Tumble Dryers!

[Tallulahbella]

Sorry, long post and very first world problem!

AIBU to replace an expensive Samsung heat pump tumble dryer with a cheaper condenser dryer?

I previously had a cheap condenser dryer and was I used to the quick drying of towels/bedding, accepting the compromise that they didn’t come out smelling laundered (smelled of nothing) and I had to be careful what I put in to avoid shrinking/damage.

Since last year I’ve had the Samsung heat pump and the benefit is it’s so gentle on clothes, I can put literally anything in it and it comes out smelling as nice as if it’d been line dried, however it takes FOREVER.

Its definitely got worse. As an example I put towels in at lunch time yesterday, they were on until we went out for dinner/cinema last night at 6pm. Back on at 11pm and I had a notification it had completed at 5am, got up this morning and still wet so have been on since 8am, it’s now 9am - that is 13 hours!!!!!

I have tried a small load - 6 hours to dry a duvet cover and 2 pillow cases. 12 hours for 4 bath towels.

I am still in warranty so had someone out yesterday who said the heat exchanger at the bottom needed to be “immaculate” before he’d be allowed to do anything and there were no faults on the machine. He suggested cleaning by scraping with tweezers?! I have cleaned as instructed, at the frequency instructed with the brush provided. After his visit, I DID lie on the floor for an hour scraping each of the metal grids and to be fair, some gunk did come off but I since then has been this 13 hour towel marathon.

I don’t believe for a minute that people are lying on the floor scraping vents with tweezers as part of BAU maintenance in 2025 🫣

I don’t know whether to get them out again with my shiney vent, knowing I may be charged this time for “non-fault” call out or just cut my losses and replace.

Everytime it does it’s little song to tell me it’s finished and I open the door to wet stuff, I feel like taking a sledge hammer to it 😭

Also, if I didn’t WFH I literally wouldn’t be able to use it as I wouldn’t run it when no1 home and wouldn’t have 12 hours a day at home!

"Electrical heating is 100% efficient"

Only in the sense that all the electrical energy will convert to heat.

This does not make it 100% efficient though. Sone of the heat will warm the machine and tte surrounding things rather than the clothes.

You can still buy a vented dryer at lots of retailers.

My heat pump dryer takes forever too, I reserve it for fluffing up towels and emergencies, everything else is dried on racks

That is definitely faulty. We have recently upgraded to a Samsung heat pump model from a cheaper condenser, and the difference is remarkable. So much quicker and less costly to run than than the condenser. I think you need to get the repair service out again now that you've cleaned it out to get to the bottom of this.

My condenser dryer broke and I looked at heat pumps. Although dryer is in the house it’s against a cold kitchen wall where outside boiler pipe freezes in the winter so I went for another condenser

12 hours for 4 towels is not fit for purpose. My condenser Bosch starts by telling me 2.5 hours for an 8kg towel load but always gets it done in 60 mins

unless you doing loads and loads of drys in a day (which I can’t see you doing if they take so long ) then how much energy are people actually saving with a heat pump

I also have a Samsung heat pump dryer - it does dry reasonably quick. But the clothes come out smelling bad and I can't figure out why. Clothes go in smelling lovely and come out smelling musty even though they are dry. I've googled, asked Samsung and no-one seems to know. I don't know if there's something wrong with it but don't want to get an engineer out if it's nothing. I clean it out after every cycle, empty water, clean filters. Can't wait for the thing to break so I can go back to a condenser.

I ‘upgraded’ our original Bosch vented dryer for a Bosch heat pump dryer. It died within 18 months. As did the second one we bought.

I just don’t think heat pump dryers are very durable. Plus they take absolutely forever and on ours it was not possible to manually clean the filters. It was supposedly self cleaning. Pah!

We have a Bosch condenser dryer now which is brilliant, quick, quiet, easy to clean the filters and solidly built.

My heat pump dryer lasted 10 years of constant use. It was a Bosch and fabulous. In fact I recently left it at the old house when I moved and it was till going strong.

I have purchased a new heat pump Bosch and again it’s brilliant, dries quickly. Maybe one hour thirty for the average load of washing.

We've got a Samsung heat pump dryer. It works brilliantly but you do need to keep the fins on the heat exchanger clear. Once a month, use the brush, but also hoover it at the same time. Without suction, you'll just be pushing the gunk deeper between those metal fins.

Eventually, the gunk will clog up to the point where air can't pass through the fins at all. This means no moisture escapes, and sounds like the problem you have right now. The best thing I found was to use a small allen key to 'hook' the gunk out from between the fins and hoover it at the same time. I've only had to do this once in the last 5 years. It'll take a while, but when you've finished you should be able to shine a torch through the fins and see the second heat exchanger behind the first one. After I did that, the machine was good as new again.

If your waste is plumbed in (rather than emptying via the drawer), check for a blocked waste pipe. You can take the flexible pipe off and try running water through it from your garden tap.

I have a Beko heat pump one and it doesn’t take anything near that long. About 3h for a full load of towels I’d say

I’ve just bought a fairly pricey AEG. It has a 5 year warranty so I should imagine it’s reliable.

Some of us live in flats with no garden and no room to hang things to dry. We don't all live in a perfect world with lines of clothes in the garden being buffeted around by a gentle breeze in the sunshine

But weren’t these infernal heat pump machines supposed to be the answer to all our prayers?
….More eco friendly and also cost effective?
That was the “blurb”

So I’ll stick with my 10 yr old Bosch condenser until it breaks down given it’s used sparingly anyway.

In wet months I’ll set up a wash load to dry on an airer in the bathroom, door shut and dehumidifier left on humidistat shut off.
Fluff it up 15 mins in the tumble dryer on return home. Job’s a goodun!

And I’d never have any less than a 1600 rpm spin w/machine.

It sounds like it’s faulty. Out Bosch heat pump condensing tumble drier has different heat levels. The cupboard dry cotton setting for a full set of bed linen plus a couple of towels takes about 4 hours and the load is bone dry. We’ve had it about 18 months and so far so good. You just have to clear the fluff filter every now and again.

I recently replaced my aging Siemens heat pump dryer. It used to be brilliant when I bought it 6 years ago but recently was taking ages to dry and clothes were never properly dry. We are a family of 7 and I work full time so a dryer is essential for me. I do not have the time to run inand out all day hanging stuff on the line and bringing it back in when it rains I have 5 kids that have to go to school in PE kit twice a week on different days and kids who play Rugby and football 3 or 4 times a week. My life would be a living hell without a washing machine and dryer.

Anyway, I thought 6y wasn't bad for what would have been an early heat pump model so decided to stick with the technology as my energy costs are high with washer/dryer/dishwasher on every day, but not pay a lot as I dont think they last that long. I got the cheaper Beko one, the one that is the which best buy for heat pump dryer, and so far it has been brilliant. Dries most things in 40min - hour (I dont use the recommended eco setting though as I like things really dry to go staright into school PE bags where they will sit overnight).

We did exactly that. Changed our expensive fashionable grey touch screen all bells and whistles Samsung heat pump for a cheaper white Beko condenser. Best thing we ever did.

@Tallulahbella we have a great heat pump drier and I strongly suspect the problem is you’re setting it to sensor dry - if you are then it’s often left a little damp and keeps spinning over regularly to prevent creasing. Put it on timed drying instead of - ours takes about 4hrs for a full load and we get on great with it now. Has to be worth a try before the tip!

heat pump dryers are great for airing off items that have been hung overnight to dry, or outside on the line but still have a slightly damp feel when you bring them in but useless at drying items from soaking wet. Mine does a standard 30 min cycle and I can air off an entire wash load to put away in 2-3 10 min batches if it has been previously hung overnight on a clothes airer.

We use a dehumidifier with laundry mode on it, set it up in a room with clothes airers, would be much cheaper to run and cost £100 , from supermarket. Claim back your kitchen space with a unit. But do you have a room you can use?

As part of our really geeky research, we found that we can run our 9kg heatpump drier 3 times a day before it overtakes the dehumidifier for energy use- clearly dependent on individual models of both machines and how much time the dehumidifier is on for etc so this balance would work out differently for each household. We were running the dehumidifier about 18 hours day to dry 2x 6kg loads of laundry. That said, the price of the drier probably offsets the savings, and because our house is generally on the damp side we are still running a dehumidifier quite a bit as well- but on a lower setting in a central location rather than just doing one room with the doors shut.

This means in our house, not taking the purchase prices into account, the tumble drier is cheaper to run for laundry than the dehumidifier- I can dry over 27kg now for less than the cost of drying 12kg with the dehumidifier.

Plus we no longer have drying racks taking up as much floor space as we used to meaning a bedroom is back in use. (We've installed some small, wall mounted racks in the utility room for the things that don't want to go in the dryer). Plus I find that it takes a lot less of my time to bung stuff in the dryer- i can do that while waiting for coffee to brew while I'm WFH, but hanging stuff on racks would take too long for that.

I read that condenser dryers are being phased out and certainly the range available on eg AO has shrunk recently. Have just taken the leap and ordered a condenser to replace my old one as don’t think I could cope with a heat pump. I can do several loads a day (sporty family, bedding, towels, dog walking uniform for various things) and couldn’t cope if it took so long.

We have a Bosch heat pump dryer and it definitely dries towels in under 2 hours, so sounds like something is wrong with yours, especially if the tank is empty and the filters defluffed.

I’m totally with you op, worst thing I ever got. I put towels on for 3 hours and it then has a sensor so it changes the time and adds on more of it needs us. A load can take 5 hours plus. I hate it!! For anyone looking at a new dryer and has a lot of family washing, do not get one!

I. have always used condenser driers - Beko do a brilliant one that is reasonably priced and dries incredibly well. Recently replaced it with a heat pump - it's rubbish- takes hours - no element of convenience about it