laundry dryer : heat pump vs regular : running cost and reliability

DJOBS1974

I am looking at buy a bosch heat pump dryer £629 or regular Bosch dryer £449.

The heat pump version is stated to run at 236 kwh and the regular dryer 560 kwh.

I calculate this using current electrify unit cost 22.36p to mean that the heat pump runs at 72pence per per hour cheaper. Is it really as straightforward as this ?

Would the heat pump dryer thus be a better buy?

And, does anyone have experience of dryers, is a heat pump more or less reliable than a regular condenser dryer ?

The unit will be in the middle of the house ie not exposed to outdoor cold temps, but not a regularly heated room and we we only intend ro use it during the winter.

Many thanks

Grenage

Heat pumps take longer but are substantially cheaper to run in the long term.  The savings generally far outweigh the extra cost.

A lower draw is even more beneficial if you have something like solar panels.

fluffymuffy

We have a heat pump dryer. The main benefit is that I have less hesitation in using it.

daveyjp

We had heat pump dryer, any running costs savings (and we found them marginal) were wiped out when it failed after 4 years and was skipped. 

They also take much much longer so don't underestimate how long it may take to dry even a couple of loads.

ThisIsWeird

Depending on how much washing you have to dry, whether, say, no more than two per week, and allowing for having a spare room with a window, an option is to clothes-horse the washing in a shut room with windows wide open, leave for a couple of days, and finish with a 20-minute tumble or In front of a radiator.

jonnydeppiwish!

We have had a heat pump since 2012 - a beko for 11 years, now a Samsung. We run them probably 7-8 times a week but then we have panels and a battery so it’s free.
but, it does cost a lot less in the long term 

ComicGeek

kWh is the annual electricity usage for a typical user. So with those figures, the heat pump model saves 324 kWh a year, which is £72 saving each year.

So with the difference in purchase price of £180, you could get this back in 2.5 years and then continue to make savings each year. 

But sounds like you use it less than a typical user, so the annual savings could be lower and the payback period longer. 

If you compared against a different condenser tumble dryer at £250, then it's unlikely that you'll get your money back on the heat pump model before it fails. That's why I buy the cheapest vented tumble dryer that I can find, and they generally last around 10 years.

moneysaver1978

If you have room and don't use it often, would a dehumidifier work better and cheaper?

We do not have a room for a tumbler dryer so opted for a dehumidifier (with dryer mode) and it's made a lot of difference for us - not just with the laundry but also the benefit of using it elsewhere to reduce humid and condensation.

sk2402005

My heatpump uses less than half the power of a normal condencer model, it runs about 600w instead of 2+KW for a normal one.

It does take longer as it cant get as hot, but its then also much kinder to the clothes.

Any particular reason your looking at bosch? theres plenty other options around £400 from other rmanufacturers, my hotpoint one was £350, and its been going strong for 3+ years so far, its pretty much already paid for itself with the electricity savings.

MysteryMe

Unless your reasons are environmental rather than money saving then return on investment needs to be taken into consideration. Being cheaper to run is not in itself money saving.

I don't have a dryer as I just don't like how my clothes come out.  I don't have daily wash loads so I got a decent condition dry soon and cover off of ebay for things like sheets and towels that can take a while to dry naturally and it does a great job with low electrical consumption.