Use a dehumidifier or heater to dry clothes?

m_c_s

Our condensing heat pump tumble dryer manual says operating conditions 5 to 35 Deg C. 5 Deg C indoors is quite cold.

Qyburn

Cheers, what brand is that? I was looking at Hotpoint. It's in a detached garage type building so below 10 a lot of the time. 8.5 in my workshop section today for example.

m_c_s

Qyburn said:

Cheers, what brand is that? I was looking at Hotpoint. It's in a detached garage type building so below 10 a lot of the time. 8.5 in my workshop section today for example.

Bosch.                 

PNELancs

We have a desiccant dehumidifier that we bought several years because we needed to use it in the conservatory to help dry non tumble drier clothes - in winter, our old dehumidifier just stopped working because it was too cold in there. We then had a heated airer from Lakeland that has now departed this land.

We are now thinking about what to do next. A heat pump tumble drier is an option but we’d still have the issue of clothiers we can’t put in there hanging in the conservatory. Our desiccant dehumidifier seems to be relatively expensive to run (it’s 630 watts) but I’m loathe to replace it for a more efficient one if the new one isn’t going to work in our (unheated) conservatory. There are desiccant ones that seem to be available which cost around half the amount to run (for example https://www.amazon.co.uk/EcoAir-DD122-Simple-Desiccant-Dehumidifier/dp/B00474K8SY/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1Q1EWZL66GP15&keywords=desiccant%2Bdehumidifier&qid=1668886430&sprefix=Desiccant%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-3&th=1) but they appear to be more expensive than ‘standard’ ones.

My question (eventually!) is do any of the people a lot more knowledgeable than me know whether it’s still the case that ‘standard’ dehumidifiers still won’t work in a cold conservatory?

Alnat1

I don't have any clothes that I don't tumble dry. What sort don't you do?

Qyburn

I have had standard compressor dehumidifier that work right down to 0 Dev C, the limit being when the collected water freezes. In practice most will shut off below 2 Deg C or maybe a bit higher. However they star getting less efficient below around 15 Deg C as defrost starts to kick in.

ariarnia

Alnat1 said:

I don't have any clothes that I don't tumble dry. What sort don't you do?

when i was a kid my step sister melted a pair of fake leather trousers (at least i think it was the trousers that melted. she had also thrown in a pair of trainers i think) but that was an old style tumble dryer. i think you also arent' supposed to put tights in but i think i can remember she used to put those in for just a minute or so before putting them on. 

i would think modern 'eco' ones would be better with more types of fabric because i dont think there at the same high temps but people might still have the same 'these shouldn't go int he tumblr dryer' habits?

PNELancs

Alnat1 said:

I don't have any clothes that I don't tumble dry. What sort don't you do?

The ones my wife tells me she doesn’t want to tumble dry 😄 Essentially ones that might not keep their shape as well, maybe shrink or my son’s football shirts. I know some or many will say they can be tumble dried but that’s not happening!

wittynamegoeshere

I have lots of clothes that I wouldn't have tumble-dried in our old heater dryer, but absolutely everything goes in the heat pump one.  It dries by blowing warm, very dry air through them, whereas older ones pretty much boiled the water out of the clothes.

E.g. I have work trousers that have a clear plastic ID badge pocket, the sort of thing you'd expect to come out curled up, shrivelled and generally ruined.  I just lob them in, absolutely no problem.  The environment inside it isn't really any different to being on a drying rack near a radiator.

Also towels all used to shrivel at the point where they have a flat stripe through them in the old one.  I haven't seen this in the newer towels that have only been in the heat pump one (lots of times each).

Jumpers, jeans, socks, bed sheets, absolutely everything goes in.  The one thing I don't tumble are my cooking aprons, but that's only because the tie strings end up wound round everything in a giant knot.

Alnat1

 Tie apron strings before washing/drying. I work as a cook so there's often several in a load. I've learned to tie them as they go in the laundry basket in case it's not me who loads the machine.