Are condensing tumble dryers any good these days?

paddyrg

CKdesigner wrote: »

Without question the best way to avoid long dry times in a tumble dryer is to have a fast spin speed (with good water extraction rate) on your washing machine.

Absolutely this! I even split a fullish washed load into 2 separate spin loads, the spin goes a lot faster, things get a lot drier, so a lot less to try to extract comparatively inefficiently with evaporation!

Marktheshark

Buy the simplest with the biggest drum, sensors are another thing to go wrong.
Currys and others do a indiset ic 85 that has a wave pattern 8kg drum and is a condenser for £199, we got one as a put on, however it is better than the £500 machine we sent back for repair, much better, faster, quieter and simple, like me .

honey10

Not sure if you know this, but you can get a condenser box for about £15, that means that you can have a vented one with all the pro's with the condenser part too.

PeteW

Do you get any units that do both? Ie a condenser which also has a hose so you can use it either way?

marlot

honey10 wrote: »

Not sure if you know this, but you can get a condenser box for about £15, that means that you can have a vented one with all the pro's with the condenser part too.

Except you'll find that you get all the cons! Slower drying time, etc.

Far better to drill a hole if you possibly can.

arbrighton

We've just bought a bosch condensing dryer and while the price seemed eyewatering, through AO, top cashback and bosch also doing cashback we got about 40% off and they do use less electricity so will save the difference in cost over its lifetime.

We've never had one before, vented or otherwise to compare, but it isn't causing condensation in the utility room, isn't particularly noisy.

Emptying a condenser into the sink and clearing a little fluff doesn't seem too onerous to me and it's been perfectly good at drying things.

We're only using it for bedding and towels really, which would cause more condensation by drying in the house.

It does have the option to plumb into the waste drain and OH will get round to this, but our house to do list is HUGE just now

trailingspouse

We've had our condenser dryer for 15 years, still going strong.

Can't say I found it any noisier than my previous vented one when I first got it. I only use it when the washing has already been part-dried either outside or overnight on a radiator, but I rarely need to put it on for more that 25 - 30 minutes to dry a load. Drying times get much longer if you don't keep the filter clean.

Also, have never noticed any problem with condensation (it's lived in 4 different houses).

I'd never contemplate going back to a vented one.

lee111s

We bought a condenser last month. It's awesome, couldn't be without it now!

dandelionclock30

I've just got a new condenser tumble drier as the last one was enough to drive someone to despair it was so unbelievably loud. It was like a plane taking off.
Anyway so I've got this new one and it does get the clothes dry but its a pain in the bottom because of all the faffing about. Emptying the tray everytime as well as washing this other square bit and taking fluff off another part in the drum.

daveyjp

Had our Bosch condenser over ten years, it is used 4-5 times a week, 52 weeks a year.

A load takes about 45 minutes, the water container is good for 3-4 loads before it is full and the water is good to use in the iron as it doesn't cause problems with furring up, the lint filter is cleaned once a week, large filter is cleaned 2-3 times a year.

I reckon its more than proved it was a good choice at the time. It has lasted far longer than the first vented and a cheaper condenser we had which was so cheaply built the heat from drying melted the door catch!