Drying clothes without using the dryer

[RedRobyn2021]

Are you still going to use your dryer?

We live in quite an old property and I worry about causing damp/mould

Anyone on here with young children who don't use a dryer? How have you found it?

Before our daughter I never had a dryer, I just opened the windows every day and I was out five days a week at work.

Now between me and my partner we are home 5 days a week and will need to heat the property and I feel like it would be unfair to my daughter letting it get as cold as it did before we had her.

Really worrying, hoping for ideas, solutions and to hear what others are doing?

We're going to have to cut down on tumble dryer use this winter but it's not just a question of where to dry the clothes around the house but when to do it. Hanging out all of the socks & pants takes forever compared to chucking them in the tumble dryer and I'll have to start doing a lot more ironing. My birthday is in the autumn and I'm seriously considering asking for a free pass for the tumble dryer rather than the necklace I'd spotted a few weeks ago ... although I have a horrible feeling that we might be so stretched by then that birthday presents won't be happening for adults anyway.

My dryer recently broke so I got a heat pump one. It was more expensive but supposed to be more economical. I also got a black and decker heated airer and that seems to be working well.

The heat pump dryers genuinely do reduce your bills a lot. We’ve had ours for a few years now

This might have been me!

Dehumidifier 4p per hour on current prices = 24p for 6 hours

Tumble dry £1.31 per cycle and ours often needs additional boost.

With new prices I've worked out it dehumidifier will pay for itself within a few months and has a 5 year warranty.

We can also use the dehumidifier in our bedrooms after very cold nights to extract water too.

We managed for years without a dryer. Clothes still dry on the line you just need to pick your days. Also don't wash sheets on a non drying day.

I always bought kids bundles of second hand clothes, so they were never short.

@spiderontheceiling you need to get down to IKEA for a smalls dryer

Probably a silly question: but surely £150 on a Lakeland air drier isn’t a cost effective option compared to using the drier less and then using a normal clothes rack for other things?!

They’re hugely expensive

No I think it worked out that for most people the dehumidifier is a more expensive option

We've got a heated airer but I think I might need to change where it is - currently in a small, windowless utility that opens onto the garage.

Should I move it:

Into garage
Into main house (open plan dining room) but windows shut due to keeping heat in
Into living room (shut door, open windows)

Or keep it in utility just open garage door??

I dry them on a horse in the spare room. I only use the dryer for towels in the winter - and I'm going to try and not do that that year.

No I think it worked out that for most people the dehumidifier is a more expensive option
@Lemonblossom is right, at least in our case. I've run tumble dryer and dehumidifier for the same length of time and watched out smart meter ticking away, both racked up very similar usage, so unless your house has a mould or damp problem already I would say dehumidifier might be a bit pointless. I am wondering if it was due to the specific model we have though, there's probably more energy efficient (read: £££ ) ones out there!

Ignore that.

Dehumidifier just to finish mainly line dried clothes would be cheapest

heat pump dryer was generally cheaper than dehumidifer

dehumidifier with a heated airer was often more than even a normal tumble dryer due to the length of time required.

I bought a Lakeland heated airer recently but am regretting it tbh - takes ages to dry anything (even after double spinning) and doesn’t hold much as I find I need to really spread things out to have any hope of things drying. Someone recommended on another thread running a dehumidifier too alongside it - but that would mean I’d have the outlay fit that now too and added costs to run it?

I’m going to continue to use outside line as much as possible all year but the reality is that in our garden in the North it won’t often be that dry by the time we bring it in.

We have an additional problem too - someone nearby constantly lighting stinky fires all year - so washing is ruined and has to be redone. So annoying and can’t discover who is doing it.

But the dehumidifier isn't on constantly and certainly not for 6 hours per washing load. Ours kicks in when it senses the air is humid. It has three settings based on air humidity. It just stops the air getting too humid to dry. I've never timed how long it is on but I would guess an hour total max for a load of heavy items such as towels or jeans. So that'll be kicking in and out as the air gets damp and dryer again. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it now though. My partner sometimes puts it on the 'clothes drying' setting which means it's on constant but that's not necessary.

I’m struggling with this. There’s four of us. Our house has condensation issues already.

We already wear clothes several times till they definitely need washing. Towels done once a week or so. Bedding every other week in winter.

We both work full time so usually just a load in the morning then it goes in the dryer when we get back home. I leave at 7 my husband leaves at 8.

I think we will have to just use the dryer.

Stand-alone spin dryers are the answer.
2400 rpm is higher than any washing machine and you have used the lowest amount of electricity (no heat) to get your clothes almost dry. Fleece and microfiber are dry to the touch.

Then outside line, airer, pully maid for 50% less time. No energy used.

If you do use a tumble dryer, put a clean dry towel in to speed up the process.

@Noonoo88

That is an amazing idea

I cannot believe I hadn't thought of this!

Thank you!

The point is that if you have a drying rack such as a pulley maid and you are air drying on this then using a dehumidifier will be useful to prevent the house from being damp (and feeling cold). Some people though seem to be suggesting using the dehumidifier as a drying mechanism. This won’t be cheaper than most tumble dryers and will take a lot longer.

@OddBoots

That's very helpful to know, thank you

2800 rpm

I haven’t had a tumble dryer in about 15 years & ive never missed it. There’s myself & 2 adult children. Summer I line dry everything in the garden. Underwear goes on a line in the conservatory & is dry in a few hours cos its so hot in there lol.
I have weather apps on my phone so I only do laundry on dry days.
In winter I use 2 tall airers in my bathroom upstairs & bed sheets get put on the line if its a dry day. At a push I’ll throw them over the bannisters.
My house is terraced so no side entrance but with the conservatory at the back its created kind of a side alley down one side so this year my dad is going to roof that for me so I can use the line & airers under it whatever the weather.

6 people in my house. Going to keep the tumble dryer but aiming to reduce usage as much as possible.

Planning on doing a wash every night on the eco program then hanging out what I can if the weather is ok. Back garden is north facing and sheltered so not brilliant for drying in from about September. Small stuff I'll stick on an airer in the utility room then stick them in the dryer to finish off. Big stuff will go outside and finish in airer.

Only other way is to turn the heating up. Think it's cheaper to use the tumble dryer tbh.

@OddBoots yes you should have either windows open or dehumidifier on for best results. Also have the room door shut.

you could use a dehumidifier in some sort of tent using polythene, not pretty, but effective.
found a decent post here refurbinators.com/dehumidifiers-for-drying-clothes/

Hi!

Ive just started reading all the threads on drying and I was so surprised at all the different experiences I wanted to make sure I was accurately timing and noting things before I provided any more feedback.

We got one of those gadgets that you plug your appliance into to check how much it costs.

I watched some videos and read some stuff on drying clothes inside, damp ( seen and unseen ) and why it’s not good to dry clothes inside. There seemed to be debate on here if it was bad or not, but if you do your research you’ll discover that you will be putting more moisture and water into the air of your house. It’s actually pretty bad for us, although I’ve been doing it years! It will make your home more expensive to heat as well.

So a dehumidifier would be the priority for me, we got one for £130 from screwfix. You wouldn’t want one on all day every day but they’re reasonable to run to dry clothes or dry out a bathroom after showers, at roughly 5p an hour. It definitely makes a room feel warmer and helps to cut the drying time of clothes. I have the drying pod from Lakeland which costs us 33.73p per hour ( current Eon tariff ).

Drying times in my drying pod heated airer:
This varies but I put things of similar weight on at the same time, this is quite important, and don’t put too much in.
Lighter clothes take at most 1 1/2 hours with both dry pod and dehumidifier.
Heavy items will take at most 3 hours.
If I can hang laundry outside for 2-4 hours even on days without sun, I can bring inside at 4pm and very quickly dry them off within 1/2 hour to an hour.

We have condenser dryer unfortunately and I find it a pain as the sensor is sensitive and won’t run a cycle if things aren’t really wet, so if they’ve been outside it’s tricky to get a quick 10min dry to finish off, whereas the heated airer is perfect. We haven’t used it since we got our gadget but we used the manual online to check our typical cycles and it costs a minimum of £1.75 to dry a load, but usually more. We also can’t put sports gear in it but I can do that with the heated airer.

I think if you’re used to using a dryer a lot, and you switch to dehumidifier, heated airer and/or drying outside, you’ll notice the savings quite a bit. Some people were already drying outside a lot and so the savings will be more minimal. For me I have saved a worthwhile amount, plus it’s made us really think about when we wash things, how often, getting it done early and getting laundry outside whenever possible first. I’m not saving a fortune in money yet, over time it will be significant I think. I really like that my clothes I didn’t put in the dryer aren’t hanging out all over the house for ages to get dry. I’m so organised now I’m never running out of clothes. The house is noticeably dryer and warmer, even our adult kid mentioned it and she’s uninterested completely in our obsession with kwh and electricity savings! Her cheap work clothes dry in 30 minutes in the heated airer! I’m going to have to buy her one as a housewarming gift if she ever leaves home!

Haven’t yet worked out costs of washing machine, as I am sometimes doing extra spin so that may add a small cost, as it helps to have things well spun.

Another tip, now I’m adding things up I’ve thought that it would save money buying more of things like kitchen & cleaning microfibre cloths, tea towels etc that you use often but don’t, for us, fill up the washing machine enough to justify running an expensive cycle. I got some packets of microfibre cloths from Poundland to use in the kitchen and around the house. So you can wash them less often if you have more.