Is it worth buying a £500 A-rated dryer?

trippy

Compared to a C-rated dryer for £150? We use it 3 or 4 times a week. How do I work it out - maths is not my strong point!

dollarjon

If a C rated dryer uses 2000watts and an A rated dryer uses 1000 watts then your costs will be half, You need to find out the power consumption and work it out with your electric tariff EG:
You use your C rated dryer for 10 hours a week at 12pence a unit the dryer uses 2 units an hour costing 24pence times 10(week) times 52(year) = £124.80 / year, If the A rated dryer uses half the power then it will cost £62.40 / year BUT the A rated dryer will usually take longer to dry your clothes or not take a large load etc.
And it will take you 4.5 years to be in profit at current prices for electric.

Cardew

The only way to compare costs is to take the cost of drying 1kg of clothes.

http://www.sust-it.net/energy_saving.php?id=41&start=30&electricity=1

The above site gives comparison costs for various models. The actual costs obviously depend on the price you pay for Electricity.

I would imagine that a bigger factor would be how long a dryer lasts and how trouble free it is during its life, rather than the running costs. Do not Miele give a 10 years warranty?

Taking the OP's example of a £500 versus a £150 machine. If you invested at 7% the £350 difference in price, that would give you £24.50 in interest. So that would pay for 2 or 3 full loads each week.

I would have thought that you would need to use the dryer a great deal over several years to ever start making the more expensive model come close to being a better buy.