Condenser vs heat pump

[Primarkcouture]

Not really a AIBU. Following my previous thread on the endlessly riveting topic of laundry drying, I will bite the bullet and take out a kitchen unit to accommodate a tumble dryer.

I have to keep moisture in the room to a minimum and want clothes to actually get dry. Not warm and damp then requiring the radiator routine. Is it too much to ask?

So starting a new thread on the question of condenser or heat pump?

I have a heat pump. I find that sometimes you open the door and it feels like it's still damp but actually if you take it out and give it 5 minutes it is actually dry.

I don't have any problems.

I use the waste water for the iron, as it’s ironised saves buying ironing water (I know ironing is a contentious subject on MN but I actually find it quite relaxing)

In terms of experience, a good condenser is probably better than a bad heat pump, and vice versa. Also I think the tech on heat pumps might be improving rapidly. One bought now could be much better, and cheaper, than one that's a few years old.

We are very happy with our heat pump. The initial time for a load comes up as 3.5 hours but it never takes anything near that. For us the cost savings are very tangible (especially given they aren't much more expensive to buy now) and any drying time differences are intangible.

I have read that heat pumps can get less efficient over time, but this can be mitigated a bit by cleaning both filters. Ours is a year old Beko. We are really pleased with it so far. Sin e we bought it we dry a lot more clothes and spend a lot less (and therefore use less electricity) doing so.

Plumbed in condenser (so water goes into the drain not into the tank) doesn't let damp into the room.

Heat pump is more expensive to buy but cheaper to run, so if you run a lot of loads your pay-back time will be less than if you run only 1-2 loads a week..

I previously had a heat pump, and I was so glad when it broke and I could get a condenser. The heat pump took forever to ‘dry’ things, and everything still came out damp. They may be cheaper to run, but took sooo much longer than my condenser so I’m sure it all balances out.

Well it looks like my weekend has gotten off to a great start, frantically reading reviews. Oh what a life.

It does seem that heat pumps are a bit marmite. I really don't want to be hanging around for 3 hours with hot soggy clothes at the end.

Cheaper per drying cycle, not cheaper per minute running though. Unless you have it in an unheated outbuilding.

I suppose that since I've never had a dryer, even being able to dry things in a couple of hours feels fast to me compared with drying on an airer, plus no time spent hanging stuff up. (It has never taken as long as 2 hours).

I did look at the which reviews when I got mine because I wanted one that would have good performance at making the clothes dry enough to put away, I didn't care about the performance of it on iron dry mode.

If you do get a Beko there is one annoying thing with mine where it has this anti crease feature that makes it tumble intermittently after use for ages and you can't turn this off. Not sure if newer models by them have this.

I think they must just be really variable in performance so it makes sense to try and find reviews or comparisons for specific models . I found this hard to do because they seem to have millions of models all with very similar names. But I did just end up making notes on what people said about different brands and narrowed it down that way.

We had a condenser one which died after about 8 years. Replaced with a heat pump as read it's more efficient. It takes FOREVER and we are a family of 6 so we have mountains of laundry. It hasnt shrunk anything though but so annoying waiting for it to finish

Had a condenser 15 years it was rubbish and would shrink things. Bought a heat pump in September one of the Samsung high end ones and it's amazing! Nothing has shrunk and I now chuck it all in and it comes out dry. Cheap to run too!

I second the BEKO, it's efficient and quick and I can dry 2 loads at once.
@Primarkcouture if you wish to keep moisture to a minimum, don't have a condenser dryer as that will be chucking out wet air

Beko

This one @Primarkcouture

We have a heat pump tumble dryer, my experience is: Pro- no external pipe so nowhere for spiders to come into the house (this was a big seller for me!!) Con- not sure if this is just our model, but considering as they're marketed as being more gentle on clothes I'd actually say this one shrinks clothes more than the previous geriatric traditional one we inherited.

It does take a while to dry a load (3hr 35m standard or a "quick dry" is 1hr 49m), but I don't really mind this as I've just adapted my timings of when I put the load on.