Reluctance to use a tumble dryer is a British quirk

[User3735]

I've noticed that there is a lot of shame around using a tumble dryer, and even people who have one are reluctant to admit it, and make excuses why they have one and say they use it rarely. The claims of them being extortionate and terrible for the environment seem exaggerated to me whenever I look at the latest energy uses and cost. According to Which, the average tumble dryer costs around £150 per year to run (and less than £60 per year for a newer heat pump dryer). Yet people will buy expensive heated airers, rails and dehumidifiers to probably a similar value.

I have observed this tumble dryer reluctance from people from all financial backgrounds. The only pattern I have noticed is those who had one in their home growing up are more likely to use them, and those who didn't think they are to be avoided at all costs. I wonder if they did cost significantly more when they were new, and it is a misconception of running costs?

I have always had one, and when they have broken I have replaced asap. Our current dryer broke down this summer, and I put off replacing while the weather was better, but I now seem to have been influenced by the tumble dryer haters and I have a strange sense of satisfaction of powering on through winter without one. Whilst I get an utterly pointless sense of satisfaction that I am winning, the time spent shaking out, hanging and turning clothes takes up quite a ridiculous chunk of time compared to tumble drying and I am very time poor. Given our wet climate and issues with damp, I really can't understand why so many people are against them?

I have a fancy heat pump tumble dryer and I’d still rather hand things out, over doors, or the radiator, etc., to dry. Things feel nicer if dried naturally.… especially towels! Give me a scratchy line dried towel over a weird fluffed up one, any day of the week.

It’s not about money, I can afford to run the dryer no issues at all but why would you if you can do it for 0p and it’s nicer?

I always think I’d hate to live in the states for this. My neighbours would hate me while my towels were drying outside. I’d probably quite enjoy winding them up though…weirdos.

oh and just to add, when we bought our house the old owner was a plumber who had made radiators to the utility that were like heating drying racks. When we renovated we kept those!

If your house gets too damp from drying clothes it's better to put them in the dryer. It stops the house from getting humid. Humid houses cost more energy to heat up too!

My dryer generates some excess heat... but it is not as if that heat disappears. It stays in the house.

I do find not using the dryer to be a British quirk. DH resisted for a long time til we moved into a really damp rental and we had no choice. Even then he didn't want to buy a condenser but a vented one and just keep the door open and run the vent out? It still doesn't make sense... but that is what his parents have.

That sounds a lot to me just for electricity!

I think electricity costs in Europe are something like 2-3 times those in the US. We pay about €300 a month, it didn't go up significantly when we got the tumble dryer, in fact it went down, which was a coincidence probably based on something else. It's hard to tell because it only gets calculated once a year.

(We are in a high rise and have no gas supply).

USA is quite low down on this list

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/

I'm in Australia and say the same. I've always used tumble dryers and my clothes are fine. Even hand knits are okay if they're not wool and you use a low heat. I don't have space to hang anything indoors and it takes far too long anyway, and my clothesline in this unit is too small to take more than three towels, so tumble dryer it is.

ETA I'm very glad to have the use of a communal laundry though - it doesn't add to my electricity bill.

Our kwh costs are higher in the UK, but you are spending 20% more than I am on electricity + gas, despite being in a flat while we have a large 4-5 bed house. I imagine it must be summer aircon contributing to such enormous spend for you.

We live in a four bed flat in the UK and spend about this on electricity now, it doesn't include heating but we use some aircon on hot summer nights.

I don't use a tumble dryer much but do have a small dehumidifier in my drying cupboard. I much prefer the dehumidifier to the dryer, the clothes don't lose all the lint which is caught in the filter which must make the fabric last longer.

A large 3 bed flat with 5 people and electric water heating. We did have expensive storage heaters but we don't use them any more. We bought plug in heaters instead. We are stuck on an expensive tariff not able to switch suppliers because of the storage heaters - few suppliers offer a night/day tariff (and won't touch us even when we offer to pay the day price for all electricity used).

We don't have air con. We aren't living in a hot country.

I think the biggest spend is probably having between 1-3 gaming computers turned on pretty much from about 8am to 11pm, depending on who is home. Our costs were higher during corona when DH worked from home.

Or it's the water heater that very badly needs descaling but I can't get anyone to do it. Or my teenage son leaving his window open 🥶 (I have just closed it!)

We don’t have air conditioning but in the summer we put a “window shaker” room air conditioner in the bedroom and a box fan in our home office. I think we only used the bedroom one maybe ten nights across the summer.

I don't have space for one, and it ruins your clothes. Those heated airers are far cheaper to run. I don't think it's British, it's just common sense.

I’ve had one for about 20 years & tell people there’s no way that I will ever go back to hanging wet washing in the home. I’ll put large or thick items on the line, but the rest will go in the tumbler. I’ve just had a Bosch washer dryer & it’s shrunk many of my clothes but that’s too bad, the charity shop will benefit. I’ve scrimped & scraped for years, not any more though.

They really don’t ruin your clothes at all

Three years of using some very ordinary little tumble dryers in the community laundry and none of my clothes have been ruined.

Have washer/dryer, use it if I need to, but I choose not to wherever possible as it leaves stuff creased or makes stuff go bobbly over time… my mums was the same as a separate tumbler so I just CBA with it and I hate ironing! No other reason… I’m not that virtuous 😉

I've ruined so many types of clothes with TDs.
Having grown up with them, they were my normal from birth to age early 20s.

Decals stripped & peeling off of t-shirts.
Wool... omg, nightmare, somebody doesn't spot something with wool in it in the load, so many wool items hugely shrunk.
Terry nappies washed & dried many times previously without damage: stripped by TD.
Fluffy sweaters: stripped.
Elastic goes brittle, loses springiness.
Everything shrinks.
Some things actually melt.

I only like to wear natural fibres, may be a factor in high damage rate.

When in States I'll only use TDs at low heat and only unimportant items, takes a long time to dry at low heat, but does a lot less damage.

I finally got one a few months ago after not having had one for the past 10 years. It is a life saver. I have not stopped raving about it since I got it, no shame at all. Especially lovely in this colder weather to have 100% dry, warm clothes and bedding fresh out the tumble. I am careful with which setting and have yet to damage anything, and I also only wear natural fibres.

Perhaps worth noting, we heat the house with fires and without central heating so cleaning on a clothes horse was a pain and things were never 100% dry. Made the house smell a bit damp too.

I use mine all of the time, regardless of the weather. I don't actually even have a washing line.

I always use our tumble dryer this time of year, for part of a load, the rest going on the clothes horse or hanging up insight. I don't use it during the summer months, though.

IME, it doesn't ruin the washing at all.

Some people have very small gardens so in the summer may have to sit and look at the washing, fortunately ours is such that you can't see the washing from the seating area so I can hang mine out in the warmer months

How dreadful to have to look at your own clothes on the line 🤣

Agree. I don’t understand why it’s preferable to live with laundry draped all over your house, rather than use a tumble dryer once in a while for bedding, towels, socks etc.

I dream of having a drying cabinet for delicates.

I’ve always had small gardens and it’s genuinely never occured to me that for some it’s an issue to have to laundry hanging in it!! It doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the garden whatsoever.

Well "Americans" need to get over themselves. It infuriates me that people in warm climates burn fuel unnecessarily to get their washing dry. Go to any city in Europe and see people with their laundry on balconies or even hung up on lines across the street.

I don't see why it is "quirky" to want to use the energy that the earth produces naturally to reduce ones own carbon footprint.

"Warm climates"? Not all of us live in Florida. Good luck trying to dry clothes outside for six months of the year in Maine or inside without radiators you can hang things on. The majority of the electricity in my state is produced without fossil fuels. I think it's less than 40% in the UK.