Tumble Dryer - vented or condenser

dark^knight

Hi,

Firstly, I wasn't sure which forum to point this in. Apologies if I have posted it in the wrong place.

I am looking to buy a tumble dryer. I am quite keen on a condenser, as it would be more convenient than a vented, because making a hole for the vent in my utility room could be awkward.

For people with condenser tumble dryers, could you help me on:

1, Removing the water from the container.
2, Energy consumption
3, Do they cause the room to steam up, causing damp?

Thanks

Ebe_Scrooge

A vented is better if you can vent it. Essentially, with a condenser, you're paying to heat up the air, then paying again to cool it down to condense the water out. The other thing is, it's more complicated inside, therefore more bits to go wrong. Plus more expensive to buy. So all in all, a vented model is cheaper to buy, cheaper to run and there's less to go wrong.

To answer your other point, a condenser model will not steam the room up, as long as it's working correctly. But you need to remember to empty the water reservoir regularly and keep all the various filters clean - and the cooling fins on the heat exchanger on some models.

I take your point entirely about being awkward to vent in the utility room, but my preference would be for a vented model every time if at all possible.

deano72_2

x2 ^^^^^^^^^^^^

shammyjack

Will third the vented option and if you can afford consider one of these

http://www.crosslee.co.uk/english/whiteknight/gasdryersinfo.html

Very long life and cheap to run !

aboard_epsilon

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

A vented is better if you can vent it. Essentially, with a condenser, you're paying to heat up the air, then paying again to cool it down to condense the water out..

You could say, for a vented, you are paying to heat the air and then chucking it outside .

it's a 100 percent efficient electric heater that also dries clothes.

With a condenser you can partially heat your house with the waste heat ..in the summer you could put stuff into it in the evening ..if you need a bit of warmth then ...yup, know its expensive heat ..but its doing two jobs.

all the best.markj

Jonesya

Condenser dryers:
1/ Ours has a drawer at the top with a long, enclosed plastic tank with a hole in the top corner for filling/emptying- just pull it out and empty in the sink. Some models allow you to connect them to a drain.
2/ Don't know, haven't measured it.
3/ Room doesn't steam up but it does get quite warm - that is one of the plus points, the heat used during drying is going into your house rather than straight out through the ven, 2kW of tumble dryer waste heat is 2kW less heating needed. Not ideal in the summer though.

Innys

I thought condensing models could be connected to a waste water pipe, if you have one handy, so you don't have to keep emptying the reservoir?

C.C.L.

Vented certainly gets my vote too. I had a condenser once and couldn't get rid of it soon enough! It took ages to dry the clothes compared to a vented one.

concerned43

I have a condensed dryer - worst decision I have ever made buying it! It takes over 3 hours to dry clothes.

latecomer

we've just ordered a replacement condensing one as previously we had it in a cupbaord (in a flat) and we couldn't vent it. this time we need it to work asap and dont have somewhere to vent it without potentially upsetting the building control and cant wait to get his agreement. hence we went with condensing again. last one lasted approx 6 years despite being abused in all sorts of ways.

going to take better care of this on i.r. cleaning filters and emptying water daily