide (I think that was the brand) Pods to use. So, I’m hoping it’s temporary… 🤞 

[Pushka]

4 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

'a really bad move on Viking's part.

Unless they have eight of the combos, to replace the four and four it will make the laundry room a mess as people will be waiting for hours for a machine to be done, and even then if the load isn't as dry as wanted, people might even accidentally start the entire cycle all over again just to get them dry. People don't read instructions. 

[CannotSwim]

The one advantage to a combined machine is not needing to return after washing, find an available dryer, and move the laundry. Just put it in and come back when the laundry is finished.

 

Hopefully they give a good idea of when the drying will be finished so the machine can be emptied and not sit full waiting for someone to show up

[Clay Clayton]

24 minutes ago, CannotSwim said:

The one advantage to a combined machine is not needing to return after washing, find an available dryer, and move the laundry. Just put it in and come back when the laundry is finished.

 

Hopefully they give a good idea of when the drying will be finished so the machine can be emptied and not sit full waiting for someone to show up

Except as several have noted, the combination machines on Deck 5 of this ship don’t completely dry the clothes despite taking much longer than when they are separate machines.  For me, I’m hoping that this isn’t something that is going to spread to all decks and all ships. 

[Jim Avery]

2 hours ago, CannotSwim said:

The one advantage to a combined machine is not needing to return after washing, find an available dryer, and move the laundry. Just put it in and come back when the laundry is finished.

 

Hopefully they give a good idea of when the drying will be finished so the machine can be emptied and not sit full waiting for someone to show up

In my experience, the drying is never done.

[JeffElizabeth]

Does the cruise line offer laundry services? I don't want to do laundry on vacation. My brother? He always spends the last day of the trip doing laundry.  He can't stand smelly/dirty clothes in his luggage.  

[SantaFe1]

3 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

In my experience, the drying is never done.

And what do you do with clothes that get washed, but not dried which are basically all of mine?  Can you take them out in between?  I never thought I’d be asking this kind of minutia on Viking, but alas.  Are they doing this maybe to get everyone to pay to have it done, and  do away with free laundry.  I certainly won’t be using this.

[LindaS272]

29 minutes ago, JeffElizabeth said:

Does the cruise line offer laundry services? I don't want to do laundry on vacation. My brother? He always spends the last day of the trip doing laundry.  He can't stand smelly/dirty clothes in his luggage.  

Yes. But doing laundry is easy—laundrette on decks 3, 4, 5, & 6–detergent included. To each his own.

[Paul73]

We're on the Viking Nepture World Cruise.  Neptune is the newest Viking ocean ship and has the standard 4 washers and 4 dryers that we've used on past Viking cruises. (I can personally vouch for the launderettes on decks 3 and 4)

[Pushka]

41 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

And what do you do with clothes that get washed, but not dried which are basically all of mine?  Can you take them out in between?  I never thought I’d be asking this kind of minutia on Viking, but alas.  Are they doing this maybe to get everyone to pay to have it done, and  do away with free laundry.  I certainly won’t be using this.

The clothes will not be wet but will still be damp. Likely they will need a hang up in the room overnight to be properly dry. 

[SantaFe1]

7 minutes ago, Pushka said:

The clothes will not be wet but will still be damp. Likely they will need a hang up in the room overnight to be properly dry. 

This is just ridiculous!!!!!  I will be sending things out, although I am not on the star.  As I said, perhaps this is want Viking wants.