Tumble Drier - £200 or £750?

Wensum

I have admitted defeat and reluctantly conceded we probably need an energy guzzling tumble drier to meet the winter laundry demands of our young family. I'd be interested to know what experience people have with different brands? Do the cheap and popular driers costing about £200 - £250 fall apart within five years? Do the German made driers costing at least £400 provide many years (10 - 20) reliable service and pay for themselves over the long term?Obviously I want to spend as little as possible, but I don't want to waste money on a cheap machine that's a false economy. I bought an Indesit washing machine thirteen years ago which worked well until it went wrong within two weeks! I returned it and spent a little more on a Whirlpool (£250 in 2003), which is still going.

Southend1

You'll find the German brands are mostly no longer made in Germany. I'd go cheaper. I paid £99 for my tumble drier 3 years ago and still ok. If you pay £250 and have to replace it every 5 years on average then it works out cheaper than buying a machine costing £750 that lasts for 10 years.

AVERAGEJOE_2

My wife brought a really cheap unit after our expensive one went wrong around 8 years ago.. The cheap unit is not the best looking machine but it has never gone wrong it seems bullet proof.
If you not concerned with showing it off id go cheap route.

saveallmymoney

You need to work out if you are buying a condensing dryer or a more conventional one.

I can't make a recommendation either way other than to say our conventional vented dryer uses a LOT of electricity but does dry well.

EssexExile

Vented tumble dryers are so simple anyone can make reliable ones. I'd be more careful where you buy it. I went to repair a "new" dryer bought from one of those cheap places thats sell seconds, old models, etc only to find it had been manufactured over 5 years ago & probably stored outside as it was rusting away.

littlerock

Bought a £200 model (BLack Knight from memory) from Tesco about 5 years ago. Never had any problems in fact I think it won Which Best Buy the following year.

Nilrem

We've tended to buy White Knight tumble dryers for the last 15-20 years and they've lasted something over 5 years each, which given they were usually the cheapest wasn't bad, especially given how much heavy use they get in our house.

As has been said, if you spend £750 on one that lasts ten years, it'll work out cheaper to buy two or three that cost £200 each and last 4-5 years.

ryder72

If your budget permits it, buy Miele. Even the cheapest condensing model from them will be better made, possibly more energy efficient and better at looking after your clothes than other cheap makes.

Condensing is always more energy efficient than vented ones.

daveyjp

Our Bosch condenser is coming up to 11 years old and cost about £250 back then. It is still going strong. Its a myth they use lots and lots of electricity. They are rated at a max of 3kw which is the same as a kettle, but they only demand heat when required. Once up to temperature the heating element is turned off. An electric shower uses far far more.

We had a cheaper condenser before and after about 4 years the heat caused the door clip to melt and the door mountings to warp. The dryer wouldn't seal and the room filled with steam so it had to go.

Have a look at John Lewis site, they have a few clearance lines available at the moment.

Sterlingtimes

ryder72 wrote: »

Condensing is always more energy efficient than vented ones.

I have been looking and I do not think that this is true.

thescouselander

We've tended to have condensing dryers until recently - I was surprised to find out the vented dryer we currently have is much faster (twice as fast in fact) to dry and hence uses less electricity vs any of the condensers we have had. I'd therefore definitely recommend a vented dryer over a condensing one as they're cheaper to buy, cheaper to run and there's less to go wrong.

As for what to spend - £200 seems to be a good price point and many if the best buy units on AO seem to be around here - that's how I chose our latest dryer anyway. I think spending more does get you better reliability though. The previous dryer we had was a cheap Beko one which only lasted 4 years - not recommended