Its coming to the time of year were I am washing MTB kit nearly everyday and will have to start putting it all over the radiators.

I have room for a tumble dryer(never had one in my life before) and was wondering do I need to faff about with ducting and cutting a hole in the wall or will one of these condensing boxes do a proper job and not get condensation/damp everywhere?

Any experiences, Cheers?

Condenser fine but ducted best.

I’ve heard they are crap. Cutting a hole and fitting some duct is a couple of hours work, anything else is a faff for many years!!

It’s sounds like you are talking about buying a vented drier and running it through one of those crappy condensing boxes….?

You’d be better off buying a condensing tumble drier…like this:

http://ao.com/product/vtc581b-hoover-condenser-tumble-dryer-white-41182-18.aspx

Supposedly the heat pump ones are the best, but you pay more for them…

We’ve got a vented tumble dryer in the garage, but sticking a large hole in the wall might not always be possible.

This has been discussed very recently!

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lets-talk-tumble-dryers

Our condenser is great. I thought it might be a bit crap, but have been pleasantly suprised. You can plumb them into a waste pipe if you have one nearby, we haven’t bothered – it’s no hassle to empty the tank every 2 or 3 loads

anything else is a faff for many years!!

We’ve had one for the last five years (a condenser dryer)

No problem at all. Put wet clothes in… take dry clothes out.

Not sure why you think there is any faff involved?

I was convinced I’d be cutting vent holes etc, but instead went for a cheap condensing Beko dryer (first dryer we’ve ever had). Now combine drying with doing jobs in the garage – all the heat that would have poured out of the vent serves as “free” garage heat. No issues with condensation or rust problems with bare steel stuff I have out there (condenser seems very effective and emptying the tank not the ball ache I imagined).

Can also gently dry shoes and rucksacks in the exhaust air.

Just make sure it has a low enough cool setting for synthetics – ours only has 2 settings (hot and thermonuclear). Tend to just dry the bulky / heavy cotton stuff like towels and bedding, leaving covered washing line space for the quick drying sport stuff.

I think he’s asking about the condensing boxes you can buy from Argos. They attach to normal vented drier hoses to try and convert them into a condenser dryer. I think they are generally pretty crap.

However a condenser dryer is good.

I think he’s asking about the condensing boxes you can buy from Argos. They attach to normal vented drier hoses to try and convert them into a condenser dryer. I think they are generally pretty crap.
However a condenser dryer is good

Ah, I hadn’t heard of those. Apologies if my earlier post caused any confusion, I though the OP was asking about condensing dryers.
I imagine the separate boxes would be pretty ineffective.

You won’t get heat recovery using a separate condensor box so no where near as efficient as a proper condenser dryer.

Yeah we tried done of those when we first moved in and wanted to keep using our vented drier but had no vent.

It was shit.

The box was literally a plastic tub with a hose attachment and cold water or ice in it, which you have to remember to fill before you start. I suppose it was better than nothing but still very damp. We got a heat-pump condenser drier to replace it as soon as we could.

I think he’s asking about the condensing boxes you can buy from Argos. They attach to normal vented drier hoses to try and convert them into a condenser dryer. I think they are generally pretty crap.

But as he doesn’t currently have any drier at all. There is no need to have a condenser box.

Just buy a condenser drier and use it. They are great.

Condenser dryer it is then, the extra expensive for this type of dryer out weights the cost of drilling a hole in the wall etc. Cheers

Good luck drying biking gear in a tumble drier…prepare for smaller clothes!

DickBarton, Dont say that now !!! 😥

New house new baby 2 years ago, bought our first ever tumble dryer (Beko condenser )and was put in a 25×10 conservotaory .
After the first winter of use conservatory was riddled with black mold, even with windows open. waited for summer to arrive and ‘borrowed’ some industrial strength black mold killer and black mold preventer from work. Had to apply it with a tooth brush (every nook/cranny) whilst wearing a hazmat suit, killer first, wash it all off then apply the preventer,,,,,nightmare.

Tumble dryers in the garage this winter.

After the first winter of use conservatory was riddled with black mold,

Sounds like it’s broken in some way.

Ours is in a tiny room in the cellar and it’s dry as a bone after 5 years. Last two years or so it’s on almost every day!

Couple of posters taking about free heat/mould from their condenser dryers…are there two types?

We’ve got an oldish Hotpoint combined washer dryer and it doesn’t emit any heat or exhaust air, the only difference is it sounds different when drying…

The heat is recirculated, and the fluff and moisture goes down the drain.

are there two types?

Ones that work, and ones that are broken I reckon.

condenser dryers…are there two types

There are two types; ‘conventional’ dryers with a condenser added on, ie they heat the air with electric elements so that it will absorb more moisture, and then cool it afterwards to get the moisture out (instead of venting it outside), and heat pump dryers that use a similar technology to a fridge in reverse to use the heat from the condensing part of the cycle to warm the air. Heat pump dryers run cooler (so less chance of damaging synthetics), take longer and use less electricity, but are more expensive to buy and potentially to fix (as they’re more complex). They also work best in a ‘room temperature’ environment, ie, not in a conservatory or garage in winter. As in my post above, we have a heat pump dryer and compared to the vented one we had before, I think it’s saved a lot of electricity.

My guess is that the problems people have with damp air being put out are either from non-heat pump models, or (possibly) heat pump models being used in a colder environment.