[Closed] Tumble dryers

Most lycra won't survive a tumble dryer!

Any reason you can't just vent it outside? Less faff in the long run.

And as above, there's a lot you can't dry in it regardless! Generally limited to cotton stuff with no printed logo's.

I've got a condenser dryer and I always chuck lycra shorts in. Just dry them on a low heat and mine have always come out fine.

i’m not putting a hole in the wall for a vented one

Why not?

I'd check out Which, should be in your library.

The answer is a gas one👍 More efficient, vents outside.

We have a condenser drier. It's ok, but less energy efficient than a vented one, and more complex. If you have the ability to vent it that'd be more betterer IMO.

Heat pump Bosch dryer here. Uses naff all electricity and dries very effectively. It is slow but very gentle on clothes, especially synthetics. Self cleaning condenser is great, as is being able to plumb the condensate output into the drain. No moisture at all in the room when running.

We got a Beko std condenser after resisting a dryer for umpteen years. Gets used for the heavy slow drying cotton (towels, bedding, work and school stuff) in winter. I try and combine it with doing jobs in the garage so it acts as "free" heating. Outside venting wastes that heat, so if fitting inside your house, consider that you could offset cost of running dryer against turning the heating off for a bit.

Two temperature settings of hot and thermonuclear. Wouldn't dare let cycling kit near it, although do dry shoes and backpacks by the rear exhaust vent. Condenser works well but you'd need one with more temp settings to risk bike kit.

Ours is just on a timer. Buying again would probably get one with a dryness sensor.

We’ve got a condensing one, it wrecks the odd thing (it seems to make cotton stuff skink in odd ways) it’s added £30 a month to our energy bills and I detest the ****ing thing.

Still I means the house isn’t full of damp clothes all winter, I just wish Mrs Jay could be arsed to use the line in summer when it’s her turn to do the washing.

As DTs said, go gas. Cheaper to run, more efficient, better for the environment (at the moment at least), less maintenance (zero really), more reliable, doesn’t burn your house down when/if it goes wrong. No real downsides really.

And the gas Ones are made in UK

Cheers everyone. Def can't be bothered with getting a gas one installed, or really smashing a hole in the wall (assume it's a decent sized hole that's required....) - we're aiming to move house in the next few months so condenser seems the sensible option.

None of the driers I've looked at seem to have temperature settings as such, just programmes such as 'sports' etc. Even the 500 quid plus ones don't seem to let you choose say 25 degrees.

Making the hole is easy, either get an sds drill and core bit and drill halfway from each side so you get s neat hole in the brickwork or pay a handyman to do it, it's an hour's work tops plus £20 for the plastic outlet.

I imagine 25c doest exist as a setting because it would take weeks to dry anything. You only need two settings, 'delicate' for doing down sleeping bags and 'thermonuclear' for bedding etc. We just use it for stuff like towels and bedding that takes days to dry normally over the winter, anything synthetic, printed, or elasticated still has to go on the airer.

Get a heat pump one, much more efficient for not much extra outlay. I’ve always put off, but new baby made it more desirable.
Went for a Candy from AO at £350 delivered. Built in delay timer to set it to run during off peak at night, all dry by morning for 35p in leccie. Heavy cotton towels take 3h, mixed synthetics about 2h.
Programs not just about heat setting but also tumbling pattern and how dried it takes it to prevent over drying. All I’ve used so far is cotton, synthetic and baby and they’ve all done what I expected. Also has timer if you’d rather.

Making the hole is easy, either get an sds drill and core bit and drill halfway from each side so you get s neat hole in the brickwork or pay a handyman to do it, it’s an hour’s work tops plus £20 for the plastic outlet.

Yeah, i've got all the kit, and i'm not worried about the actual process - the problem is the configuration of the supports for the kitchen work surface - for various reasons i can't just go straight out of the back, i'd have to do a 90 degree turn, then i'd have to move one of the work surface verticals, and then..... i just can't be bothered for a house we're going to be in for maybe 6 months.

The heat pump ones use a humidistat to determine when everything’s dry. You can choose the level of dryness for each program, but yeah there is no direct temperature control. Mine has sportswear and down settings to cover things like gore tex reproofing and sleeping bags which seem to do exactly what I’d want.

I can run low or high temperature timed programs, but even then the humidistat will intervene when it can’t sense any more moisture in the drum.

We have a condenser drier. It’s ok, but less energy efficient than a vented one, and more complex. If you have the ability to vent it that’d be more betterer IMO.

have you got anything to back that out? That's the opposite of everything i've read about dryers. Anything that vents to outside is presumably chucking a lot of hot wet air to outside - that doesn't sound very efficient.

Our condensing heat pump drier doesn't even add much heat to the room it's in and supposedly costs about 10p a load to run. Because they run at a low temperature they're supposedly safe to dry almost anything in. I don't put synthetic cycle kit, or merino, in it regardless but that drys quickly anyway. Claimed power consumption is less than 2kwh for a full cotton load which is about 30p.

I have a sensing condensing one. I'll put stuff on a timer so it helps warm the house a bit when people are about. It's a Hotpoint one that was cheap warranty replacement for those ones that burned people's houses down 😬. Hotpoint are crap but the original one was cheap. The sensing works ok on cotton (high)/mixed (medium) setting but is useless on the synthetic setting. I wouldn't buy another - I've had a fault code that I've managed to fix because the sensor for the heating element gets covered in fluff/lint. I had to take the back off it and the amount of fluff around the heating element was a real worry! (especially as it's a replacement for one that was a known fire risk!). I won't put it on when there's no one at home.

I'm not sure how people manage without tumble dryers in winter, especially people with kids.

I'll go heat pump next time, though not being able to dry a full load in about hour will be a shame (especially as that's the same time it takes for the washing machine)

supposedly costs about 10p a load to run. ...Claimed power consumption is less than 2kwh for a full cotton load which is about 30p.

gap between memory and fact check there

especially as that’s the same time it takes for the washing machine

Don't expect that when you replace your washing machine. The extra efficiency of modern machines seems to have come from increased time soaking vs being agitated. The 'standard' 40C cotton wash on our new machine in the best part of 3 hours. I think even the 'short' synthetic wash is over 90 minutes.

Bosch heat pump here - does take longer but that's mainly because it's cooler. Instead of driving the moisture out with hot air it uses cooler air which it 'dries' first via the heat pump. More expensive but the reduction in our electricity bill suggests it's paid for itself in 2 years. That does depend how much you use it, we use it a lot as we don't dry anything outside because of pollen allergy.

Don’t expect that when you replace your washing machine. The extra efficiency of modern machines seems to have come from increased time soaking vs being agitated. The ‘standard’ 40C cotton wash on our new machine in the best part of 3 hours. I think even the ‘short’ synthetic wash is over 90 minutes.

Our Bosch washing machine is 2:40, but it has a 'speed perfect' button which knocks it down to 60min. Eco takes 3hrs+

We have a Beko sensing heat pump condenser one.

It does take a relatively long time to dry stuff and my experience of the drying sensor is that you almost always need to put stuff on for an extra ten minutes after it is "Dry".

But it is very energy efficient (A++ from memory), it can take a large load and it is much quieter than our old drier.

The condenser comes with an optional hose outlet, which you can run into to the waste water pipe your washing machine goes into. That way you don't have to faff about emptying the water from the tank.

Don’t expect that when you replace your washing machine. The extra efficiency of modern machines seems to have come from increased time soaking vs being agitated. The ‘standard’ 40C cotton wash on our new machine in the best part of 3 hours. I think even the ‘short’ synthetic wash is over 90 minutes.

My gran had an all in one bosch installed when she moved into a retirement flat. I can pop in for a cup of tea with half a load of washing, and come out an hour later* with it dry. Witchcraft I tell thee! Ideal cash rich/ space poor solution.

*quick/daily wash or whatever it's called, fastest spin and then dry till the sensor says it's dry.

We have a condenser drier. It’s ok, but less energy efficient than a vented one, and more complex.

I think it could be more energy consumption, but that's not the same as energy efficiency.

A vented dryer dries your clothes for 30p, a condenser dryer maybe takes 32p. But the vented dryer does nothing for the room it's in, a condenser adds the equivalent of 16p of central heating as the heat is all kept indoors. The downside is they do still increase humidity as the condenser can only cool it to room temperature at 100%RH, and in reality it'll not quite get there so that heating saving is offset against needing to crack a window open.

Our new Samsung washer is devilishly quick - normal dark wash in 1.40 or so. And it plays a tune when it's done which doesn't end on a perfect cadence, which is very annoying indeed.

We have a Bosch condenser dryer - it's not too much of a faff to empty the container every few loads, and it doesn't make the room humid.

doesn’t shrink all my cycling lycra / outdoor gear

Hardly challenging to dry vs bath towels, jeans, t-shirts, underwear? All my and my 10 year-old's nylon gear dries quickly naturally.

The biggest indicator of the energy efficiency of a heat pump condenser dryer is when you empty out the half litre of water that it's collected and think "our old dryer would have EVAPORATED all that".

But surely a condenser also has to "evaporate all that" water and then condense it again at the collector?

But surely a condenser also has to “evaporate all that” water and then condense it again at the collector?

It condenses it by cooling it with the incoming air, hence recovering a significant amount of the energy that was used used to heat it and making the whole process more efficient. If your condensing tumble dryer is using more electricity than a non-condensing one then best to get the repair man in.

We bought a portable dehumidifier which has made the (condensing) tumble drier largely redundant except for heavy things like towels. Has many other uses as well. Recommended.

I'm in need of a new dryer. After reading various reports it appears that the Heat pump verity cannot be used under 10 deg c.
As mine is in the Garage then its looking like a condenser dryer for me. If my Beco Freezer is anything to go by then it's looking like I might go for one in there range.
BTW Beco Fridge/freezer is recommended for use in garages..

Beko Heat Pump one here. Had it a year, paid £80 for 5yr warranty, fearing the worst, but it seems very well put together.
It works brilliantly, costs little to run & even has a light inside. Yes, inside...!!! 🙂

the Heat pump verity cannot be used under 10 deg c.

News to me. Ours in the garage and seems to cope fine.

my heat pump one is in the garage, seems ot work ok. Got to start capturing the water for use in my laurastar steam iron.

Beko ordered. Delivered on tuesday - I look forward to shrinking all my clothes.

We had a combined Bosch (I think - or possibly AEG) combined washer / dryer when kids were really young, but it was always getting fixed and eventually replaced under sort of warranty. Was a nightmare really.

Then moved house, to a bigger kitchen, settled on a decent washer, and a pulley with - ultimately - dehumidifier. Does the job pretty well I think, always had the backup plan of "get a dryer and chuck it in the garage" but we never needed to execute that.

My mistake its 5deg.
Taken from the latest beco spec dryer info
N.B. For condenser dryers to operate efficiently in outdoor spaces like garages and outhouses, the ambient room temperature should be above at least 5ºC. Below this the laundry in the dryer won't get warm enough, as the water that is trying to condense is also condensing on other cold surfaces as well