Spec me a tumble dryer

Steedie

Steedie

Steedie

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Joined
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Location
Oxfordshire
Hey guys,

Looking for a tumble dryer to go in the garage. I really don't want one but my girlfriend insists on it with the amount of times she visits the laundrette.

So I want one thats cheap to run (well as cheap as they can be) basically and suitable to live in a garage. I'm looking at heat-pump ones as they are the most efficient, but a lot of what I read suggests they take 2-3x as long to run as a vented or condenser dryer, so surely that cancels out any efficiency benefit?

Looking to spend £2-300

Thanks
 
We went for the £199 Candy condenser from Argos, http://www.argos.co.uk/product/1383771.

The sensor dry works fairly well.

You can still look at a vented, just get a hole saw the same OD as a vent pipe and drill through the wall and vent outside. This is what a neighbour has done and works very well.
 
I have a condenser, easier as it doesn't require drilling the hole.
Ours is also in the garage, I believe its a Hotpoint, and was approx £200.
 
i just gave my tumble dryer away for free.

we wash clothes in the machine then hang them up in the house to dry over radiators, etc spread across 3 rooms. an on one of those drying rack things which folds away.

never had issues with humidity as i have a nest thermostat which tells me how humid it is inside. so no mould or anything. in fact we could do with more moisture.

plus the spin cycle takes most of the water out.
 
As above, we very rarely use the tumble dryer in our house but it's handy to have for the odd occasion.

I think most will suit your needs. I'd probably go with a condenser type one for ease though.
 
Thanks guys. That Candy one looks good. Might go for that as it's available 2 minutes away.

I really wouldn't get one if it was up to me, the only advantage I can see is that we do get through a lot of washing with our son and us both at the gym/cycling daily, and with the weather lately we can't dry it quick enough to get through it so she goes to the laundrette. But during the summer months, I can't see it getting much use personally.
 
I think it's been posted in previous threads, but if in a garage I'd want to externally vent the moisture out the room (to prevent mould etc).i bought a £200ish AEG one from AO.com

I recall seeing manufacturers recommend minimum temps of 5degC but people may get away with using them in a cold garage regardless. Yes they take longer but are more efficient (less energy in per unit time)
 
kinobestew123 said:
Why are people so against tumble dryers? Because of how much they cost to run?

I genuinely don't think that we could live without ours.
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The 2 most expensive to run things which are electric involve 1 of 2 things. Heating Air or Heating water.

Kettles, heaters, electric showers, etc.

A tumble dryer fits into that category too as it's heating air. It's a lot of wasted heat and therefore energy.

It's far more economical to use the heat you already have in the house and just spread them out. It takes literally an hour to dry as like I say the washing machine spins them dry before hand. So they are dry by the time the second cycle is finished.
 
we had a condenser in our shed and it made everything go moldy.
Changed it to a vented type and not had as many issues, although the damage was already done by that time.

be careful though as I think Beko are the only manufacturer that doesn't explicitly state that their dryer cannot be used in outdoor conditions.
We had occasional issues with our new one turning off (sensor dry) and the clothes still being damp, this hasn't happened for a while though.

FWIW I went with a Bosch, it has clogged up with dust inside once and I had to clean it out, it was mainly the dust on the external vent stopping proper airflow and the machine was turning itself off (presumably to prevent damage) our vent is not easily accessible (just something to consider)
 
Psycho Sonny said:
The 2 most expensive to run things which are electric involve 1 of 2 things. Heating Air or Heating water.

Kettles, heaters, electric showers, etc.

A tumble dryer fits into that category too as it's heating air. It's a lot of wasted heat and therefore energy.

It's far more economical to use the heat you already have in the house and just spread them out. It takes literally an hour to dry as like I say the washing machine spins them dry before hand. So they are dry by the time the second cycle is finished.
Click to expand...
They aren't actually that bad though

14p per Kwh = ~28p per hour to run,
an average load of washing takes ~90 minutes to dry at a guess,
with 5 loads per week that is about £8 per month. I don't think that is excessive to be honest.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
The 2 most expensive to run things which are electric involve 1 of 2 things. Heating Air or Heating water.

Kettles, heaters, electric showers, etc.

A tumble dryer fits into that category too as it's heating air. It's a lot of wasted heat and therefore energy.

It's far more economical to use the heat you already have in the house and just spread them out. It takes literally an hour to dry as like I say the washing machine spins them dry before hand. So they are dry by the time the second cycle is finished.
Click to expand...
It's not worth doing this in a lot of (generally old er) houses, as you can increase humidity significantly and encourage condensation/mould.
 
Just to add our Candy one I linked in 2nd post is in the garage...not had any issue with it in the garage.

We run it 2-3 times per day and not really seen a massive spike in electricity costs.
 
MassiveJim said:
They aren't actually that bad though

14p per Kwh = ~28p per hour to run,
an average load of washing takes ~90 minutes to dry at a guess,
with 5 loads per week that is about £8 per month. I don't think that is excessive to be honest.
Click to expand...

My full leccy bill for the month is £20.

So to add £8 on top would be nearly 50% increase.

Everything and I mean everything in my home is energy efficient as possible. The things that aren't I don't use them at all or much.
 
one big bonus for us is we have a German pointer. His hairs are like needles in clothing - the drier removes all the hair and lint from the clothes. Brilliant.
 
I wouldn't personally put a condenser in a garage, but that's just my opinion. We have an occasionally faulty (doesn't turn off) condenser in the kitchen, we're in the process of sorting the garage out to move the dryer into there. However I'll replace it with a vented one, I just need to drill the vent hole first.
 
Bosch routinely do well on Which scores for this type of thing. I have a 5 year old condenser type drier and it is in very regular use ( 2 kids under 5yrs old) a really solid well made piece of equipment, I generally think you can't go far wrong with Bosch for the price.
 
Steedie said:
Hey guys,

Looking for a tumble dryer to go in the garage. I really don't want one but my girlfriend insists on it with the amount of times she visits the laundrette.

So I want one thats cheap to run (well as cheap as they can be) basically and suitable to live in a garage. I'm looking at heat-pump ones as they are the most efficient, but a lot of what I read suggests they take 2-3x as long to run as a vented or condenser dryer, so surely that cancels out any efficiency benefit?

Looking to spend £2-300

Thanks
Click to expand...
They don't take anywhere near 3 times as long to run, more like an extra 30mins.

The issue with them is that they run cooler, people expect tumble dried clothes to be warm and interpret the coolness as moisture. So these people run the cycle again and moan it takes twice as long to dry.

Personally with a 7kg washer and 7kg dryer in a 2 person house, we're not running 5 loads a week. I think I worked the additional electric cost somewhere near £20 over the year (using a line in sunny weather) which is worth it to me (along with purchase price) to not have damp clothes strewn all over the house every weekend.
 
https://ao.com/product/dhr73431w-beko-heat-pump-tumble-dryer-white-36590-126.aspx

That is the one I have, works fine in a detached garage over winter and only uses about 1kw of electricity per drying cycle so I use it for all wash loads. Heat pumps are much more efficient then vented/condenser dryers, it does take 2 hours to do a extra dry cycle but a full washing machine wash is 2 hours so they finish in sync with each other.
 
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