Whitney Design Sunline Energy-Saver Umbrella Dryer

 I bought one of these, took it home, put the ground sleeve in the ground in cement.... and then found that the brackets that hold the arms onto the pole and to each other are made of plastic!!  Two of these were broken when I took of the plastic cover - they look like metal, but they're thin plastic.  I took it back to Home Depot, which refunded my money, and will never buy a Whitney product again.  A neighbor gave me a 50-year-old umbrella dryer that is all metal and much sturdier and works perfectly!!  You really have to look carefully to find one that is well made and will last... check out Breezecatcher, and Hills Hoists... they are expensive but probably in the long run will be cheaper to actually use.

I'm very happy with this umbrella dryer. You're technically supposed to install it by digging a hole and filling it with cement and then putting the holding sleeve insdie, but I just put the sleeve straight into the dirt and it works fine. Not quite as stable, but certainly stable enough, and it skips that pain-in-the-butt installation step.

Once you have the sleeve in the ground, the umbrella sets up easily and can also fold up and be stored elsewhere, which is nice. I've found that the lines usually get a little tangled, but they're easy to untangle when putting the drying rack up.

Hanging the clothes on the rack is simple. One nice aspect about the umbrella is that it rotates, so you can just stand in one spot and rotate it around as needed while hanging clothes. It's got tons of drying space too. I could probably fit 3 full loads of laundry on it at once, except we never have more than one or two at a time.

One aspect my wife was concerned about is that in her experience, drying clothes outside on clotheslines tends to make them stiff. It turns out in our experience that's only been a problem for towels, but clothes stay reasonably soft and loose.

The only significant downside is that it takes a little while to hang the clothes up, whereas it only takes a few seconds to toss them into a dryer. Still, you're saving a lot of energy and money by not running the dryer, so I think it's well worth it. In reasonably warm weather the clothes only take about 2 hours to dry, which is quicker than I expected.

Overall I'm quite happy with this outdoor umbrella dryer. It's a nice addition to my green arsenal!

My husband mounted this umbrella-style line in a bucket of cement.  Works great!  I can get three extra large loads on at one time, if I am careful to use space wisely when hanging up clothes.  With three kids in school uniforms, baseball uniforms and daily swimming classes, I do 2 loads of laundry a day.  Since getting this line, I have only had to use my dryer twice in 1 1/2 months!  Amazing!  Admittedly, takes a little longer than using the dryer and as a working mom, I have to make sure I hang a load or two early in the morning before work.  Also a laundry basket with wet clothes is surprisingly heavy, but overall I am thrilled with my line and I feel good about my little efforts to go green!

I'm lucky that I live in sunny San Diego, so I do not have inclement weather to worry about, also we live on a private 1/3 acre, so my neighbors don't have to see my hanging laundry and I can hang up clothes in my pajamas (who wants to get dressed up; just to hang clothes on the line!).

Overall, I am very pleased with my line.  The lines are a little saggy and I've been too lazy to pull them tighter, but doesn't affect the way the clothes dry.