Vented grumble driers? Are they out of fashion?

[Tumbl]

Just lost a whole post so this will be a bit more brief than it was!

We need a new drier. I wanted to get a vented one but John Lewis no longer sell them it seems.

Is there some reason for that? And should I get a very expensive heat pump one instead? I don't want a condenser.

Thank you for any light you can shed, advice or recommendations!

JL sold them a few months ago when I was looking to buy one. Well, sort of - every single model listed was out of stock. There were/are general shortages of appliances everywhere, so perhaps they decided to stop having them on the website rather than having them permanently out of stock?

@mim321 thank you!

I searched LG heatpumps as a PP recommended theirs. More than a 1000 quid?! Blimey

Yes, they are out of fashion.

They are much simpler than either a condensing or a heat pump dryer, so they are cheaper do buy, cheaper to repair, and have hardly anything inside to go wrong.

They are quicker at drying than a heat pump.

You do need a hole in the wall. A good time to do it, or have it done, is when you need a hole for a bathroom extractor or kitchen cooker hood. The core drill is rather heavy.

They do use more electricity. You can have a go at calculating if this is greater or less than the increased purchase price over, say, five years.

I did, and for me it was less.

@mim321

Why do you want one without sensor?

I work with one of the biggest appliance makers, and in a meeting recently they laughed at me when I said I'd always choose a vented dryer. They said they are on their way out very rapidly and that heat pumps are WAY more economical (so the additional cost is recouped by way of cheaper bills).

What did they say about reliability? I can see a few posters on here have said that they seem to break down more often.

They didn't! It was just a passing conversation really. I guess there's more to go wrong in them than a simple vented one.

I'm going to be looking after my lovely vented one - I'm nervous now! It's basic, it does the job just fine, and touch wood, it's been going for years now with only one minor repair.

We replaced our 15 year old vented sensor one with another vented sensor one last year - I'd never buy one without sensors and lots of options. There's a 30 minute no sensor cycle if you just want to finish stuff from the line. We can dry anything except silk, wool and football socks without shrinkage. It's brilliant.
ao.com/l/vented_tumble_dryers-zanussi/1-6/17-19/

I have been looking for a integrated vented tumble dryer even harder to come seem to be extinct!! Love the fact you called it grumble dryer cos my DH grumbled every time I used it and the fact I overloaded it causing it's ultimate demise 😳

@SirChenjins - it might be a false economy holding on to it. We had a basic vented one for years, it did the job etc etc. When it died we got a new vented (sensor) one and were amazed how much quicker it was. The cost per use was way, way less.

I have had gas tumble driers for 30 years. Am using my 3rd one now.
Yes you need a hole in the wall as it is vented, but I can’t understand why they are not more popular.

They are cheap to run, dries things much quicker than electric models and there is very little in them to break.

The only manufacturer I think is white Knight and I have added a repair insurance for a small cost to my boiler insurance I have with British Gas.
This has worked very well for us as most gas engineers have no knowledge of them but British Gas engineers do.

I would be very sad to have to change to an electric tumbler.

[quote PigletJohn]@mim321

Why do you want one without sensor?[/quote]
As I posted earlier, I typically line dry my washing and put it in the tumble dryer if it's still a bit damp. The sensor dryer wouldn't dry for more than a minute before stopping but my washing wasn't dry. The only non sensor program was a 10 minute cool program that didn't dry either. Hence I sent it back.

Grumble dryer?! What is that?!

oh I see

mine considers "iron dry" to be rather damp

I usually set everything to "extra dry" and then it can be folded and stacked

It has a "freshen up" warm cycle which I think is 15 minutes or something for airing stuff.

I heard the trick of putting a damp towel in if you have, say, synthetics to dry which hold little water except in seams and hems, or just one pair of socks.

Interesting. I did set it to extra dry but sadly the issue persisted. Your warm cycle would have definitely been useful. But the simple timer one I've ended up replacing the sensor one with seems blessedly easy by comparison!

@ReviewingTheSituation

I work with one of the biggest appliance makers, and in a meeting recently they laughed at me when I said I'd always choose a vented dryer. They said they are on their way out very rapidly and that heat pumps are WAY more economical (so the additional cost is recouped by way of cheaper bills).

I have had a look. Annual running costs for typical heat pump - £36/year. Average running cost for vented = £75.

Cost of a heat pump is more than double the cost of a vented. It would take nearly 7 years to recoup the difference in upfront costs, plus they are more likely to go wrong.

And I would much rather have the heat and damp directed outside

I got a cheap White Knight vented tumble dryer, it’s quite small, but it’s been an absolute workhorse and the clothes dry so quickly. I can do a full set of scrubs for work in 10 minutes. I would buy it again.

Used a condenser previously and it was absolutely hopeless, took hours to dry anything.

@Babamamananarama

I think JL tend to concentrate on top to mid range everything. I looked at driers on AO.com and then on JL and couldn't believe anyone would pay £1k for a drier when you can get one for £170 but clearly people do.

I think a heat-pump model could save you the difference over it's lifetime. Vented ones use a lot of lecky, heating up the garden. Heat-pump machines use some clever trickery to recycle the heat, so they're much cheaper to run.

Like I said @MurielSpriggs they cost about half the cost to run than vented ones. But they are more than double the price so it will cost at least 6 years to recoup the cost.

I have a very basic vented one, the door catch broke a few months ago, we got a new catch on eBay for a tenner and DH fixed it, I did look at new vented ones and AO.com sold them, they were about £180-£200. Our's vents through a hole in the wall and if very quick drying stuff, there are some threads on here that say that heat pump ones take ages to dry also more to go wrong.

@Tumbl

Like I said *@MurielSpriggs* they cost about half the cost to run than vented ones. But they are more than double the price so it will cost at least 6 years to recoup the cost.

Hello, yes sorry, just noticed that

I have had a look. Annual running costs for typical heat pump - £36/year. Average running cost for vented = £75.

Do not believe their figures! I remember doing some sums of my own a few years back before buying. Those annual costs are wrong.

Eg take this cheap vented model
www.argos.co.uk/product/3568831

The screenshot attached is the PDF on the Argos website.

It says energy consumption for a full load is 4kWh. We average one load a day. That's 28 kWh a week, or 1,450kWh a year (£220). On their figures on that PDF the annual consumption is 472kWh. They massively underestimate how often you're likely to use it. My actual usage would be three times that!

In other words, unless you live alone and don't change your bedding very often, your annual lecky bill for the dryer will be a lot higher than they say.

That means your annual saving for a heat-pump model will also be a lot more, and the payback time is much shorter.

We bought an ex-display Indesit vented dryer when my old Hotpoint one died after 10 years of loyal service. It looked like it had been kicked round the shop floor several times so we got it for £30 and didn't mind as we were having the kitchen done a couple of months later and were getting a brand new washer/dryer, but it was December and I had a newborn so just needed something to tide me over ... the newborn is now a teenager, the washer/dryer packed in 5 years ago, and the battered Indesit is still fully functional and lives in my bathroom as there wasn't room for it in the new kitchen.