Old vented Hotpoint caught fire (!) a couple of weeks ago.
Off we go and ordered a heat pump Hoover dryer.
Machine 1 on first use – water behind the screen, unable to use the touch buttons, very loud rythmic ‘thunk’ going on.
Today they delivered a replacement – same water issue, this time with water dripping down the front and screen/buttons/functions all misted up and randomly activating. Less of a thunk, but still there. That’s going back too.

On top of this we’ve also realised that
a) it takes upto 3.5hrs per cycle.
b) most cycles don’t actually dry, you have to spread out to dry when finished according to manual so
c) you end up running the machine again, so negating energy savings
d) 9kg is only one programme, others are saying 4-6kg
e) the energy savings are based on a programme that is most efficient but doesn’t actually dry.

So, did we just buy to ‘cheap’ at £400(!). I’m just not going to spend much more though, we only use it through winter or when we have to.

Mrs_oab is keen to just go and get a B rated vented one again, that actually blooming works.

Suggestions and recommendations of machines please.

Yes you cocked up. Plenty of reports about them taking longer and it takes years to recover initial costs.
Today I fitted my Hotpoint replacement condenser dryer as never buying Hotpoint or associated stuff again.
Its in the garage so a cheap vented Beko will do.
If you need to borrow an SDS hammer drill and a 4″ core drill, just ask.

We’ve got a vent.
I’m really disappointed in the poor quality of Hoover.

My cheap Beko vented one has worked well for years. I just hang the vent pipe out of a window with an old spd pedal zip tied to the end to weigh it down 🙂

Beko Heat Pump model here, had it a year. Used several times a week. Does an excellent job. Programs range from damp dry to bone dry. Very impressed with Beko. Certainly on par with Shitpoint.

I hadn’t heard of these. Looked them up, seems to be about 1.5 kWh for a typical load. Which roughly works about about 1/8 of the CO2 of my wife’s daily commute. Blimey.

I think it’s the Hotpoint that’s the issue. We splashed out on a Miele Heat Pump condenser dryer – how long it takes depends on what you put in in but it automatically adjusts so you just press start and it does the job.

seems to be about 1.5 kWh for a typical load.

About 20-25p.

Drying clothes inside the house when you’re heating it – whether over radiators or on a rack – isn’t ‘free’. You’re still taking energy from inside the house to evaporate the water from the wet clothes and cooling the house. So you then have to put more heat in (and you’ve now got a damp problem – so you either need to run a dehumidifier or open some windows.

Conclusion from the Green Building forum is that in a highly insulated house, in winter, they make sense. In summer you dry outside (or inside and let your ventilation system deal with the moisture).

A heat pump, condensing, tumble dryer is an efficient closed system.

In the high end condensing tumble drier.

There is as expected a motor that turns the drum and a heating element along with a fan to move the air.

Then there are most parts of small fridge. (So read http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/how_it_works/refrigerator.html to remind yourself how a fridge works.)

The wet and hot air from the drum passed over a coil containing a liquid with low boiling point (maybe HFC-134a).
This liquid expands, so coiling the air and hence condensing out the water
This liquid has now become a gas, as it has absorbed a lot of heat.
This gas is passed into a compression, turning it back into a liquid but at a much higher temperature.
This hot liquid then passed into a 2nd coil that heats the air (that now contains little water) before the air is passed back into the drying drum.
The liquid is then allowed to expand into a gas that is used to cool the hot/wet air.

So most of the heat is recovered and reused as part of the condensing process, the heating element just overcomes any lost heat, and gets the process going.

So it is a ASHP running on the “hot/wet” air that comes out of the drum, so condensing out the water, transferring the heat to the air that is put back into the drum. Think of it as an ASHP running on the waste heat of the drier.

So you then have to put more heat in

I’d love to see research on exactly how much.

However our house is a bit of a strange setup. We have three storeys and a central stairwell that goes all the way up. It’s always very warm on the top landing, so we hang our clothes on a rail up there, and the smalls on a rack on the back of the airing cupboard door. The clothes dry in no time at all – even quicker in the winter. The heat all rises to the top, and the cooler damper air descends down the stairwell to the hallway. It doesn’t seem to affect the warmth of the house at all from what we can tell without analysing it. So it may be that in our case the impact is less. There’s certainly no trace of damp anywhere (except around the patio doors where there’s a leak, but that’s another story).

I’d prefer a tumble drier if I could justify the energy impact. Of course, our central heating is gas, and (in theory) our electricity is renewable…

I’d love to see research on exactly how much

If I could be bothered, I would dig out my old bosses PhD on the matter. The answer is: it costs, but the more efficient your insulation, solar gain and heat exchanger ventilation, the cheaper it gets.
Heck, they even calculate how many times you flush the loo as it is cold water in a warm environment.

Anyway, we’ve dumped the Hoover (literally) in the PC World showroom and got a refund.

Avoid. Hoover Next DX heatpump dryer.

We went peak middle-class-STW and bought a John Lewis branded, non-vented tumble dryer about 18 months ago – it’s a lot more efficient that the old one it replaced (though not sure what make it was). It’s got all the bells and whistles – delayed programs, all sorts of different drying levels. It sits in a central hallway cupboard – when it’s being used we just leave the door ajar. The water that collects in the condenser thing we then recycle for ironing…

Outside drying when the weather is good, Bosch heat pump tumble dryer here, delayed drying so that it heats the kitchen up just enough for me to not bother with the central heating.

What’s more efficient though, 1400 spin cycle then dryer or 800 spin cycle then dryer?

1400 spin cycle then dryer or 800 spin cycle then dryer?

I saw some research recently that found higher spin speeds made no difference. I cant remember the figures but it was something along the lines of anything over 1000 used more energy but didn’t actually get the clothes any dryer. Would be good to find as I wasn’t completely convinced but sciences