Household Essentials MD-61 Five-Line Indoor/Outdoor Mini Retractable Clothes Dryer
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Household Essentials MD-61 Five-Line Indoor/Outdoor Mini Retractable Clothes Dryer
Customer Review: Pretty good for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought two of these clotheslines after moving from a house into an apartment and realizing just how silly it is to put quarters into laundromat dryers, when my desert climate happily dries clothes for free. They're functional, but they do have some issues.
The first problem we encountered is that it does not come with the necessary hardware to mount it. It does come with the necessary screws, but the drywall anchors that are included will not actually anchor it to the drywall. At least I think those were drywall anchors; they looked like cheap versions of the kind I've used in the past. Being not all that aware of hardware, I guess I could be wrong in that assumption. At any rate, I had to go buy drywall anchors before I could mount the clothesline.
The other problems are related to the plastic construction. First, the way to get the line out is to pull the gray knob outward, and that unlocks the spinning mechanism. You then grasp the bar that the lines are mounted to, and walk to the where the hooks are on the other side of the room. Except with ours, the gray knob continually slides into the locked position, so you have to stand in front of the unit and yank until you're fairly sure you have enough line. It would be better if there were a way to prevent it from accidentally sliding to the locked position.
Second, there's no way you can tighten the line after you've hung clothes on it. Well, maybe there is, but I couldn't do it without putting what seemed like too much pressure on the plastic. I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to hang pants on this, because of how low it droops when you hang things. That may be partially because I'm five feet tall, and my husband is over six feet tall. So, not only is the unit mounted a little low so I can reach, but his pants are a little long.
One thing that isn't a problem is the product has a little brushed metal plate attached to it, proudly proclaiming that it was produced by the Butts Manufacturing Company. This isn't a problem to me, but my teenage son found it to be a crisis. He promptly stuck stickers all over the unit that's mounted in his bedroom, so his friends won't see that. Another thing I noticed is that the line does not appear to be plastic-coated as advertised. It appears to be some sort of plastic-nylon type of fiber. Either the information is incorrect, or I've seen some strange plastic-coated clotheslines in my time, and had entirely the wrong mental image of what to expect. Either way, the line is completely satisfactory as it is.
Taking all that into account, I'm actually pretty happy with it. The price was low, and I knew that the plastic construction wouldn't be anything spectacular. One unit can take an entire load of clothes, which is the main reason I chose this model and not a single-line model with more durable metal parts. The line doesn't appear to leave odd marks on clothes, like my mother's clothesline always did. And they certainly appear durable enough to last a few months. They'd probably last years if I were only drying an assortment of handwashable, delicate items.
Customer Review: Whitney Design MD-61 5-Line Indoor/Outdoor Mini Retractable Clothes Dryer
Summary: 1 Stars
This is the cheapest excuse for a cloths line I have ever seen. First, the clothes line arrives with no hardware. So I had to go out and buy my own screws and hooks to mount it. The first time I used it the flimsy plastic end snaps in half. So I have to go into the basement, find a piece of wood to duct-tape it back together. Second time I use it its ok. Used it again today, and all the lines on the retractable side came undone. I don't know who to contact about this because I had to cut up the box for the template to hang the clothes dryer ( which was also wrong and had to drill another hole)so I have no box to send it back in.
I don't want to give anybody the wrong Idea, I have made many purchaes with Amazon and have been happy with them but this item could only hold light laundry such as socks and underware at best.
Whitney Design MD-61 5-Line Indoor/Outdoor Mini Retractable Clothes Dryer
Customer Review: You get what you pay for
Summary: 2 Stars
I should have known that the 5-line retractable clothesline as purchased through [...] would be cheaply made as it was cheaply priced, but was negatively impressed with everything about it. For example, the mounting bracket for the housing assembly is flimsy and bent out and pulled away from the wall the moment the clothesline was loaded. The screws were even soft and cheap. The locking mechanism bent while stretching the lines to the tension required to support anything over five pounds (+/-) without sagging substantially. During the initial dry run, the lines would not retract fully. Prognosticating structural failure, before using, I ran strapping around the housing and line end bar, anchoring them to the wall in an attempt to keep them from either pulling the housing away or snapping off the line end bar, thus making the unit non-retractable. The distance stretched is 10'-4" and the lines sag considerably with only one pair of damp jeans hanging from near the end of one line! I'm not sure how long this clothesline will last, but anticipate not very. Cheap, cheap, cheap! Menard's has a wider and longer 5-line unit for $45 that appears to be ten times better than this 'Butts' cheap plastic crap. Before opening, I was tipped off as the picture on the box is so 70's. It's so cheap, I feel I've wasted too much time trying to spare any prospective consumer's thirteen bucks.
Addendum, March 8, 2007: Since I have strapped the unit in place, I must say that I was wrong in my prediction that the 'Butts' clothesline wouldn't last. It has been getting used probably twice a week, and still as good as installed. So, if you know you will have to reinforce the unit's installation and that you won't be able to retract the lines, go ahead and buy one.
Customer Review: You get what you pay for.
Summary: 1 Stars
This product is a piece of junk. The lines do not pull out easily. They do not retract easily. The lines are tangled within the unit. When I tried to pull the lines out one of them tore.Customer Review: good deal
Summary: 3 Stars
Ive seen these things for 60 bucks in hardware stores, so couldn't pass this one up. It does the trick just fine.