Condenser tumble dryers - good?

andygb

We are having a new kitchen fitted, and we will have to get a new tumble dryer, as the old one (second hand seventeen years ago and still going strong!), with its "elephant's trunk" vent hose will not look very pretty.
So, I have been looking at condenser dryers, which seem to be the answer.
Has anyone had any experiences - good or bad, with these machines?

Andy

V.Lucky

bad bad bad, not had one for around 9 years but Mother in Law still does. They take ages to dry clothes and consequently use much more electricity.

fluffymuffy

Rubbish. Can't wait for ours to die. If i could run it without the condenser unit I would do. The clothes take years to dry. I thought it would be good not to throw away the heat by venting to outside but it has to run for far longer than a vented drier to dry the clothes. I'm thinking of taking it down the tip as the space left would be useful to put a clothes horse there. And the clothes would dry faster.

CKdesigner

Hi

The secret to condenser dryers (as with most things) is get a decent one. We have a Miele and would only recommend a Miele, it is fantastic, takes no longer to dry than a vented one. It senses 100% accuratley when done. Would never go back to vented.

Hopefully this balances the views a bit.

CK

eslick

avoid hotpoint ones they are terrible, gave up on ours in oct and went back to a vented and cant believe how much quicker it is.

new ones have 3 way vents 2 at the side and one at the back

MrsBartolozzi

I've used a vented dryer in the past and currently use a condensor and can honestly say there's no noticable difference in time taken to dry clothes in either (In fact I'd never even considered there might be a difference til I read it here!). My dryer is a Zanussi and I like they way it heats up my kitchen and dries my clothes .

blushingbride_3

hi there,

Sorry i dont have much experience with vented.

However i recently got a bosch from cometclearance & i love it.

Its fab, we have a miele washer with 1600 spin & then the clothes are dry within the hour.

its quiet & is easy to clean/empty the water etc.

We didnt have space for a vented one so this was a compromise & i couldnt afford another miele appliance.

I am really pleased with mine, look on the clearance website i saved nearly £100 just because of a scuff mark on the door

HTH

rachbc

I haven't noticed any difference in the amount of time it takes to dry - but thats compared to a very old vented one.

sandiep

We used to sell a lot of secondhand tumble dryers and the life span of a concentrated dryer is definitely shorter than the old fashioned vented type. I would say that the condensing ones break down more often.

That said. I don't like the vented ones putting fluff and condensation all over the place. I hate having to stick the vent out of a window because you can bet that there is never a good place to put the bloomin' thing near a window.

aah

we have a condenser dryer. It is the first one we have owned - we have had no need of any others because it is fine and has lasted nearly ten years now. Dries clothes well, takes more than an hour but thats not a problem. Its really good. Its a fairly bog standard zanussi.
.

daveyjp

Bosch condensor with autosense - five years old. Full load takes about 45 minutes. The time a dryer takes is proportional to how dry the clothes are after spinning in the washing machine.

Useless washer means the drying will take ages.