Valia Hotel Bangkok: How to use the en-suite dryer (yes, it works!)

(Dieser Artikel erscheint auf Englisch, damit internationale Reisende ihre gewaschenen Kleider trocken kriegen)

In early January 2025 I lodged at the Valia Hotel Bangkok for a few nights. I chose the Junior Suite with Club Lounge Access.

The suite is equipped with a laundry machine with a built in dryer, a so called washer-dryer: Electrolux UltimateCare 300 Wash&Dry with the model number EWW8024E3WB.

After washing my first load of clothes, the clothes came out very humid, if not still even wet. How could that be?

I called the reception and asked what I had to do to get my washed clothes dried in the machine. The friendly gentleman at the other end of the line told me that the washer unfortunately can’t dry clothes. He offered to send me more hangers so I could hang my clothes inside the suite and air-dry them.

After quite some online research, retrieving and looking at the English manual of the appliance, and fiddling with the settings I can deny this claim: The washer-dryer indeed is capable of fully drying washed clothes!

Hint: I found the manual through Google. The PDF version carries the name th-eww8024e3wb-um.pdf, and at the time of writing this blog post it can be downloaded here: th-eww8024e3wb-um.pdf

Most wash programs of the machine do come with a drying phase, although it is not sufficient to dry clothes.

What’s crucial to know: After the machine has completed it’s duties, one needs to switch to dry only-mode. This is indeed possible, but one has to make sure to first select a wash program (yes, you didn’t misread this!) which includes a drying cycle. You then can tell the machine to skip the wash cycle completely, and go straight to drying.

This is indicated on page 22 of the manual:

But which programs include a drying cycle? This is indicated in the table on page 12:

Cottons

Mixed

Energy Saver

Spin

Rinse + Spin

Full Wash 60

After you selected one of those programs, make sure to use the Mode button (label B, pictured on page 10) to switch the machine to Dry Only Mode:

Once operated correctly, the LED labelled E will be lit in orange (amber), and the LED labelled F won’t be lit blue:

Last, one should use the Dryness Level button (label H) …

… to switch the mode to Extra Dry (indicated by the LED with label B).

Once this is all set: Pushing the start button (button with label D) will start the drying cycle.

Addendum

(April 25, 2025) If there are tourists who don’t like to fiddle with such user-unfriendly washer-dryers and who are looking for a hotel in the vicinity of Valia: The One Bedroom Apartments at the Oakwood Residence Sukhumvit 24, also on Soi 24, but much closer to Phrom Phong BTS station, are equipped with Siemens Wash & Dry 1260 washer-dryers. They are dead simple to use. The only drawback: The hotel and its rooms are visibly dated.