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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to use my tumble dryer for all washing now?

120 replies

EmptyTheFrickingBins · 24/08/2026 14:39

I bought a new tumble dryer on Sat after using a really rubbish one for a few years. It didn't work well and I ended up with laundry on clothes horses all over my flat. Even with a decent dehumidifier running 24/7 it led to mould in some places.

Finally decided I'd had enough when it took 7+ days to get a pillow dry and ordered a condenser tumble dryer. It's amazing and gets stuff dry in no time at all. My laundry also doesn't smell faintly musty any more.

I can technically hang washing out but the washing line is by the bins and there's rats in the courtyard too.

Aibu to ditch the clothes horses and just use my tumble dryer exclusively? It'll be about three loads a week including bedding.

OP posts:
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TeethAreImportant · 24/08/2026 19:50

FrostyPalms · 24/08/2026 16:11

I use mine for anything that will go in it. (Some dressier clothes and some exercise clothes say line dry only, but that's not so bad as it's only a handful of things.)

Oh, and my husband's bath towel. He's weird and prefers it crunchy from the line rather than soft from the dryer. I don't get it.

Totally with him. Can't stand soft, fluffy towels, they feel like they just move the water around your body, rather than actually drying you. Give me a thin, crispy, line dried towel any day. And don't get me started on the residue fabric conditioner leaves on towels, bleugh.

Shedsqueek · 24/08/2026 19:49

Depends if you can afford the electric bill.

sausageth · 24/08/2026 19:48

If it doesn't go outside, it goes in the tumble dryer. Only things I hang up are woolly jumpers and delicates

TeethAreImportant · 24/08/2026 19:44

EmptyTheFrickingBins · 24/08/2026 14:39

I bought a new tumble dryer on Sat after using a really rubbish one for a few years. It didn't work well and I ended up with laundry on clothes horses all over my flat. Even with a decent dehumidifier running 24/7 it led to mould in some places.

Finally decided I'd had enough when it took 7+ days to get a pillow dry and ordered a condenser tumble dryer. It's amazing and gets stuff dry in no time at all. My laundry also doesn't smell faintly musty any more.

I can technically hang washing out but the washing line is by the bins and there's rats in the courtyard too.

Aibu to ditch the clothes horses and just use my tumble dryer exclusively? It'll be about three loads a week including bedding.

Depends on your financial situation and if you're in the UK paying UK energy prices. When energy goes up (again) this Autumn, I will be hanging up my washing as much as I can, or the bill will be even more outrageously expensive than it is now. You'd have to be like Rockefeller to afford to use a tumbler all winter in the UK these days.

Smallestshadow · 24/08/2026 18:45

I don’t know how anyone who works out of the home full time can have dry washing all year round by pegging outside, in our climate with the amount of moisturise and rain we get. I’d have be at home to take it off the line when it’s raining etc.

Diddlysqat · 24/08/2026 18:43

A tumle dryer makes all the difference , if I line dry I try to bring inside before totally dry so as to finish off in the tumble dryer . I also add a couple of tumble dryer sheets takes the softness to another level.

incognito1991 · 24/08/2026 18:42

I do love my tumble dryer only had a year and a half and don’t know how I lived without it, no more crispy towels or stressing because clothes wouldn’t be dry in time, although I’ve shrunk a few things accidentally

catsflorafauna · 24/08/2026 18:40

Towels, bedding, hoodies, love chucking my work uniform in (minimal creases no ironing 😂)

undies, socks and all other clothes (mostly because my husband really likes all saints and it’s ridiculously precious on how to be washed/dried if you’re ever to wear it again) go on the airer with the dehumidifier.

it will be one of the best things you’ve ever done! Just make sure you clean the lint out every time and running water through the grill thing for any trapped debris and fingers crossed you’ll have no probs!

ItsStillWork · 24/08/2026 18:31

I have a fancy pants heat pump tumble dryer and very rarely use it. Only use it for towels and bedding.

i use the heated airers from Lakeland (I have 3 in one room) but they’re in a spare room so not on show.

a lot of my clothing says do not tumble dry as it’s got polyamide in them. If I lived somewhere with nowhere to hang laundry out of sight then yes I would use the dryer all the time in that situation.

NewFrock · 24/08/2026 18:27

How do you all keep it from shrinking your cotton clothes? It shrinks all mine

Same

StrugglingAlong75 · 24/08/2026 18:20

My dryer doesn't shrink things. I'd definitely use it over drying indoors after ruining a couple of rooms due to mould (we had both a dehumidifier and an extractor fan).

Thegreatwhitestillalive · 24/08/2026 17:53

paomara · 24/08/2026 17:12

Has anyone got a heat pump dryer? If you do could you answer me -

How long does it take to dry a medium load, spun twice, just tops and trousers, that kind of thing? And how long for sheets/towels and heavier stuff.

I don't have a tumble drier but was thinking of getting one this Winter. Now there's only me, so I can live without it I suppose, but if it makes life easier in weeks of wet weather, I'm up for it!

I heard/read that the heat pump driers take ages to dry things compared with the condensers. Condensers are not that easy to find anymore anyway, with the new rules phasing them out for the planet's sake....

I was also looking at maybe getting a Meaco 6L dehumidifier instead of the heat pump tumble drier, as I think the principle is the same, and I have a small laundry space where I put the racks in. Thanks for your experiences!

1:10-1:20 on mine. That's a large one as i havelatge washer and dryer.
Costs pennies. It really barely shows difference on the bill

canuckup · 24/08/2026 17:51

Like honestly, why wouldn't you?

Not sure what most Brits are trying to prove by hanging their laundry up inside, it looks unsightly and smells awful? Like a Victorian washhouse

OtherS · 24/08/2026 17:46

I use mine for everything, it's a washer/dryer so just put in dirty laundry and collect lovely clean linen. Only recently moved and had to use clothes horse and dehumidifier for everything there, so this is like a dream - and I'm saving so much time! I can wash and dry three loads a day, which is almost all my weekly washing. I wouldn't fancy trying that with a line; I'd just be trotting in and out of the garden all day, and it still most likely wouldn't be dry by evening. Doesn't even actually cost much. So I don't feel remotely guilty!

paomara · 24/08/2026 17:12

Has anyone got a heat pump dryer? If you do could you answer me -

How long does it take to dry a medium load, spun twice, just tops and trousers, that kind of thing? And how long for sheets/towels and heavier stuff.

I don't have a tumble drier but was thinking of getting one this Winter. Now there's only me, so I can live without it I suppose, but if it makes life easier in weeks of wet weather, I'm up for it!

I heard/read that the heat pump driers take ages to dry things compared with the condensers. Condensers are not that easy to find anymore anyway, with the new rules phasing them out for the planet's sake....

I was also looking at maybe getting a Meaco 6L dehumidifier instead of the heat pump tumble drier, as I think the principle is the same, and I have a small laundry space where I put the racks in. Thanks for your experiences!

Iloveeverycat · 24/08/2026 17:09

I always use my dryer

mondaytosunday · 24/08/2026 17:07

I never hang stuff out. Mine is a washer/dryer that was in the house when I moved in five years ago, it’s not great, but it’s good enough for now. My machine is also in the first floor near the bedrooms. Makes much more sense.

Walkerzoo · 24/08/2026 17:04

I don't hang outside. For heavy things I dry on a airdyer and finish off in rumble dryer. Everything else is straight in.

Yetone · 24/08/2026 17:02

I hang everything out in the summer ( we are still waiting for some decent rain here) but as we go into autumn my washing doesn’t dry and I use the tumble dryer for practically everything. I hate washing hanging around a home. I think it looks slovenly.
OP, I wouldn’t want to hang washing out there either but you could get rid of the rats. Keep the bins closed and put down traps and the rats will go. Just hang your washing away from the bins.

EndorsingPRActice · 24/08/2026 16:54

Well I love my garden rotary dryer but if it was next to bins and obvious rats I’d definitely choose the tumble dryer too. And I nearly always tumble dry my towels, as PPs say, they go soft and fluffy. But at the danger of introducing a new subject, the rotary dryer on a warm day with light wind produces work shirts that don’t need ironing…

Oldraver · 24/08/2026 16:54

I still use the dryer for towels in the summer. I don't like using fabric conditioner. OH doesn't mind crispy towels so still hangs his outside

Our has a 20 mini warm air for softening things that have been on the washing line

There are some fancy pants ones now that you can put wool in

godmum56 · 24/08/2026 16:53

I use a tumbledryer for everything that will go in it. I dry t shirts on a cool setting and they don't seem to shrink and my jeans definitely don't. My current one is a condenser and when it finally dies, I will look at a heat pump one. I don't know what it costs to run but my electricity bill is reasonable so I don't worry about it. For those who like to nag about carbon footprint, I never fly, don't take holidays or drive much.

Morepositivemum · 24/08/2026 16:51

What type of condenser op? Our condenser never did the job, have had it five years and it’s hit and miss whether anything gets dry, and things certainly never get fully dry!!!

I’ve never fully tumble dried things like towels, I just put them in for twenty minutes after being in the clothes horse, line or radiator but you use yours three times a week- I have two washes a day! Enjoy the dryer!!

ToddlersAreBananas · 24/08/2026 16:51

Bung it all in!!
If it doesn't survive, it's not worth keeping...

durdledoris · 24/08/2026 16:50

Happywalnut · 24/08/2026 15:03

I love my tumble dryer but only in the winter. I always use the line in the summer or an Airer outside.

Same here just for the electric bill more than anything. Couldn't live without my dryer