To give in and buy a tumble dryer

[Am1beingUnreasonable]

At my wits end!

There is myself, husband and two children (1 and 5) in the house. I can keep on top of the washing but drying everything is driving me insane!

We have a small apartment in the town so that kids are close to the school, and a holiday home out in the sticks by the coast that we are at most weekends. The holiday home is much bigger, but no garden. The apartment we are in most of the week also has no garden. So drying outdoors is out of the equation.

In the holiday home I have room to dry more clothes on airers but the holiday home is colder even with the heating on, so clothes don’t dry over the weekend whilst we are there, so doing laundry there doesn’t really work.

The apartment is warmer but I only have room for one small airer, which isn’t enough for the washing for a family of 4!

Ive tried my best to avoid having a tumble dryer because of the rising costs but I’m at my wits end. We tried a dehumidifier on the laundry setting and it barely made a difference. Same for heated airer.

Does anyone have any magic ideas about what might work before I just cave in and buy a tumble dryer?

Also, what are your costs vs benefits like? I’ve worked out it’s going to be around £2 a load for washing, which will be £10-12 a week for us which isn’t horrific but obviously not great if there’s a cheaper way of doing this I’m not thinking of.

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MNHQ

Just buy a tumbler. If you can afford 2 homes I’m sure you can afford the electric.

I don't know how much it costs, but there are 4 of us in this house, we bought a tumble dryer before our second was born. It's too much of a hassle trying to dry so many clothes inside in the cold weather!

I wouldn't be without one. The convenience is significant. Just think of your sheets and towels alone. No damp washing hanging around, just in and out, fresh, give it a shake and hang up or fold.
That alone is worth the cost to me. If you think it's going to be expensive, cut back on other things, but to me it's non negotiable.

£2 a load seems a lot - have you checked more recent models?

The holiday home was inherited and a bit of a poison chalice but for various reasons we can’t sell it. That’s why we have such a small apartment in the town, house prices are crazy and it’s all we could afford. Even if we sold the other place we couldn’t afford anything much bigger in the town.

Get a heat pump drier - very efficient.

Yes the heat pumps seem so much cheaper but take quite a bit longer and much more expensive to buy initially. My current electric rate is 42p, and it’s about 5kw for a full load give it take, so a bit over £2.

We have solar panels so put our dryer on when it costs nothing according to the feed in. I'd really recommend solar panels!!

“Non negotiable” that’s what I needed to hear I think, I’ve exhausted every option and this morning I was trying to dry school uniform with a hairdryer at the last minute because after 2 days it was still not properly dry 😩

I just posted on another thread about this. I have a new heat pump dryer. Absolutely brilliant and I won't go back to heated airers, dehumidifiers , hanging clothing all over the house, etc. We are doing a full load, extra spin and then in the dryer which takes under 2 hours ready to be packed away.

The alternatives aren't really worth it in your situation. Just buy one, you'll benefit enormously in every way - if you feel it's a bit expensive, just do sheets and towels, or part dry items.

I have never not had a tumble dryer. I don't know how people manage without one to be honest. I mainly use mine for towels, bedding and smaller things like socks and underwear and then put the rest either outside or on an airer. I do sometimes put clothes in there to finish them off if they are still a bit damp and that means that you can get away without ironing them too!

I do think a tumble drier has its place, but you don't have to go wild with it either! I use mine for smaller items like pants, socks, kids vests etc. (the stuff you probably wash most but that takes less time to dry!) and use the airer for larger items. Always on eco setting. Tbh it does likely use up a decent clunk of electricity when it's on which is why I tend to be quite sparing with it.

We have a heat pump dryer. I save the airer for the things that take the longest to dry (like towels) or are too delicate to go in, and chuck everything else in the dryer.

I couldn’t afford the heat pump dryer when I went to get a dryer just over 2 years ago, if you can afford that then I would get that. I have a heated drying pod from Lakeland as it’s small and there’s only 3 adults in our house at the moment. I also have a dehumidifier. With the drying pod and dehumidifier it costs us about 65p to £1.30 depending on size of load etc and with our annoying condenser dryer it’s at least £1.75 but not everything can go in a dryer, like all our sports gear which we can do on the heated airer. If space was a big issue, I’d go for the dryer. The heat pump one is comparable in price to the heated airer + dehumidifier to do a load.

I did without for years, always had washing on clothes horses about the place. When we had a new kitchen put in a few years ago I decided to get a dryer. Wouldn't be without it now. Don't know why I waited so long

I have a tumble drier and it's a godsend, and I still only use it maybe once or twice a week. It's will be a gamechanger for you if it's taking 2 days to dry uniform. You don't have to have it on for ages either, I try and air dry most things and then use the tumble drier to speed up the last bit of drying.

I couldnt live without my tumble dryer. To cut costs ive started hanging clothes on an airer whilst kids are at school/overnight to allow them to start drying then when i want the airer out the way i shove the washing in the dryer to finish drying which means 20mins in the dryer rather than an hour.

I didn't have one for years (lived in a tiny flat where there was no room for one) and it was such a pain in the arse to dry anything. Had to use airers which took up room, took ages to dry anything, and meant I had to keep the windows open to avoid damp/mould building up. Got a tumble dryer when we moved into a bigger place and omg the convenience! We have kids now so wouldn't be without it.

Launderette? I used to get one weeks worth in their huge drums. Couple of quid, take a book and a cup of tea. Probably took about 20 mins.

Yesterday I did 1 x 60 degree wash at 2hrs 10, 1 x40 wash at 1 hr 27 , 2 loads of tumble drying (but not from soaking wet as hung out for a couple of hours) plus all the usual and it was 3.90 nearing midnight including the standing charge. This is not something I do every day and it usually is about 2.60 daily. Bosch and Hotpoint appliances new.

Ah thank you everyone I really appreciate it! I knew really that it’s pretty much our only option but with how expensive it is now I was trying one last ditch attempt at seeing if anyone had an ingenious idea for drying clothes 🤣

Im looking at heat pump dryers now but the price is eye watering, although they do seem so much cheaper to run. I’ll see if we can stretch to one.

Thanks again for all the replies, it’s really good hearing no one regrets it and couldn’t do without it!!

Funny, I did this last month and it took nearly 2 hours and cost £12! To be fair it had built up and it was two loads worth but waiting about for ages with the kids was a nightmare lol. Id need to do it once a week at least and it’s a pain. Would be different if there was one closer but it’s a 20 minute drive into the city. Oh and parking was £3 🤣

Our tumble dryer costs a lot less than that. We have a hoover one and it works out at about 80p for a fullish (up to 10kg) load, which for us is two washing machines loads.

That’s amazing!! Is it a heat pump?