Kariba Washer / Dryer Combo

I have a Kariba washer / dryer combo on my '89 Carver 4207. It takes 2 hours to dry most loads. Is this normal? I'm in Southern Calif with pretty dry climate even on the water. Any ideas? Is Kariba still in business?

It's probably because the dryer is only 120 v.

I have started air drying my heavy towels. as my 120 volt dryer and slow as well. Of course I am in South Florida so that helps a lot

mikekomm said:

I have a Kariba washer / dryer combo on my '89 Carver 4207. It takes 2 hours to dry most loads. Is this normal?

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Is it a vented or non-vented dryer?

We have a washer/dryer combo that's vented outdoors, and she's dries just as quickly as a vented household dryer.

Combination washer/dryers by design use the same drum for both the wash and the dry cycle. To be effective you must split the wash load into two parts as a dry cycle only functions effectively when the drum is half empty. A normal household pair of washer and dryer has a much larger dryer drum then the wash drum.

A non-vented dryer has a reputation of being very slow.

Mine is vented. There was a non-functional blower connected to exhausted air from the dryer. Going to hook it up and see if it shortens the drying time.

mikekomm said:

Mine is vented. There was a non-functional blower connected to exhausted air from the dryer. Going to hook it up and see if it shortens the drying time.

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I would also do as said on splitting the washer load into two dryer loads or just wash half loads. Or one just lives with the long dryer cycle, which isn't necessarily bad.

if the blower is connected to the exhaust and not functioning it is effectively blocking the air flow which would effect dry time and possibly burn up heating elements

Here's a trick

These 120 volt driers are slow. The non vented driers extract the moisture and pump it out rather than evaporate it out with the vent cycle. Here's a trick that worked for me. Make sure you pull the clothes from the drier at the end of the cycle while still hot. Hang them on hangers or in a matter that lets the hot fabric evaporate the rest of the moisture. Run smaller dry loads as suggested. Heavy towels are a problem and best air dried or taken to the laundromat. They do wash fairly well. It was a big step up having a separate 240 volt drier.

We have a non-vented Kariba. We refer to it as a washer/warmer, as calling it a washer/dryer isn't very accurate. It's very good at washing clothes...

We will, however, try Scary's trick of hanging them to dry/cool/evaporate then splitting the already small load in half and dry them that way. Thanks for the tip!

That's normal. Those washer/dryer units can wash twice as much as they can dry, so you can't throw a full load of jeans or towels in there and expect them to dry. Use smaller loads and you'll be just fine. I've also had vented and non-vented units...they both dry the same.

First change we made to the boat was to replace the non-vented Splendide with a vented model.

We found there was a huge difference between the ventless and vented models- the ventless model damp-dried the clothes, while the vented model fires each load perfectly.

Keith said:

That's normal. Those washer/dryer units can wash twice as much as they can dry, so you can't throw a full load of jeans or towels in there and expect them to dry. Use smaller loads and you'll be just fine. I've also had vented and non-vented units...they both dry the same.

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I actually tried your (and others) suggestion last week, and it worked great.

With a "full size" load the drier leaves clothes too damp to put away, and air finish drying them works well.

With a smaller load the dryer works just fine.

I'm suspecting that using a longer drying time with larger loads would be just as effective. I currently use 90 minutes. I'll try it at 120 minutes and see how it works.

What I've found is that you need to keep on top of your washing with these little units. If you get behind its difficult to catch up due to the limited capacity

I have heard that the combo washer/dryers have a problem retaining wash water that slows or stops the dry cycle. One web poster put a valve at the low point of his water discharge hose so that he could purge all the water before drying. He claimed it worked much better.

Dryer vents?

How have you guys done with your dryer vents: out through the side with a cap, up on the boat deck through a mushroom vent, or any other way??

I was planning on a mushroom vent on the boat deck which can easily be closed.

I put the vent on the side of the boat, well above the waterline, with a louvered cover that opens automatically when the dryer air starts flowing.

I have mine.tru.the side of the boat up high covered by a clamshell

Krogen 42s have covered side walkways with a 29" approximate gunnel. My vent empties onto this walkway and is protected by a clamshell.

Ours vents out a grate on our STB side walkway under the overhang along with one of our ER blowers.

Mikekomm, did it work? What model do you have? Is it in the aft stateroom?