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

In the school uniform days I would buy a lot of extra shirts etc so there was always a clean dry set available, it helps with the Monday morning panic!

However in a small flat a dryer would be ideal for you.

We use ours on the days where we havent been home as much or cooking with the oven

So it evens out nicely 😊

So on Friday I was out all day, came home put everything in the tumble dryer and had tuna pesto pasta for tea. So no oven required!

Our tumble dryer went up in smoke a few months ago and we had decided not to buy a new one but like you drying clothes , bedding etc is a night mare. This weekend I’m going tumble dryer shopping. I don’t use it for full washings. I hang things up over night on the airier then finish them off in tumble dryer the next morning.

Dehumidfiers work best at drying clothes in a small heated room. I do an extra spin cycle before hanging them up to get rid of excess water. It does sound like with the amount of laundry you have, a tumble dryer is probably going to be the best solution.

On a side note, does anyone have any tips for not shrinking clothes in a TD? I have a washer dryer but the dryer seems to take forever and most things shrink!

I also bought a heat pump dryer - a Samsung. It's great. About 40p a load (20p on last year's prices) - massively worth it.

Im embarrassed to say I don't don't actually know, it is only a year or so old though. How would I tell if it is?

I've never had one and manage fine, thanks, as do both my adult children. Two of us have outside space though.

Oh flip that’s great! I’m really tempted with the heat pump now. They are coming in at around 3x as much as a normal condenser but that should pay for itself eventually.

I have just checked this weekend and mine cost me £1.40 for a full load set to extra dry.

Tumble drier is my essential after washing machine. I have a condenser, A rated and love it.

It's not cold enough for having the heating on where I am, so ive turned off all the radiators except one. I put the airer in front of it, and then get a double bed sheet, tuck it into the sides of the radiator and then wrap it over the airer. It clears a hot little bubble in there and the clothes mostly dry within a couple hours.

It's cheaper per KWh than using the electricity to run a tumble dryer and I'd have to run it several time.
I have the radiator on for a few hours each day over the weekend and get all the washing dry. I have a dehumidifier on automatic so it comes one when humidity rises above a set level, otherwise the windows end up covered in condensation.

If stuff hasn't dried totally but I dont need it, then I'll just leave those items on an airer.

Ours doesn't cost more than 3-3.5kwh for a load generally and that's an older bog standard Beko condenser. It doesn't run at full stated wattage for the whole time and the sensor turns it off when stuff is dry which is always way before the stated time.

I've got a heat pump one. It was £450 but looking at the smart meter it seems pretty efficient. I've been doing an extra spin on my washer which helps

And yes I never would be without one. We are in north of Scotland so can't dry outside for much of winter, and I hate clothes draped over radiators or those bloody airer things. The dog steals them and they make the house feel damp and look even messier than it is. I'll pay for the convenience!

That’s a great price, was it on offer? I can’t find one under £650 at the moment, going to check Argos now 🤣

We have a normal not condenser dryer and I wouldn't be without it. 5 adults and we have outside drying space but sometimes it can be outside all day and not do anything.
I had the dryer on all day and it cost about £1.60 including the washer being on as well.
When the last one broke I used the launderette. Two hours and about £15. Plus carting heavy wet washing about.

You might want to check individual dryers for their ratings as 5kwh is a lot to dry one load for a heat pump and doesn't sound very efficient.

My Samsung Heat Pump uses 0.8 - 1.2 kwh to dry a big load of laundry within 3 hours. (It is a wifi connnected one, so it monitors the energy usage on an app.)

I could do the full large load (10kg washing machine) all at once within about 2 hours, but I split into 2 loads for the dryer as I prefer similar fabrics to dry together. ie heavier thicker fabrics dried separately from lightweight fabrics. It takes more time but as it isn't overloaded I can avoid creases setting in, so no ironing shirts or uniforms.

You do obviously need one. We bought a heat pump one, they are more economical to run.

Don't even hesitate. It still amazes me that (current costs aside) people don't have them as a given.

I just invested in a heat pump tumble dryer, and it costs pence to run, which is lucky as we're a 7 person household. I got ours from Hotpoint, and if you can get a Blue Light Card discount code, they offer 25% off. I think ours was around £350, which I thought was a great price.

Yep same issues here op

I wasn't going to use my tumble dryer at all due to cost however I weighed it up and I can't have clothes hanging everywhere as don't have the space and plus it just takes too long to dry.

Busy household both parents work full time so it's impossible to keep on top of.

The clothes that can't be tumble dried get hung up on lounge curtain rail above two open windows and dry well and the rest of it goes in timber just for time reasons.

I don't know how much it costs but I generally do 3 or 4 loads over the weekend inc towels and bedding spread out over the weeks to lighten the load.

It's the time of year for the slow cooker to come out again for ease so I offset the tumble dryer usage against the oven not going on much

@Am1beingUnreasonable We got our one from AO for £269 😊

Get a dehumidifier - ours works wonders in helping to dry the washing and keep our home free from damp.

We didn't have one until dd1 and it was useful especially for bulky things like towels and bedding. I still use the clothes horse and hang outside a lot. It absolutely came into its own the first time we had a sickness bug and I have no idea how I'd have dried all the towels, sheets, pyjamas and the actual quilt without it! Although it broke a couple of summers ago and we happily went without one for about three or four months. I'd struggle without it in the winter though.

i got one last month at currys, £300 and its great a++ rated, so only one level from top and its soooo quite comapred to my old condenser. id got heat pump every time now