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?

You clearly haven't spent much time in Florida. It's so humid most of the year that you could hang out your clothes for a week and they would never fully dry. Nevermind the daily summer downpours.

It's true I haven't spent much time in Florida, which makes the pp's comment about us "Americans " who live in warm climates even more pointless. Perhaps I should have said Arizona.

Are you for real???

Seriously, I can't imagine why anyone would be offended by the sight of their own washing 😂

Some people love looking at washing hanging on a line.

I agree, there is a certain satisfaction in it.

I do but only when I know I'm going to bring it in dry.

Mine has done the same and the repair man said it was a small fire inside, and a fire hazard. Had it serviced and it’s normal now.

No need to be infuriated. I live in one of the sunniest places in the world and have a tumble drier. It's super energy efficient and I also have solar panels (like many people in hot countries) so I'm not burning any fuel. I don't drive either, so I reckon I'm hardly the worst planet destroyer.

We had them (including a lovely huge American style one) when I was doing laundry for the family but now there's just the two of us i use an indoor airer.

Its not reluctance to use the dryer..its the price electric is

I would rather give up the TV than the tumble dryer!

I cannot be doing with wet washing hanging around, although I do put washing on the line when it will dry.

We use ours all year round, probably every day. It’s much like the dishwasher in terms of how essential it is.

I use mine. Too wet outside for using washing line. However as soon as weather improves it'll be back out. We have 5 beds in this house. Each set bedding washed weekly. I certainly am not having it all hanging around the house. That's without all the washing for 6 of us.
Id say in the last week. I have used it 12x or more with few delicate items on radiators

Lol - it hasn't been warm around here for weeks, and it won't be again until the end of May.

In the meantime, if I want my clothes to be frozen solid in fifteen minutes, I'll hang them out.

The dryer in my building uses natural gas, which the earth produces naturally. You may need to refine your terms there.

We had a brand new tumbly dryer in our first home, a new build flat we were renting.

I only used the dryer rarely, especially after it cremated some mattress protectors, turning them into wrinkled sandpaper.

I had secondhand embarrassment reading this.

I live in Toronto near warm and tropical NYC. It's shocking we don't embrace our warm climate more.

I live in Maine. Good luck drying anything outside in a Maine winter, and we don't have radiators to hang things on.

I have a washer dryer and a small flat but only use the dryer function for towels, tea towels and cleaning cloths. Everything else gets hung up. The washer dryer is only run when someone is in the apartment and it’s not on after 9 pm which means in an average week the washing / drying window is relatively short (the majority is done on the weekends).

Everyone’s circumstances and preferences are different. I have underfloor heating which means the bathroom is the perfect place to dry clothes as they dry relatively quickly. I’m also one who doesn’t like tumble drying clothes and quite frankly have enough (more than enough) to last me 2 weeks before I start to run out.

Think I’ll use mine today as fed up with crispy towels

I'm not keen on ours, despite having one as a child. It shrinks things. It doesn't dry them very nicely. I don't like how they feel afterwards, compared to heated rack, rack, or line drying.

I had to use the tumble dryer yesterday. Put the clothes away this morning and they feel just horrible - limp, floppy, no scent from the washing powder, creased because I wasn't on standby to take them out of the dryer and fold them the instant it was done.

no scent from the washing powder

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

A Dsis who’s lived in the US since the 70s, told me that drying clothes on a washing line there is seen as a sign of either poverty or madness. She tumble dries virtually everything, though to be entirely fair the winters where she lives are very long and very cold, and in summer the humidity can be far worse than anything people like to call ‘humid’ in the U.K.

🤣 I spend a lot of time and money making sure my clothes come out scent-free! (Mostly because the modern penchant for impregnating clothing with vast quantities of chemical irritants, by sloshing it gently in lukewarm water with conditioners and scent-boosters and god knows what else, turns my skin into salami. You're basically swapping a bit of ordinary dirt here and there for deliberate, artificial and potentially harmful dirt throughout the fabric. But also, if I want to smell of something, I've got actual perfumes for that, and don't need them fighting cheap detergent fragrance for dominance. To me, the point of scent in laundry powder is to let me know whether I've done a good enough job of rinsing )

I just don’t understand how people are using them and not still having laundry all over the house. I’ve been doing more laundry than usual this week due to guests before new year and a sick bug since NYE so have been using the dryer more.
I still have 3 airers of laundry full of stuff that can’t go in dryer.
1 of mattress and pillow protectors
1 of wool items
1 big one of things like dps hoodies that say do not tumble dry, clothes with decals (have previously tumbled such items and they cracked and peeled), trousers with elastane that get weird lines on them where they lose elasticity, socks (always shrink), bras, some knickers, sports kits…