How essential is your tumble dryer?

Hedge

Hedge

Hedge

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Somewhere in the middle.
For some insane reason we never replaced our tumble dryer when it died in our last house and in the years since then we've had a child and just kept drying clothes on the line / clothes dryer.

Recently I did one week of laundry when my missus was away with work and I couldn't get over how much of a faff it was (yes admittedly it's not usually my household chore:)).

Now I want to buy a tumble dryer and Im being told 'we've managed this far, it's only because you made a big deal out of it, you now want one'.

She's right.


How essential is a tumble dryer in your household? Surely it's almost a necessity for people with children!?

Help me justify it :D
 
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Hedge said:
For some insane reason we never replaced our tumble dryer when it died in our last house and in the years since then we've had a child and just kept drying clothes on the line / clothes dryer.

Recently I did one week of laundry when my missus was away with work and I couldn't get over how much of a faff it was (yes admittedly it's not usually my household chore:)).

Now I want to buy a tumble dryer and Im being told 'we've managed this far, it's only because you made a big deal out of it, you now want one'.

She's right.


How essential is a tumble dryer in your household? Surely it's almost a necessity for people with children!?

Help me justify it :D
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When I was living on my own and took trips to the laundromat, it was essential already, especially during winter!

Having kids (you said children, so that's more than one) just makes it more so. Truth be told, if we had the space in our place right now, no question we'd be getting one. Saves time and hassle.

I hope you succeed in your endeavour!
 
Very essential!

Take yesterday. I got soaked to the bone walking back in the rain from town.

Put some of my wet gear in dryer. Bingo! Dry in no time.
 
I lived in a tiny cottage for 3 years and an even smaller flat for 3 years before that. Since moving into a larger 3 bed semi I've found a tumble dryer much more of requirement.

I think this is mostly due to the fact that the smaller places meant you were more on top of things as it was demanded to maintain the space you did have.

I now seem to accumulate lots more laundry and miss more opportunities to hang it outside.
 
I live in a flat so I use it whenever I do laundry, but even if I didn't I'd never go without one. In summer I can get away with running it for less time then letting clothes air dry on an airer but I always start them off on a drying cycle.
 
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If you do get one, make sure it is a heat pump version. We changed our 15 year old traditional dryer with a new Samsung one (after the old one went pop) and is is wonderful. Lower temp washing means less power usage and the clothes are in better condition when they are removed.
 
Hedge said:
For some insane reason we never replaced our tumble dryer when it died in our last house and in the years since then we've had a child and just kept drying clothes on the line / clothes dryer.

Recently I did one week of laundry when my missus was away with work and I couldn't get over how much of a faff it was (yes admittedly it's not usually my household chore:)).

Now I want to buy a tumble dryer and Im being told 'we've managed this far, it's only because you made a big deal out of it, you now want one'.

She's right.


How essential is a tumble dryer in your household? Surely it's almost a necessity for people with children!?

Help me justify it :D
Click to expand...

I hate the thing in terms of money and cost to run, but my Mrs would have a breakdown without it. We have kids and get through a shedload of washing. We therefore have a 12kg washing machine and a 7.5kg heat pump tumble dryer. It costs what it costs to be honest. It's actually much better than I thought. We try to limit things, but at the end of the day we can't possibly dry all our washing on radiators and clothes horses even if we really tried. Some of our rads have covers and some are quite small. I'm also trying to limit heating usage. We don't really have a spare room to hang stuff up with a dehumidifier and I don't want condensation issues everywhere.

All year when we can, we peg out. <insert pegging joke>. For all other times... yeah we whack it in the tumble dryer and get on with life. We once had a washer dryer.... awful. Separate tumble dryers always win out, even the cheap old skool ones.
 
We had a washer dryer for about 12 years, used the drying function once when it was new and we wanted to test it and then never bothered to use it again. Didn't bother going with a combo one when it was replaced either.

Got a 2in1 dehumidifier and air purifier when we hang up a big load of washing.
 
Its essential for us with 2 kids, my little girl runs through clothes very quickly. Usually i tend to do one full washing for stuff to put in tumble dryer e.g. underwear, socks and towels etc. Other stuff i do in a seperate wash for hanging.
 
No idea what we'd do without one, we've only got the 1 daughter who's 4 now but i struggle to think of how we'd manage without it, if maybe one of you was a stay at home parent then you'd have the time to do without otherwise it's just to much of a time saver to not have imo.

To me it's kind of like not having internet at home or a smartphone, sure you can get by without those things but it makes life so much easier and saves so much time.
 
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Where else would you dry clothes in winter and when it's raining.
Our heat pump one uses less power than the washer to do a 10.5kg load, around 0.6kwh.
 
robj20 said:
Where else would you dry clothes in winter and when it's raining.
Our heat pump one uses less power than the washer to do a 10.5kg load, around 0.6kwh.
Click to expand...

Where does your tumble dryer sit? Mines in the Conservatory and i was thinking of changing to a heat pump one but apparently they should be in places with at least 10 degrees.
 
happy_2008 said:
Where does your tumble dryer sit? Mines in the Conservatory and i was thinking of changing to a heat pump one but apparently they should be in places with at least 10 degrees.
Click to expand...
In the garage. It certainly takes longer as it gets cooler but still does the job and still cheaper than the previous condensed dryer.
 
I'm a singleton. I have a washer-dryer in my flat. On a major laundry day I typically do three loads: bed linen, whites (i.e. shirts), and coloureds. The first two then get hung up to air and dry and the third gets the dryer so everything is dry by the end of the day. Otherwise it's just socks and smalls that get the dryer because it's a pain to hang them up.
 
We have one and its barely used even with an 18 month old in the house. We were given it free and have a space for it so no harm in having it but yet to really need it or use it. Use the outdoor line or clothes airer in the kitchen when the wood burner is on. Depends where you are in the country. In Northamptonshire we don't actually get that many wet days, but we are in one of the driest areas of the country.

www.metoffice.gov.uk

UK actual and anomaly maps

Maps of climate variables for previous months, seasons and years
www.metoffice.gov.uk www.metoffice.gov.uk
 
I use it a great deal in winter but try to always dry outdoors when possible in better months.

I don't know life without one to be honest
 
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