Hello,

Most boring question ever. Need a new tumble dryer… all the main manufacturers seem to offer heat pump tumble dryers with good energy ratings… but boy do they seem to be slow to dry stuff.

Do the great and the good of stw have an opinion?

Yes they do take more time but seem to use a lot less energy and don’t seem to get so hot so less likely to wreck something that isn’t supposed to be tumble dried. Happy with our Bosch one.

+1 Stumpyjon

They take aaaaaaaaa…….aaaaaages. 4hrs+ for ours, so yes they draw less power but for way longer. Makes me wonder if it wears clothes out quicker (collars of shirts that get rubbed for instance)

They take aaaaaaaaa…….aaaaaages. 4hrs+

Really? Everything goes in our Bosch one on the “Mixed Load” setting, and takes 1hr23 minutes.

Which handily is within a few minutes of the 40deg “Mixed Load” setting that everything goes in the washing machine on.

Do they save £200 of electricity over their nearest competitors though, as that’s roughly the price difference. Also you have to find one in stock which is suffering the same chip shortage as everyone else.

Got an 8 year old Zanussi that keeps going with the odd capacitor or belt now and then. Takes just over 2 hours on the extra dry setting that I am told we have to use, before the clothes get steam ironed…

So it would probably be quicker if there were to be a regime change at chez oldnick.

Aye, our Bosch one takes ages – 3hrs ish for a decent load of cottons. It’s turned up to max sensitivity (i.e. dry it until it’s dry not damp) and stuff still sometimes needs a final 20 mins or so or airing before putting away. Much cheaper to run than the old one though.

Recently got a Miele one and couldn’t be more pleased.

Around 1kwh per 5-7kg cycle compared to 3 kWh for the old Miele condenser dryer.

5 loads a week at current energy prices works out at a saving of about £100 per year. Design life of Miele dryer 20 years.

Drying time is 1-2 hours depending on load. Not much different from the old dryer

As it operates at a lower temperature we throw everything in. So far nothing has shrunk, not even my Merino. It is a game changer for the actively lazy!

Our tumble dryer recently broke down so we end to look for a new one.
In the meantime we had an airer up and dried things on that. As I work from home the heating has to be on sometimes and I found over the course of a day everything would dry ok, popping some things on the rads themselves if they needed it.
We have now decided that we aren’t going to buy a new dryer in order to save electricity. As long as we keep on top of the washing we aren’t noticing any difficulties.
If you have a big family it might not be practical but it’s worth thinking if you actually need one at all.

Second Bosch unit here. Far more economical than the old washer/dryer we used to have. Dries things really gently but not found it to be slow at all. Towels will be done in 1hr30. Goretex setting is great. Only complaint is that the moisure sensor needs more than 2 or three items in there otherwise it’ll assume its job is done and shut down.

Fine fine fine. Thanks for the advice.

we looked at Heatpump dryers last year, but were told we couldn’t use one because ours is in the garage where it gets really cold , and they need decent ambient temperature to work properly. Worth considering if you’ve got yours in a cold place, utility room etc.

Don’t do it we have a Bosch model for 4 years now and the time it takes to drive clothes is a joke at least double the time. I won’t even get into how long towels take we have seen no benefit

As a heat pump are they using some of the heat energy already in the air in whatever room they are situated in, because surely that heat then just ends up getting replaced by your boiler running slightly longer to compensate for the heat removed?

In isolation maybe they save energy, but I can’t see it in the context of your actual total household energy use?

Do they save £200 of electricity over their nearest competitors though

In simple terms yes. When we bought ours 10 years ago I reckoned on <5 years payback when electricity was 12 p per kWh so we should now be quids in. It takes ages but just works as all boring white goods should.

Website linked below shoes it costs £1.04 per cycle for a condensing drier and 43p per cycle for heat pump. My my calcs that means the heat pump one pays for itself in 328 drying cycles. It’s fairly easy to work out as the manufacturer’s tell you how much energy you expect to use per cycle.

How much does it cost to run a tumble dryer? We reveal all, plus ways to save

We bought a Bosch heatpump dryer and the difference in electricity use was huge; enough to pay for it in 2 years. We were expecting a saving but not that much, but I realised that the greater efficiency and the longer run time reduce the power to about a quarter of what it was, and that means it often runs entirely on the ‘spare’ electricity from our solar panels.

The longer drying time isn’t an issue unless you have so many loads there aren’t enough hours in the day.

I know I said it takes ages, more of a statement than a moan, don’t usually stand there waiting for it to finish. Personally not a fan of drying clothes on an airer (which can take days) having seen how much water comes out of the dryer I wouldn’t want that floating around the house as vapour.

We had an expensive HP tumble drier. It was so shit I was glad when it broke so I could buy a cheap ass TD that actually worked.

As a heat pump are they using some of the heat energy already in the air in whatever room they are situated in, because surely that heat then just ends up getting replaced by your boiler running slightly longer to compensate for the heat removed?

Not really, no.

The cold side of the heat-pump cools down the air that’s been blown over the clothes so that the moisture condenses out. The cold dry air is then re-heated by the hot side of the heat pump (and any electrical power consumed in the process) and re-circulated to pick up more moisture from the clothes.

They still have a net energy input into the room, but it’s less than a condenser dryer.

As a heat pump are they using some of the heat energy already in the air in whatever room they are situated in, because surely that heat then just ends up getting replaced by your boiler running slightly longer to compensate for the heat removed?

No. They are not vented outside so any heat generated stays in the room.

Edit: explained much better above

Just been through this and got the Haier one that’s under £500 on AO, very happy with it. Approx 1/3 of the power usage of our condenser so figured on a payback of 18 months over getting another £300 condenser (family of 4, most stuff tumble dried), although that will be less once we come off our fixed tariff in July.

Standard cotton program says 2h40m when it starts but it adjusts depending on how wet/heavy the load is, washing machine normally spins to 1400rpm and on that drying program it’s dried in well under 2 hours. Usual washing machine cycle we use takes 2h30 so I’m fine with that, not waiting on the dryer if there’s loads to do.

I’ve read that heat pump ones can struggle if they’re put somewhere colder like a garage.