Does anyone else’s heat pump tumble dryer not dry individual or small amounts of clothes?

[Cornetto98]

Not sure if it’s just my dryer or not but if I put 2 items in for instance the dryer will spin around for a few minutes and then stop! When it should really complete the cycle for 45 mins or until clothes are actually dry! Is it because the load is too light and the dryer probably needs at least half a load to work? Surely it’s not unreasonable to expect to dry just 1 or 2 items if you’re in a rush? This dryer is newish and has always done this. My previous dryer would dry 1 item in 10 minutes max but it wasn’t a heat pump one.

It’s not a heat pump, but it’s got a sensor in it that detects if it’s not got enough load it’s really annoying

Also, if you try and do it later, so like after the clothes air dried a bit, to get them properly dry it won’t like that either it’s ridiculous

Yes, mine is definitely the same. Although mine will finish off drying air dried items - as long as there are enough of them. It’s probably some sort of eco mode that I could find out about if only I could be bothered to read the instructions.

Yes it makes no sense! I don’t think the ‘traditional’ dryers are available to buy anymore. The heat pump one was sold to me as being very efficient on electricity but it takes absolutely ages to dry a load. Basically 3 hours for a mixed load. Sometimes even the cycle has finished the clothes are still damp. How can that be efficient on electric? My previous dryer took 1 hr 20 for same load. Yes it wasn’t ‘A’ rated but surely if it’s on for half the time then it’s using less electricity? The only programme that works well is the towel drying one which can take 4 or 5 hours for a load but towels are dry when it finishes.

It’s three hours, oh my God, that’s worse than mine

Yeah, the older ones are better. I don’t think they make them properly anymore.

if anyone is stuck with the problem, I had by the way that you do the bulk of the drying not in the machine to save the electric or whatever, and you just wanna get it bone dry for like 10 minutes, and the answer is to sprinkle some water in the drum it’s ridiculous

We just bought a new replacement vented tumble dryer yesterday.

Have you checked the filter? Mine starts to get rubbish if the filter needs a clean. I think it seems to affect the sensor but I’ll have moments of ‘I’m sure this has been on for hours, why isn’t it working?’ Clean the filter and then it’s fine again.

You can override the sensor dryer on it by selecting the warm programme, that doesn’t have a sensor on it