Neighbour complained about dryer

[alisonelli]

I have just had a text from my next door neighbour saying my tumble dryer is too loud and its "having a significant adverse impact on their quality of life".
For context, we live in detached houses, its on carpet in the utility room, I'd say there is at least 6ft gap between the houses, with cavity wall and a fence. I don't run it early in the morning or late at night. I'd say it runs between 10 and 3 if that. Its an eco one, so it does go on for about 3 hours, but uses little electricity. I have 2 kids, who play lots of sports and I have clothes I need to get dry.
What do I do?

I would be adding your husband to the chat and then removing yourself from the group.

Id also be inclined to get dh to ask him to log times and get decibel readings (above a certain amount is considered a nuisance, which sounds like you are way below...) on the new chat and you keep a personal log (maybe a whiteboard on the machine with daye time,how long) to see if there are inconsistencies.

Is it feasible to switch to the opposite wall??

Id just be trying to catch them out but im petty like that.

Because it makes a noise? One like a tumble dryer?

Catch them out? Petty is right

Why are you even engaging with these neighbours and giving them headspace? Block the texts. I would not get involved. Let her spend time and effort running around afer the council. If she pesters you send a cease and desist.

The dryer is on the house wall, not the external one. If we put it on the other side of the house, it will either be in the dining room or lounge.

for some reason I really need to know the outcome of this situation. It’s so perplexing.

Any further developments, OP?

In summer I had my neighbour come round to ask my kids to be quiet when they're playing in the garden. They weren't loud 🤔

Interesting to see outcome OP. They're being unreasonable.

I don't really understand the comments about the neighbour should be messaging your DH and OP should leave the discussion. The messages are not actually overly rude or aggressive in any way, they're just very formal and slightly old fashioned and I read it as either the neighbour being overly formal OR the neighbour being really concerned about raising the issue and having worked on the message for ages to make it firm but try to be fair "the problem may be your machine" (emphasis mine). People are often on here asking for how to mention an issue to a neighbour and some of the formal wording that comes back is way worse than that!

I also can't read anything stalkerish about the neighbour happening to mention (once) that the saw the OP working in their home office or the OP feeling that they were (once) watching her hug her mum. I have casually said to our neighbours sometimes "oh yeah I saw you were xxx" - it really doesn't mean I'm watching their every move, its just chatting.

OP really just talk to them - you sound lovely with your willingness to get some rubber feet and whatever but it still seems so likely that its not actually noise or vibration from your machine, or if it is, then its some weird alignment which rubber feet won't fix. So you are going to be thinking you've tried everything and they are going to be thinking you're ignoring their messages and you will both get more resentful.

Worst case if you speak you will disagree on whether a sound can be heard and pull in a third party to (presumably) back you up that they can hear something no one else can. I literally can't see how talking to them can be a bad idea (take a chaperone if you genuinely think he's an ax murderer)

So, I downloaded a BD app as advised in here. Inside the UR it is 89 (which I accept is loud, but apparently it's a busy restaurant level), outside the UR it's 68, inside the kitchen is 68 with the door to the UR closed. I measured a conversation between my kids and that was 77.

I think I may know what the issue is, out old washing machine, the bearings went and it was loud and it was during the summer, so the back door was open. But the dryer wasn't used. We replaced it as soon as we had the money to do so.

great post

You are going to a lot of effort to do anything apart from talk to him. For all he knows, you haven’t done anything so please just speak to him

(picture may take a while to load - ambient arterial street decibel level is 50-60 it says

So basically, OPs kids are quite loud and OPs dryer runs at a level which is above normal conversation level, outside their house, next to neighbours conservatory, for about 3 hours most afternoons

I can't say whether the neighbours are unreasonable but it does sound louder than I'd enjoy on a consistent basis

Hmmm. 89 decibels is akin to a lawn mower.

You say it’s 68 standing in the passageway outside the utility room? That is considered equivalent to a normal conversational level. I wonder why they are so bothered.

I lived somewhere once and my neighbour started with all that shit. I was astonished actually. when I said no to his demands he actually said well what can I expect I bet you came from a council house 😂

I don't think phone apps are really the best way of measuring decibels.

Sorry meant to add, phone microphones aren't weighted or calibrated. They can easily give incorrect readings simply due to the microphone, how you hold them and the height you hold it at.

In any case tumble dryer are normal daily appliances that you're using at a normal time.

I'd be weary of the PPs suggestion to add insulation board too. It could cause it to overheat.

You could try a proper antivibration mat and make sure it is 10-15cm away from the wall, and make sure the vent pipe isn't vibrating around but it's not obligatory.

Why look for solutions when she hasn’t confirmed what the problem is yet? GO ROUND AND SPEAK TO THEM. Anything else at this stage is bonkers

This.

Why do some people on MN make things so bloody complicated? It's a wonder they get through the day.

If you have the window/ door open when you use it, maybe close it if you can. Other than that I can't see what the problem could be.

I went round, the dryer was on - you cant hear anything. He did say thanks for what ever we did - we did nothing different, bar close the window, now I have condensation in the utility room to deal with

You need to vent the drier because you'll get mould OP.

I know - I cant win! Close the window and have a quiet life, or open it and get a hard time for something you can't hear, unless you go outside!

So they could only hear your drier when they were outdoors?

Hopefully the coming of winter will solve that and you can crack the window again. I'd be tempted to get a dehumidifier though.

What was his demeanor?

Leave the window open. They are being ridiculous. And wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they complained to anyone.

Smug