Tumble dryer: heat pump or condenser?

[Begonne]

My vented dryer has died, after 14 years and three repairs. And apparently vented dryers are being phased out.

As much as they’re a bad word on MN, I’d rather use a dryer in winter than deal with a damp house. In summer I line dry, and just air in the dryer but in winter I often do loads start to finish.

I also have adhd- so remembering to empty water trays is adding a layer of difficulty to my life, but both condensers and heat pumps require this.

HP is more energy efficient but a lot slower - I’ve been told over 2 hours to dry a load !?! House insurance stipulates that you can’t run a dryer when you’re out of the house or asleep so presumably this necessitates one person at home full time?

And you can’t air line dried clothes for ten minutes because of sensors (or can you?) so the eco credentials are a bit dubious

Condenser feels like a step down from the simplicity of a vented dryer but I’m wondering is it actually the better option? Or are these also being phased out (as the salesman implied darkly when I was resisting his salespitch?)

Please share and help me make a decision. If you have either are you happy with the choice (and why?)

On the verge of forcing my family to become nudists.

---

This thread is a little old now so some of the suggestions may be out of date, but if you’ve landed here looking for tumble dryer recommendations, we’ve recently updated our best tumble dryer page with lots of great options, as tried and tested by Mumsnet users. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

I can finish off a line dried load in my heat pump tumble dryer, the time drops down, I guess the sensors are designed to pick that up. I can also override the sensor and finish it off on a high temp for 10-20 mins if I want to, which inns to for the soft throw blankets when've been cuddling under. The sensors were a bit crap with them.

I went for condenser over heat pump based on time to dry clothes alone tbh. 2-3 hours to dry a load is utterly ridiculous and useless to most busy households.

Oh, I'm in Australia but my policy does not include anything about unattended dryers. Might be worth going to an insurance broker and seeing if you can find a policy which doesn't exclude it? (I work for my insurance company so I know this for a fact!!!)

Insurance aside they are a fire risk so not good to run them when no one is around. Also if you don't take the clothes out quickly when it's finished they crease and you have to iron more shudder

@OrderOfTheKookaburra thats good to know. Especially for cuddly blankets!!

I need to renew home insurance soon so I might look at the fine print.

@homeforme agree

We have a condenser and the water stores in a tank in the door so it’s impossible to ignore when it needs to be emptied

@mrsbyers what make is that? Sounds like a great idea!

My condensor one tells me when it needs emptying too. It is a 2 hour cycle but if l don't put much in there or l have lined dried it a bit, the time reduces accordimgly.

We have a Bosch heat pump and we plumbed it into the drain behind the washing machine. Just bought a cheap double headed drain thingy and stuck the pipe in. It empties itself and no need to remember. It dries stuff well and doesn't use much electricity.

Condenser dryer is a step up from a vented one not a step down. You need to remove fluff and empty water tray and DH and I do it before drying each load and have trained my son to do this too.

Our usage is similar to yours OP and never had any issues with how long our heat pump tumble dryer takes. Also never had a problem with finishing off things that have partially or even mostly fried outside. We have it in a windowless room, so didn’t want something that pumped damp air out.

We have an AEG https://www.aeg.co.uk/laundry/laundry/tumble-dryers/heat-pump-dryer/tr718l4b/?gclid=CjwKCAjwt52mBhB5EiwA05YKo5USSM3Q4qrND8pR0S2CLbIJPAN3UV1HQqnUIJC65QAMMgU3cPacnxoCsv8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds and bought the draining kit, so no emptying needed. I do try to empty the lint trap every time we use it though, as otherwise it’s easy to forget to do it.

We have a heat pump because we need to use it a lot and the cost per run is about half the price of a condenser one.

However both our previous conderser and the new heat pump can both be plumbed in so that you dont have to empty the water.

We have a Bosch Heat Pump condenser dryer that is actually plumbed in (was very easy) and never needs to be emptied. It’s the best dryer we’ve had and very economical to run too.

We have a heat pump it won't work if you don't empty it. It's a third cheaper per load than a condenser dryer.

*a third of the price rather.

Yes a heat pump. We have a heat pump, it’s plumbed into drains also so it never needs emptying. It drys well ( we mainly used for bedding and towels). Ours is AEG, as it was a high capacity load (8kg).

Heat pump. Had a condenser before which used to heat the whole fucking house and burn through electricity to dry anything.

Heat pump quieter, wildly more energy efficient and quieter. Less clothes shrinkage. Would never go back.

Hoover H Dry series , the water tank is inside the round window so level
is visible and just pulls off to drain and replace in seconds

Samsung DV9 (series 5) heatpump dryer - actually uses less energy per load than my same series Samsung washer, and about 1/5th of what my previous vented dryer did.

It also has an option for plumbing the the water into a drain so you never have to empty the water tank.

Heat pump dryers are more expensive to buy and according to the repair man, very difficult to repair. But cheaper to run!

You can connect any condenser to a drain so no need to empty the water container.

Apart from the drying time and initial outlay....

When we got our last vented dryer it was about £180 for a 9kg that did a load in about 60-90mins. The equivalent size condenser was 4 times the price and took over 4 hours to dry the same loads - not good in a house of 9 running 4 loads a day.

Thankfully, the prices have come down a lot on condensers and heatpumps, couldn't be happier with our current Samsung - still slower than vented, but only by about 30mins, which if manageable, especially given the electricity savings compared to the vented.

I have a Samsung heat pump which is plumbed into the drain and dries a load in an hour and a half. I love it and use it more than I probably should.

Also have Samsung heat pump (plumbed) much much better than condenser one we had previously which was very noisy & caused a lot of heat/steam/damp issues. Both take longer than a standard vented but I wouldn't go back to one now.

I have a Samsung heat pump, we replaced our vented dryer a couple of years ago. It has saved us a fortune in electricity. It does take a bit longer than a vented dryer, but I don't think it's excessive, and I had a condenser dryer a few years back and that took ages. We have ours plumbed into the drain, but before we had that set up we used the tank, which is where the powder drawer would be in a washing machine, saves bending! It won't run if it's full, so no danger of floods.

Heat pump, so much more efficient. I clean the lint filter and empty the reservoir after every use so it's not an extra thing to remember really.

We have a heated airer and a dehumidifier in a spare room so everything doesn't need to go in the tumble dryer anyway. (In summer I just use the rack with no extra heat or dehumidifying)