Tumble Dryer or De Humidifier?

[VanessaShanessaJenkins99]

Our Tumble dryer has just packed up - so we need to get something sorted- ive heard good things about de humidifiers!

A Tumble will have to go in the garage which is a pain in the wet winter - but a humidifier we could use in the spare room ?

Depends. We have multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, sheer amount of double bedding and towels renders de-humidifier useless - as it doesn’t fit in a single room to dry, have to utilize banisters. Tumble drier does it much quicker, those come out fluffy and wrinkle-free. If it is just 2 of you and mostly clothes - you might be better off with de-humidifier.

We've currently got both. A powerful dehumidifier with laundry setting is an impressive thing and ours makes the house warmer...but think about where you'll hang sheets etc for them to dry. Takes more time to hang and sort than chucking laundry into a tumble dryer. And you'll have to empty the reservoir often which is a drag if it's in the spare room - always seem to spill some from ours. I do prefer it though. Easily dries a load overnight or less

Both. If you don't tumble dry towels at all, they come out like hard sheets once dried. I half tumble dry everything, then hang it out with dehumidifier on.

Dehumidifier and heated airer

I'm in my late 40s, never had a tumble dryer and my towels are fine.

We have both.

Tumble dryer for towels,sheets and socks/pants.

Airer with dehumidifier for everything else.

could imagine my life without a tumble dryer!

Definitely dehumidifier, but then I wouldn't want to tumble dry my clothes at all.

I have a dehumidifier because there’s a cold spot in one of the bedrooms. It’s great at drying out the walls but even on a laundry setting makes hardly any difference to drying the washing. Not sure if the issue is having the washing in the same room as the damp spot but that’s the room we need it in at this time of year so that’s where it goes.

Unless money is no issue a dehumidifier all the way, assuming you have space for a drying rack. I do a double spin, shake out my clothes, hang them on a rack near the dehumidifier. My iron hasn't been out in months. And I wear mostly natural fabrics including linen all summer.

A dehumidifier will also make your house feel warmer in the wetter and colder months of the year.

Depends if you want a room full of wet/drying washing most of the time...

I'm using the dehumidifier method and as others have pointed out it involves creating a room of racks (not a rack...racks) of clothing at various stages of drying like some kind of shit art installation about excess belongings and permanence that you can't get rid of. If you have the space and tolerance for that by all means join the fun.

A dehumidifier uses more electricity per load than a tumble dryer does. A heated airer uses slightly less than a tumble dryer. If you can run to a heat pump tumble dryer it will use less electricity than any other option apart from straight air drying.

I do not know why you'd want to festoon your house with washing, listen to a dehumidifier whirring away and still not save any energy.

Sorry to jump on but what make of dehumidifier do you guys have to dry clothes?

We've got both, but we never use the dehumidifier for drying clothes. Our tumble dryer costs pennies to run and means we never have to iron anything. It also fits loads in so I can do two washes and put them both in the tumble dryer in one go.

We have both. I wish i could tumble dry every thing but we have clothes that shrink, even on the lowest setting.

Tumble dryer is now only used for bedding, towels, underwear, socks, tea towels.

Rest of our washing is spread over airing racks in utility room with powerful dehumidifier. Manages to get dry overnight.

I air dry my towels and they're soft - dunno what you mean by they end up so hard?

Maybe you buy cheap quality towels?

I’d go tumble dryer- just got a new Samsung heat pump to replace my decrepit old condenser and it’s a game changer. I have dehumidifiers as well ( used to live in Asia where they’re mandatory unless you want mould everywhere) but don’t really use them for washing tbh as I don’t like racks of laundry everywhere.

Tumble dryer.

I don't get the MN obsession with dehumidifiers and heated airers - they're not especially cheap to run, are more time consuming and take up loads of space.

We have a great washer dryer and can get a load of washing done and dry in 90 minutes.

Which washer dryer do you have? I have a hoover one and I hardly use it because the dryer is so slow.

Basically, a dehumidifier is great if you have a utility or small room available to hang everything and shut the door. Otherwise, you're losing a room of your house.

Dehumidifiers are good to have in general, though, but that's a separate question.

We have both, but only use the dehumidifier in one of our cold bedrooms and to speed up drying clothes that can't be tumble dried e.g. wool jumpers.

But if you have space for a tumble dryer then I'd definitely get one. You then don't have washing hanging all over the house adding damp to the air. Dehumidifiers aren't necessarily cheap to run, like a PP said I can have a load of laundry washed and dried in 1hr 30mins using my tumble dryer.

Why would you want the extra work of hanging up all the washing in your house when you can just throw it in the tumble dryer. Laundry is tedious enough as it is.

Ours is a Hoover too @GreyDuck - it's fairly new though as it replaced our old Candy one last year. It's been fantastic though!

I have both and only really use the tumnle dryer. The dehumidifier takes up too much space and time drying clothes, even though it is in a spare room. Plus I loathe washing hanging around. Tumble dryer I can get the washing done and put away in a couple of hours.