Advice re replacement condenser tumble dryer

PhotoMan

Hi,

We have had a Zanussi ZDC 68560W condenser tumble dryer which has given sterling service for about 15 years.

A year or two ago the drive belt broke and I impressed myself by following a YouTube video to repair it and it has continued to work well since.

We recently returned from a two week holiday and when we used the dryer it set the smoke alarm off and there was a fine haze in the room (not smoke per se). After giving it a rest it has worked without problems since then.

We religously remove the fluff from the filter and clean it out from around the condensor with a thin brush and an air blower.

As the machine is old and is used quite frequently unless the weather is good enough to permit drying on the washing line we think it may be time to replace it. The Zanussi ZDC 68560W seems to be no longer sold but the ZDC82B4PW seems to be a roughly equivalent machine. I have tried searching for reviews but just get lots of shopping sites or trouble shooting results.

Does anyone know if the Zanussi ZDC82B4PW is a similar machine to our old one and is it a good and reliable machine? Any suggestions where to buy it from? John Lewis sell it but they are not what they used to be.

Thank you for any help and advice.

DullGreyGuy

Have you considered a heat pump dryer? They're condensers too but using different technology and tend to be cheaper to run. Didnt get stats from our old condenser but according to Ideal Homes they take an average of 5.2kwh to dry 8kg of clothes. Their stats say a heat pump uses 2.16Kwh saving over £75 a year however our, not cheap, dryer is using under 1 KWH for 9kg load

PhotoMan

DullGreyGuy said:

Have you considered a heat pump dryer? They're condensers too but using different technology and tend to be cheaper to run. Didnt get stats from our old condenser but according to Ideal Homes they take an average of 5.2kwh to dry 8kg of clothes. Their stats say a heat pump uses 2.16Kwh saving over £75 a year however our, not cheap, dryer is using under 1 KWH for 9kg load

Thank you. No, I hadn't heard of those. I guess technology moves on!