Tumble Dryer. What am I doing wrong?

[OhWifey]

I keep seeing on here that people chuck everything into the tumble dryer / couldn't live without it / would sooner give up the dishwasher etc.
I didn't have a tumble dryer growing up and only bought one two years ago after the birth of my second child. At first I loved it but then I realised it was shrinking and / or fading a lot of stuff. I always run it on the lowest heat and on the correct setting for the garments. What am I doing wrong? Is this just a fact of tumble dryer life that stuff will fade or shrink? Or am I doing something wrong?
It's a Hotpoint, but not a recalled one.

@Pagwatch nor me. And my drier isn’t anything fancy.

If your bedding is coming out in a ball with the middle still wet then I’d say you’ve overloaded the drum. Mine never comes out like this and I’ll put a double duvet, sheet and two pillow cases in at the same time.

I couldn’t live without mine we use it an embarrassing amount considering there’s only us and a toddler but it’s fabulous. I throw everything in and have only ever shrunk stuff that when I check after clearly says don’t tumble dry

I reckon for every load of washing, I have maybe 2 things that can't go in the dryer, everything else is fine - no fading or shrinking, and I always put it on the higher of the 2 heat settings.

If your bedding is coming out in a ball with the middle still wet then I’d say you’ve overloaded the drum. Mine never comes out like this and I’ll put a double duvet, sheet and two pillow cases in at the same time

All I put in is a king size duvet, fitted sheet and pillow cases, that fills maybe 10/20% of the drum. It can be in there for what seems like hours with me checking it maybe every 20/30 minutes and it's just all balled up, scorching hot on the outside and wet in the middle.

In the winter I really miss our old house that had a large upstairs landing with railing that was brilliant for drying the bedding on.

When I was in the UK a couple of years ago I tried using a couple of dryers there, and they really were useless. Stuff went round and round for an hour and came out hot and wet. I can see in that case you'd think a dryer was very energy intensive and pointless considering it's been running for ages and achieved nothing.

I have never had a tumble dryer and wouldn't want one. Not only are they energy gobbling, they also produce a lot of waste in terms of shrunken clothes having to be thrown away.

I wonder how many -ego- eco warriors have them?

The new dryers are a bit of a pain - I had an AEG that just huffed warm air, and if one of the (3 or 4!) filters had any fluff on, it would do that for 4 hours and still not have dry clothes.. absolute bugger it was.

Now I'm in a rented house with an old creda, which bakes stuff, even on cool, but at least it's all dry. Bras and knitted stuff doesn't go in, everything else does (inside out for jeans/anything with prints) - if it shrinks, I don't buy that brand again.

I don't have time to muck about taking stuff in and out, discovering it's rained, or that some bird has decided to poo on some, or the pegs have got grimy and deposited little marks on my clothes, or dropping the basket on the way in and it all getting muddy, or whacking my fingers on the back door frame as I bring the basket in (etc.. because I have lived places with no tumbler fairly often, and whilst on a bright spring morning hanging out the washing is lovely, it's a lot less fun trying to get it all in on a November evening, still damp)

The new heat pump ones are pretty good for not steaming or cooking stuff like some older condenser dryers used to . But they take longer than traditional vented hot air dryers . More eco though !

But they don’t shrink clothes.

I have to have one as my daughter has a acute allergies to pollen and dust. Can’t dry outside in the summer / can’t dry inside in the winter

I have one because it rains all the bloody time where I live, and drying clothes inside makes your house damp.

I LOVE mine and my drafty old Victorian house is much warmer now I don't have pints of water evaporating into the walls. So swings and roundabouts on energy efficiency I think. We dry lycra/polyester things/school uniforms on a clothes horse/airer .

Sheets/duvets do like to get balled up - I think it depends on whether your drier has a reverse tumble option (mine doesn't) but tumbling on 'low iron' which is a bit gentler and closing all the buttons on the duvet covers helps.

Dh shrinks clothes as he just turns the dial on (140 mins for example, I kid you not) walks off and leaves it. He also overloads it so everything is squashed and wrinkly.

I use high option heat but never leave it on for long. I do bedding, kids clothes, underwear, cottons etc

I air dry as much as I can and also use a dehumidifier inside- think it uses way less electricity.

I use ours for bedding and towels when can’t line dry. We have big beds so drying superking bedding around the house is a PITA.
DH puts pretty much all his clothes in but I don’t due to shrinkage unless its an emergency for jeans or similar.
We have a washer dryer and the dry function gets used only 2-3 times a week. It does have a 60 min wash and dry small load setting which DH uses for shirts or things he wants quickly quite often too.

I've been using tumble dryers for 23 years and have NEVER had anything shrink or fade.
I've never had expensive / top of the range ones either.

I do check the labels and only put in what is allowed to go in though. Well, and a few things I'm not that bothered about, on the lower heat setting, if I'm wanting them back, but, in truth I've never had an issue with any of those either.

I use mine on nearly everything, hate wet washing hanging about

I don't have any problems with my condenser - BUT I apply some logic to what goes in there and, if it's likely it will shrink on a 60 or hotter wash, it's not a good idea to stick it in there.

I've got fat feet and ankles, so can't risk socks shrinking. It doesn't matter to DP and his skinny feet, so his go in with a load of thicker things, like towels. I wouldn't boil a jumper or t-shirt (mostly Primark, so guaranteed to shrink if you look at it slightly animatedly), so they don't go in. The floaty things that come out of the washing machine almost dry don't go in.

This leaves most of our stuff - shirts, jeans, trousers, work tops, hoodies, bed linen, towels, soft furnishings - going in there. The non clothes go in at a hot temperature, the others at cool/standard and I don't wander off and forget about them.

What I love about it is that it removes almost all cat hair in moments, you don't end up with mouldy walls from condensation, nothing is left to smell funky and, if you hoik stuff out when it's still warm and hasn't been baked to death, everything comes out looking ironed.

Load of stuff shrinks. They are great for things like towels, bedding, socks and underwear (not bras). Not so great for things like jeans or your favourite t shirt.

I only use mine in lieu of ironing - everything gets almost dry on line/airer/over banister (jeans, duvet covers, bath towels) & then a 10 minute warm tumble, in batches (ie not overfilled) before folding/hanging.

It’s a dead basic vented with reverse tumble, 2 heat settings & a final 10-min cool tumble.

Agree massively with MitziK about cat hairs. It’s brilliant

I wouldn't be without mine. Loads of damp clothes everywhere is a recipe for a damp house. I don't have time either to do endless pegging out.

I don't tumble some stuff - bras, blouses, anything with a lot of elastic. But everything else goes in.

I bought a new house with a combined washer/dryer and have never used the dryer. To my mind they use up far too much energy just to evaporate water and the build-up of fluff is a fire risk.

TBH if your washing machine spins at 1600 you barely need the dryer anyway. Overnight on an airer is enough, no outdoor washing lines even. And we are handling a family of 5 this way.

But there's a big difference between 1600 spin and 1400. I would never consider a washing machine with 1400 spin.

and the build-up of fluff is a fire risk.

So why would you let it build up ? . Just remove it when you take the clothes out.

My washing machine only spins to 1200.
If you are spinning stuff at 1600, doesn't it come out all creased?
Another great advantage of the tumble dryer is the fact you never need to iron.
I don't get the 'expensive' shouts either - it is FAR more expensive to run my oven than my tumble dryer.

I put big duvet covers in on their own and take them out and give them a re-shuffle about 3/4 of the way through.

My washer has a 1400 spin, but I only ever use 1200 because it makes very little difference & doesn’t rattle the house (washer is upstairs)

Years ago on holiday I used a washer identical to mine at home, except for 800 spin where mine was either 1000 or 1200 (can’t remember now), & again there was very little difference in dampness, only in creasing

I’m loving this thread . I’m obviously some kind of dryer god. I just throw stuff in there and don’t shrink it. it’s great. I rarely iron either

I throw pretty much anything in there but I often buy bigger clothes to take account of shrinkage! Clothes don't keep on shrinking - they only shrink once and then stay that size.

Anything I really care about, I don't tumble dry but there isn't much.

I really don't know how people manage without a tumble dryer. The thought of washing bedding without a dryer brings me out in a cold sweat!