Knowledge

Why Clothes Line Has a Polyester Core

Every rotary airer in this catalogue specifies PVC line with polyester yarn inside. It is a detail that never makes the packaging and is the single biggest cause of complaints when a supplier leaves it out.

PVC alone creeps

Plasticised PVC stretches slowly under sustained load. A line strung tight at the factory is slack after a season of full washes, and once one line is slack the whole airer looks broken.

The polyester yarn carries the load

A polyester core inside the PVC jacket takes the tension. The PVC becomes a weather and dirt jacket rather than a structural element, which is exactly what it is good at: it wipes clean and does not absorb water into cotton.

Diameter follows span

2.3 mm is specified on the shorter runs and on the camping dryers, 2.8 mm on the 40 m and 45 m sizes of LYQ201, and 3.0 mm across the heavy-duty and top-quality models. A longer unsupported span carries more weight per metre of line.

Polyester rope on the retractables

The retractable reels use either 3.0 mm PVC line or a plain polyester rope. A rope winds on a spring drum more reliably than a jacketed line because it has no memory.

What to ask a supplier

Ask whether the line has a core and what it is made of. If the answer is just a diameter, the line is probably solid PVC and it will go slack.