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?

No, they're looking to make your life difficult. We live in a terraced house and haven't got these issues. Are your neighbours difficult in general?

No it’s not a fun thing I’m sure. It’s also tough shit, you can’t expect the rest of the world not to run normal household items in a normal way to suit you.

That’s so weird. Does it sound like a particularly loud dryer to you ? I wonder if even is your dryer making the noise they are hearing.
I think I’d have to hear the noise for myself in her house just out of curiosity, but other than not use it i don’t know what they expect you to do.
if it genuinely does sound like a jumbo jet in her house , you could try putting a thicker bit of carpet under it to try and muffle it more I guess.

@alisonelli OP, to minimise the condensation in your UR, maybe you could leave the window open for the first half of the dryer's cycle (when it will be condensing more water because the load is wetter) and then close it halfway through? Longer term you could look at replacing the machine with a vented one and having a vent cut and fitted in the wall of your UR opposite the external door. If your NDN says anything else about the noise I would explain that you are keeping the window closed for 1.5hrs of the drying cycle, but need to keep it open for the first 1.5hrs to avoid condensation/mould in your home (and if he doesn't like it, look him dead in the eye and use the "compromise" word!).
Honestly, I think your NDN must be hypersensitive to noise. Last night I had the washing machine and tumble dryer going in the kitchen while I watched TV in the sitting room - I couldn't even hear them. I'm also early 60's and not going deaf.

Just tuned into this thread quickly so I havent read everything. But the reason Im commenting is that our dryer (located in a hall cupboard) was making a right racket for a while. Its normally silent.

When my husband looked the impellor fan had broken up. So when dryer went on it was really, really noisy. He replaced it & its back to being silent.

Might be worth checking?? Otherwise your NDN is being difficult. Although I think I would ask if I could pop round to hear the dryer from their house.

Mine is the same—we don’t have a window though, so I keep the utility door to the kitchen open when running the dryer, otherwise it turns into a swamp.

I didn't say ALL, I said some men don't have enough to think about. Ime it is usually men who have retired early with too much time on their hands. It's them who are the petty ones and think the world revolves around their 'neighbours are only cutting their front lawn once a month' and 'bins shouldn't be in view of the road lowering the tone' mentality.
I do volunteer work and I know at least 2 men like this. They have very firm ideas about how things should be done and are smug when the 'yes' people agree. But become resentful and petty when managers /leaders pull them up and tell them what needs to be done and it doesn't aline with the smug types.

What's wrong with that?

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How old are they OP? I work in an anti social behaviour team and I've lost count of cases like this. It's mainly turned out to be auditory hallucinations or a health problem. It's quite common with people who have worked in very noisy places, eg a factory. It doesn't make it less real to them but it's very tricky to navigate. You can either ignore them. Or offer to go round when your drier's on to see what they're on about. In any event it won't be a statutory noise nuisance so there's nothing to be done.

This.

there is no way the dryer is vibrating a separate structure next door. Ignore any further complaints.

If it was genuine distress then I'd expect him to act more grateful rather than smug. He sounds like he's getting a kick out of bothering you

I’d just send back a clown emoji personally. But that’s me…

Like it 🤣

Perhaps he just developed tinnitus? 🤔

I live opposite an office and there's a constant low level hum. It was giving me a headache and making me weirdly anxious. When I asked about it I found out its some vent system for a toilet that has no windows. They've agreed to set a timer so it's off evening and overnight. It's still annoying but at least I know it's going to stop at 8pm.

Anyway I can relate to living beside an annoying noise. I can see that if the window was open the neighbour would be able to hear it. It's nice of you to be trying to sort it.

Normal household items in a normal way includes a lot of noisy stuff. Imagine life when every household has an air pump and air-conditioning...life will be a purgatory!

Itis the low frequency noise that is annoying, comming from appliances that have not been checked.

My neighbour, detached house, had this old boiler rumbling day and night, the pressure on my ears was horrible. They could not hear it, maybe used to it? Or resonance in my house? Don't know.
Had the plumber check their radiator and the noise stopped. I was not imagining and I never worked in a noisy environment.

I am grateful I have good neighbours.

Definitely 2 camps here - those who have had to suffer this low rumble noise and those that haven't! The ones that have definitely get it. It's not the noise, its the vibration from the pump or something.

Detached ? And hes moaning. Does your dryer sound like a jack hammer 🙈. He cant hear the dryer, he just wants to be a bully to see if you obey his orders. I would completely ignore them and do nothing.

It's during the day! You have to put up with noises during the day.

No you don't.

Any noise can constitute a nuisance, depending on the circumstances.

A condenser dryer shouldn’t be making any condensation!!!

From the title I was expecting you to live in a flat or terraced property!
Do nothing, as you're doing nothing wrong.
If they have a noise complaint they would need to go to the council, who would tell them they don't have a leg to stand on.
Just keep doing what you're doing and ignore the somewhat unhinged neighbours.

Glad you are not my neighbour, you are so selfish. Hopefully you will end up with a neighbour who will ignore your requests for help or consideration

Just a thought, do your neighbours have any mental health issues you know of ? For example CPTSD, PTSD, certain noises can be a trigger to some people, others wouldn't take any notice of unless very sensitive.