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Dryer just died... Condenser or Heat Pump to replace?

34 replies

Tileoh · 03/12/2023 20:42

Need 9kg and under £500

Ive read heat pumps can take 2.5hrs for a couple of towels, I can't be doing with that.

OP posts:
cloudglazer · 03/12/2023 20:43

My heat pump doesn't take that long. But it doesn't work well in the cold, so has to be indoors ie not in garage

Nospecialcharactersplease · 03/12/2023 20:44

We just bought a heat pump Samsung series five and it’s great. Much better than the condenser it replaced.

LittleBearPad · 03/12/2023 20:44

Heat pump. Our Bosch one is fantastic.

LizzieSiddal · 03/12/2023 20:45

I bought a heat pump one a couple of months ago and whilst it does take longer I love it. The thing which sold it for me was they save so much money in the long run, as they cost so much less to run, it can be thousands over the life of the dryer.

LizzieSiddal · 03/12/2023 20:46

And a full load of towels will take 2 and a half hours, a couple of towels would be about an hour. Mines a Bosch and cost £800 but you can get much cheaper ones.

Boomboom22 · 03/12/2023 20:49

Why not vented?

PinkflowersWhiteBerries · 03/12/2023 20:50

Do you have pets? I dumped a self cleaning heat pump for a condenser.
The more I used the heat pump, the longer it took. The service engineer told me it was because the self cleaning technology couldn’t cope with hair.
So I got a condenser which I can clean.

Both were Siemens.

So if you have hairy pets, or indeed humans , bear that in mind.

Bromptotoo · 03/12/2023 20:57

As others say Heat Pump dryers are the bees knees.

Bought our Bosch about 6 years ago. Perhaps not as quick as the old Bosch Condenser but way more efficient. Heats the clothes not the house, little if any condensation escapes and less dust too.

It's max rating is 1kw. The condenser, IIRC, was 2.8.

Dedicated programme for towels defaults to about 1:45 but finishes quicker in practice.

A lot of my clothing is Rohan brand and either light poly cotton or assorted modern fabric optimised for easy wear/quick drying. Full week's wash in under an hour.

Even if it takes a bit longer there's loads of hours in the day; just needs planning.

Thelmsie · 03/12/2023 21:39

This reply has been deleted

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Tileoh · 03/12/2023 22:10

The reviews for my budget are so mixed for heat pump.

Looks like they need to be £750+ to be good!

OP posts:
teaandtoastwithmarmite · 03/12/2023 22:21

I've got a Bosch heat pump and it's great. Takes no time to dry a load

MadeOfAllWork · 03/12/2023 22:27

I’ve got a Bosch heat pump. Yes it takes longer but it’s pennies to run. Also I’ve got it plumbed into the waste water pipe that the washing machine goes into so I don’t need to empty the cartridge.

Nightmanagerfan · 03/12/2023 22:30

I recently got a Beko heat pump from AO for about £400 and it's amazing. It does a full load in 2 hours and I think that's pretty hard to beat. We had it plumbed in so no need to empty the container. It's a 10kg capacity so perfect for a big family. I was looking at Bosch originally but the Beko ones had better reviews

Tileoh · 03/12/2023 22:31

Nightmanagerfan · 03/12/2023 22:30

I recently got a Beko heat pump from AO for about £400 and it's amazing. It does a full load in 2 hours and I think that's pretty hard to beat. We had it plumbed in so no need to empty the container. It's a 10kg capacity so perfect for a big family. I was looking at Bosch originally but the Beko ones had better reviews

Do you have the link please to this one? 10kg would be ace

OP posts:
JanewaysBun · 03/12/2023 22:32

Are heat pump ones kinder to clothes? I never tumble dry my tops as the black fades but I've heard heat pumps dont have this jssue?

Chiar · 03/12/2023 22:33

Heat pumps have got so much cheaper now. We've just replaced our vented machine and it felt like a no brainer to buy a heat pump this time, for the cheaper running cost.

Drying times didn't seem much different to condensers to me.

chipshopElvis · 03/12/2023 22:36

My Samaung heat pump is blooming marvelous. Would highly reccomend.

stayathomer · 03/12/2023 22:38

Do you not want to go vented? My condenser definitely doesn’t do the job of a vented and I was relieved when I went googling to see there’s less advantages to a condenser- everyone I spoke to had no issues!!

TheFairyCaravan · 03/12/2023 22:38

I’ve got a Hotpoint heat pump dryer. I’ve had it about a year now, it cost about £379 I think and it’s a 9kg one. I can get a whole load of laundry dry in around 2 hours. I never used to put jeans or DH’s work trousers in my vented one because I found they shrunk, but they don’t in this one. And it has a wool program on it so I put jumpers in and, to date, none have shrunk. I’ve not risked any of my best ones though.

It does take longer than my old vented one, but our energy bills don’t go up by a huge amount over the winter when I’m using it all the time so I don’t mind.

Tileoh · 03/12/2023 22:38

stayathomer · 03/12/2023 22:38

Do you not want to go vented? My condenser definitely doesn’t do the job of a vented and I was relieved when I went googling to see there’s less advantages to a condenser- everyone I spoke to had no issues!!

My dryer is upstairs and in a room unable to add a vent.

OP posts:
PickAChew · 03/12/2023 22:40

Another one who switched from heat pump to condenser because the heat pump got slower and less efficient. You can clean out the heat exchanger in a condenser dryer but not a heat pump dryer. Have now had my condenser at least as long as I'd had my heat pump before it became unusable. It's had the belt and rollers replaced just before the warranty expired but never had a slow down in drying time and that's with over 3000 loads having gone through it.

It's a John Lewis one. www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-jltdc08-condenser-tumble-dryer-8kg-load-b-energy-rating-white/p4809580?s_share=jlappdroid

PickAChew · 03/12/2023 22:42

Our. Electric bills plummeted when we made the switch, too - the heat pump had become that useless.

kweeble · 03/12/2023 22:44

At that budget I’d go for a condenser dryer.

NoraBattysCurlers · 03/12/2023 22:46

Boomboom22 · 03/12/2023 20:49

Why not vented?

Vented dryers are far more expensive to run than heat pump dryers.

BertieBotts · 03/12/2023 22:54

They are basically all heat pump these days, and they should be, there seems to be no reason at all to have a condenser dryer without heat pump. Better for your clothes, better for your bills. I think it's worth paying the whatever is the small fee for instant access to Which review, or look at it at your library. Because what I noticed when I did this (at least on the version they have where I live) was that they have separate ratings for stuff like noise, whether you can change the door angle, how many programs it has etc and how accurately it does iron dry mode. I NEVER use iron dry mode - I only care about cupboard dry - that it gets the clothes dry enough. Some of them were marked down for example for making them too dry in iron dry. I don't care about that because I'll never use it anyway. I liked safety features like auto overheat switch off and where it has an alarm to remind you to empty the lint filter. The main issue is that they don't have all models, but it gives you an idea how brands are rated compared to their tests. Samsung never look good in these things - wildly variable and seem to dress things up based on the name. Siemens/Bosch are always top, Beko is a good price/performance one. I'm wary of any of the Whirlpool/Hotpoint brands and specifically avoided them.

I also find that the prices range wildly - have a look on something like Idealo with your budget max, select heat pump and then have a look what comes up, sort by price, see what brands you trust. You quite frequently find white goods on there which are supposedly discounted by massive amounts - I suspect they are rarely actually sold at the £700 price point and mostly more at the £450 mark but then get to boast massive discounts. The price history feature on there is quite useful. Obviously you need to be choosy about the retailer. I've been happy with the service from Amazon though and they are sometimes the cheapest. Or look for your local independent white goods retailer and see what they have on clearance or ex-display (often not listed online).

Apparently the energy use is so different that if you buy the exact same model in normal vs paying £100-200 extra for the heat pump version, the heat pump one pays for the difference within a year. So it might be worth investing a little more into the budget if you can squeeze it from somewhere else.

The only situation I found where it's best to stick with condenser is if it will be in an outbuilding. Heat pumps rely on there being some ambient heat from the household heating. BTW mine seems to work fine even in my kitchen which until today had a leaky window and which we don't turn the radiator on. It feels cold in there, though not as cold as outside.