Advice on Tumble Dryers

Violetta_2

I have a Beko tumble dryer, it's great, we couldn't have a vented one in our place. Can I also recommend Tesco to buy it from, we originally bought a Candy from tesco wasn't nearly as good as our current Beko, whe it broke down a few week's after the warranty run out Candy washed their hand's of it & would only come out to look at it if we paid (think it was £80 or £120) I contacted Tesco who agreed it should have lasted longer & gave me a gift card for £90 which went towards our Beko 1.

shellsuit

I've got this White Knight condenser, we've had it since March 2010 and it's been fab!

Much much better than the hotpoint vented one in the other house!

delain

FatVonD wrote: »

I've always had vented tumble driers but opted for a condenser this time as I wanted the lovely smell to be inside my house rather than in the garden. Big mistake! Now I just have condensation inside the house.

I have the Hotpoint one and it's rubbish, it even says in the instructions that fabric should contain a certain amount of moisture, presumably to excuse the fact the clothes come out damp.

Mine is hotpoint and I do have to put it on again as it doesn't sense when clothes are dry properly and it's always damp the first time it thinks it's done.

It used to be OH's before we got together though and had a few years use with him and he got it second hand from ebay, someone threw it in with a washing machine he bought and told him to take a chance on whether it worked or not :rotfl:

So it's not done badly really. Watch it explode next week now I've said that :o

WestonDave

I was curious about the current differential between the vented and condensing ones - according to manufacturers figures, the bottom end Bosch machines (£310 (vented) vs £346 (condensing)at John Lewis) are remarkably close. Both take a 7kg load with the difference in drying time being about 3 minutes and 0.2kwh (3p!) in energy consumption in favour of the vented machine on a roughly 2 hour drying time and 3.2kwh total consumption. Now of course with the vented one most of that 3.2 kwh goes straight out of the wall, whereas with the condensing one a good chunk of it helps offset household heating costs. I suspect in the early days the condensor was powered like a fridge, but these days its done with superconducting metals - with ours you take the condensor out every so often to rinse the fluff out of it and its not attached to any obvious power source, nor does it stop in the cycle to "condense".

(The heat pump condensing ones get the energy consumption down to 1.6kwh - i.e. half the vented ones but take 10 minutes longer and cost nearly £300 more to buy - probably not financially viable yet but as the technology reduces in price they will get there)

We've never had problems with ours drying except occasionally with duvet covers - if they get themselves twisted up tightly then the twisted bit doesn't dry, but on those because its a sensor dryer rather than a timed one, it will end early as it can't detect the wet bit, so overall actual drying time is about the same (albeit with a break whilst you untangle the duvet cover!).

Janepig

Save your money (and space in the kitchen) and take your wet washing up the launderette once a week. Huge, boiling hot dryers, much cheaper than running them at home, and in half an hour (or less) all your drying for the week is done. I'd never have a dryer at home now.

Jxx

Gloomendoom

Gas dryers seem to be three times cheaper than electric ones to run. Has anybody got one?

flora48

It depends on the situation for the dryer, I had a White Knight vented dryer at my old house, 8 years service for me and still going strong for my niece. In my new house it was not possible to vent so I have a Beko condenser dryer which so far has been very good, only a few months old. Good price from the co-op online electrical site and fantastic delivery times. One word of warning though, it is rather noisy, I am pleased this is away from kitchen and is in the utility room.

p00pieb0tt0m

We have a Zanussi ZDC 46130W condenser dryer, given to us by my Mum, it is at least 4 years old and never had any bother with it. No condensation in house, no idea about it vs vented because I've never had one, but gets ground floor nice and toasty when its on. Only problem with it is that it beeps incessantly when the tank needs emptying but thats every 4/5 loads(if I was more pro-active it wouldn't need to beep).

callow

I have the White Knight condensor tumble dryer from Argos http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4809025.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=tsid:11527|cc:|prd:4809025|cat:kitchen+and+laundry+%2F+tumble+dryers+%2F+condenser+dryers+%2F

I find it works well. It dries a load of clothes in 1 hour.

rachbc

I don;t use my much but like to have it just incase so i went for the cheapest condenser (in a cellar and can't vent). Had it 2 years and its great.