What's best - heat pump or condenser tumble dryer?

[TotalOverhaul]

Would love to hear people's experiences of whether a heat pump or condenser dryer is better. Can't plumb one in. Always had a condenser dryer which is very good at drying clothes completely and very easy to clean but have heard that heat pump ones are more eco and quieter. But do clothes get bone dry?

I'd love recommendations on brands or where to buy from. I'd planned on going to John Lewis but some recent threads on here about how rubbish their customer service is now have put me off.

-

If you’re short on time, here’s a summary of the best tumble dryers Mumsnetters are recommending on this thread:

Best budget tumble dryer brand: Beko
Beko B5T4923IW 9KG Heat Pump Tumble Dryer, £469
Beko DTLCE70051W 7kg Freestanding Condenser Tumble Dryer, £239

Best tumble dryer brand overall: Bosch
Bosch Series 6 WQG24509GB Heat Pump Tumble Dryer, £699
Bosch WPG23108GB Series 6 Condenser Tumble Dryer, £599

Best premium tumble dryer brand: Miele
Miele TEF765WP Freestanding Heat Pump Tumble Dryer, £1,099

For a deeper dive into the top tumble dryers for all budgets, take a look at our round-ups of the best tumble dryers, the best heat pump tumble dryers, the best condenser tumble dryers and the best vented tumble dryers.

I've got a Beko heat pump and love it.
You can set it to iron dry or cupboard dry and it works, few clothes need ironing too as it doesn't overdry. It also turns the clothes over every 5 mins or so if you can't get to it the minute it finishes so that also reduces creasing.

Mine is a beko. It always says 2h40 when you put the load in but it's always done in about 90-120 mins.

All modern ones (heat pump or condensor) have a moisture sensor, so the time will vary based on how much clothing is in, the type of material and how wet it is. I think badly programmed or placed or cheap sensors are probably to blame for a lot of the too long/too damp complaints.

I got a Bosch heat pump dryer and I have been so pleased with it - it costs less to use than having a de-humidifier running all the time to dry the washing, plus it doesn't seem to shrink any of the clothes.

Mine has a sensor so although the timer says something like 3 hours + for towels I have never known it take that long - usually around 90 mins a load (I'm not 100% sure as I wfh so don't pay a huge amount of attention to how long it takes).

Very happy with it - wish we'd got one years ago.

I saw that after I shared, but honestly we’ve had it almost seven years and not a single issue!

We have a candy heat pump. The water collects at the front and we just empty ot out. Yes it's slower but a lot cheaper.

And not only brand but maybe which year is a good question.

It seemed like when I was doing my research a lot of people were put off by the early heat pump models but maybe the newer ones are much improved? I don't know as I don't know what they were like previously.

I have a heat pump Bosch. It does take a while but I’ve not had a tumble dryer before so it’s brilliant for me as the alternative was days on a drying rack and this is only about 3 hours! It’s stupidly cheap to run, 90 odd cycles a year for about £30 or something. I read the stats online somewhere before we bought. Worth spending out for a decent make, my boss has a beko and it’s not as good.

We have a Miele heat pump - no shrinkage! Very happy with it.

And yes most new heat pumps will weigh laundry, so the time given is for a full load. If you end up just drying one pair of jeans or school jumpers in emergency then it will work it out and reduce time.
I often do a load of mixed laundry, then hang most clothes but throw Ds swim towel and his pillow cases or whatever Into dryer and then they only take about 15mins

I'm waiting for our third dryer in 18 months to be delivered, should be here tomorrow. We've gone back to an ordinary condenser this time as opposed to the last two which have both been heat pump. The heat pump ones generally can't be repaired due to the gases in them, the principal is something similar to a fridge unit. Even the engineer said he doesn't rate them despite being cheaper to use.I don't think the heat pump ones are that great at drying properly either or at least ours weren't.

I've got a heat pump, the 10kg Hoover one. It's excellent. Nothing shrinks and it's so cheap to run.
It's a bit slow but the sensors adjust it. Usually about 90 mins.

I got a heat pump and I’m not thrilled with it. It takes ages, and unless it’s on the very highest setting, the clothes are still damp - probably ok if you have the consistency to take them out straight away and hang them up, but if you forget they can get a bit musty. It also takes 5 seconds to
react when I turn it on, and sometimes I think I’ve put it on and come back a couple of hours later to find it blinking at me.
And if it can squeeze one more drop of water into the tank it will wait until I’m out of the room to stop working. Beeps for every other reason but is resolutely stoical about that

Definitely not recommended if you have adhd.

We have a Samsung heat pump. Had it 4 years. No problems, takes a bit longer but we don't mind that. Not had any shrinkage either

I just empty my tank with every load but it does hold about 1.8 loads worth of water, so you can often get away with forgetting.

If bone dryness is important to you (it is to me for the reason nonplus says) I think it's worth paying for the which? access and looking at their rating of its performance on the different drying levels. I didn't care about how they perform on the iron dry setting because I will 100% never ever use this, and want something that will err on the side of too dry.

I did find that the models which? had rated good or better commanded a higher price premium, but I used it as a general proxy to see which brands and which generation from the various brands did what I wanted and found a model that wasn't actually tested but I was fairly sure was using the same parts as the one that had been. Thereby getting a similar model for a lower price.

I ended up with a beko but I seem to remember from the reviews that I ruled out certain generations of beko because they hadn't performed as well in the test.

I wanted to avoid the hoover/whirlpool/Hotpoint brands too because of the potential fire risk as I'd heard that tumble dryers are a fire risk in general.

Heat pump and condenser aren't mutually exclusive so you can have both, it's not a choice.

Got a cheap Logik one from Currys. Doesn't seem any slower than the standard condenser it replaced but does use less energy. Win win really

I replaced a heat pump with a regular condenser dryer because the heat pump one became less and less efficient until it wasn't drying at all. Being able to clean the heat exchanger has kept my heavily used condenser dryer going to the point that I wore the drive wheels out before the 3 year warranty expired.

Mine is John Lewis, BTW. Engineer said he'd never have a heat pump dryer for the reason I had to ditch mine.

We are on our second heat pump tumble dryer, the first one was a Candy one and did well for nearly 4 years, but after repairs to both the tension pulleys and the capacitor it gave up drying at all so we had to replace it. We now have a Miele one and it is so much quieter and quicker, and leaves clothes feeling far softer than the Candy. It was pricier but if it lasts as long as other Miele appliances do it will be worth it in the long run. A+ rated for electricity consumption too and it barely makes our smart meter change when it is on. We got it from John Lewis, ordered on a Thurs eve and had it delivered on the Sat, great service.

All heat pump dryers are condensers. They work exactly the same as a condenser with the only difference being that the waste hot air is pumped back in to reduce the amount of heating required by the appliance, which reduces energy usage and wastage (because you're not just pumping hot air out to dissipate into nothingness while creating more heat with electricity).

So the OP is asking about the choice between a traditional condenser or a heat pump condenser. There are no heat pump vented dryers.

We have 2 tumble dryers, both heat pump, an expensive Miele one and a much cheaper Beko one. We’d previously had vented so was dreading the slow drying time I’d read about. I was pleasantly surprised, they both dry a load in less than 2 hours.