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Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

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Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#21

Post by fiblye »

bonoboTP wrote: post #18
throw0101a wrote: post #14

In Ontario, Canada, some condo boards for town house developments (like home-owner associations) didn't like people putting up laundry lines and so prevented them since backyards were considered "common elements" and under group jurisdiction. So the provincial government had an existing law that prevented the use of "renewable energy" systems from being blocked by local by-laws and such. So they classified clothes li…

I have a similar clause in my rent contract in Germany, forbidding line drying, and first I didn't really understand why people care about this (I planned to use the communal dryer anyway). But to be explicit, it's because the optics of visible laundry makes people associate to poor people who have no other drying options. They don't want the neighborhood to look like poor neighborhoods. Maybe it will become one of t…

Meanwhile, living in Japan, if you tell people you prefer to machine dry your clothes, they’ll tell you outright that it’s wasteful. The assumption is that it’s only used when rain makes it impossible.

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#22

Post by dingaling »

tenpies wrote: post #7
marton78 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Nothing beats it. Also, drying laundry electrically is a waste of resources, the sun will do it for free, as long as you live in a moderately warm country.

I am always disappointed that drying racks aren't more common in NA. Even in an apartment, you can set it up overnight and wake up to dry clothing in the morning. Better for the environment and your clothing.

Not so good for the apartment though, unless you have dehumidifying air conditioning.

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#23

Post by derefr »

I wonder whether the manufacturer of some existing artificial “fresh breeze” scent happened to already stumble upon a formula that closely approximates the chemical composition of the real thing, without knowing it. Do e.g. (scented) detergents contain these particular hydrocarbons? Does any air freshener?

Also: is there any knowledge of these compounds’ effects on the human body? Are they GRAS? I can imagine an evolutionary just-so story where our bodies like the scent because it tells us that whatever’s emitting the smell has, essentially, been UV-disinfected. But that doesn’t mean that breathing the scent volatiles themselves is good for us. Humans think all sorts of bad-for-us things smell/taste good, like ozone or antifreeze.

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#24

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

fiblye wrote: post #21
bonoboTP wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar clause in my rent contract in Germany, forbidding line drying, and first I didn't really understand why people care about this (I planned to use the communal dryer anyway). But to be explicit, it's because the optics of visible laundry makes people associate to poor people who have no other drying options. They don't want the neighborhood to look like poor neighborhoods. Maybe it will become one of t…

Meanwhile, living in Japan, if you tell people you prefer to machine dry your clothes, they’ll tell you outright that it’s wasteful. The assumption is that it’s only used when rain makes it impossible.

In Spain the attitude is similar, but for different reasons.

Environmental consciousness is sadly low in general, but cult to fashion and looks is strong. Machine drying anything but towels and sheets would be considered shabby by most, as it damages clothes.

When I was looking for housing, I visited some really luxury apartments (that I could never afford, but visiting is free and I'm a curious person, so why not) and having a good place to line dry clothes was always seen as a boasting point, never associated to poverty in the slightest.

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#25

Post by draw_down »

tenpies wrote: post #7
marton78 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Nothing beats it. Also, drying laundry electrically is a waste of resources, the sun will do it for free, as long as you live in a moderately warm country.

I am always disappointed that drying racks aren't more common in NA. Even in an apartment, you can set it up overnight and wake up to dry clothing in the morning. Better for the environment and your clothing.

Well, sure, I do this for my laundry that I don’t want to be shrunk in the dryer. But this business of making it smell good, I don’t understand. Air drying doesn’t impart a smell at all.

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#26

Post by todd8 »

jungletime wrote: post #11

A frost would sometimes freeze the clothes stiff overnight. And dumb kid curiosity, if you licked the clothes you would get a faint taste of detergent. But the best small was fresh cut hay, sleeping on it in a barn

I wonder if the taste of detergent was present on the surface due to some differential process occurring during freezing that concentrated the detergent in the outer layer of frozen water? Hmm... probably not, but see [1] for how zone refining is used to concentrate chemical solutions through freezing.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_melting

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#27

Post by jasonv »

derefr wrote: post #23

I wonder whether the manufacturer of some existing artificial “fresh breeze” scent happened to already stumble upon a formula that closely approximates the chemical composition of the real thing, without knowing it. Do e.g. (scented) detergents contain these particular hydrocarbons? Does any air freshener? Also: is there any knowledge of these compounds’ effects on the human body? Are they GRAS? I can imagine an evol…

Oh, that’s where the name comes from.

I hang dry most of my laundry in my own house still. I learned to appreciate this after moving from a big city to a town of 13 people. Of course we all had lots of space but my house had one of those circular drying line contraptions. I enjoyed going out and hanging my laundry, even in the cold winters. Even in the snow. The sun and dry air did their thing pretty quickly.

When I lived in Amsterdam my apartment came with a new combo washer/dryer unit. As far as I could tell, it mostly succeeded in compressing the laundry into a really tight, nearly inextricable ball.

In tighter quarters having lots of laundry drying between apartments could be seen as less desirable. There are solutions for that too. But the noise and dirt of lint coming from drying machines is a counter factor to consider.

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#28

Post by exceptione »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #24
fiblye wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, living in Japan, if you tell people you prefer to machine dry your clothes, they’ll tell you outright that it’s wasteful. The assumption is that it’s only used when rain makes it impossible.

In Spain the attitude is similar, but for different reasons. Environmental consciousness is sadly low in general, but cult to fashion and looks is strong. Machine drying anything but towels and sheets would be considered shabby by most, as it damages clothes. When I was looking for housing, I visited some really luxury apartments (that I could never afford, but visiting is free and I'm a curious person, so why not) a…

I guess that you still centrifuge clothes, but do not tumble-dry them?

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#29

Post by Mary-Jane »

lukevp wrote: post #3

I can’t remember a time I ever line dried laundry outside. How significant is this smell, is it worth changing my laundry drying habits just to reproduce it?

There's two things I remember about line drying from when I was a kid: * Clothes having a slightly "rubbery" smell (similar to if you open a box of old RCA cables) * The clothes were somewhat stiff. I remember enjoying "breaking the stiffness" off of them by shaking them around :D

Re: Chemical analysis and origin of the smell of line-dried laundry

#30

Post by mauvehaus »

jiofih wrote: post #8
S_A_P wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done line drying and it ended up smelling not so great. Like someone who went outside on a hot day. I wonder if you need a low humidity environment for line drying to “work”.

You need sun the most. In most of the northern hemisphere it will only be viable for a couple months in the summer.

My sister in law doesn't own a dryer, and lives in New Hampshire. You can line dry all year long, at least at her lattitude.
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