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?

Noisy neighbours are my pet hate, I can't stand inconsiderate idiots who think every noise is "fair noise"

but a dryer, in a detached house, between 10am and 3pm?

Even if it was annoying, it's no more annoying than a lawn mower or the Tesco delivery van.

I wouldn't start a war with the neighbours, I would reply "sorry if the noise is a bother, we just put carpet underneath to lower the vibration, it will be quieter now because of it, I have nowhere else to put the dryer"
and ignore everything else

I think it’s best to reply. Blocking their number and not answering the door when they live next door is fairly pointless.

Just a quick message along the lines of the tumble dryer is working normally, isn’t excessively loud, you only use it when necessary, and always at reasonable times.

If you ignore them they may still have expectations that you will eventually do something, and keep on complaining.

OP is simply using a tumble dryer in daytime hours. This isn’t her problem.

I just despair how selfish the majority of people seem to be on here.
The neighbours have said it is affecting their quality of life but you wouldn’t even try to come to a resolution with them?

How is it selfish to use a tumble dryer in daytime hours? 🤯

Personslly, I wouldn’t like to be affecting my neighbours quality of life without even try to see if anything can be done about it.

It’s selfish to just ignore your neighbours without even trying to see what the problem is from their perspective and whether anything can be done about it.

Literally no one has suggested this.

But why not just go and see if it really is noisy, and then think about whether anything can be done?

I've put a sheet of insulation under my dehumidifier because I know that when I use it, it can be heard next door (terraced). And no one's even complained!

Why is going about doing your daily chores and living a normal life selfish??
Every day sounds/ noises it's all part of life. I hate hearing yappy dogs living near me but I accept they yap sometimes so ignore it.
Mners will be here in force come the warmer months about other peoples kids screaming in the garden and stereo systems blaring out shit music now that is selfish. Normal sounds like a tumble dryer is nothing unusual and certainly not selfish unless it's resting on a metal plate and break dancing off the walls in a confined space.

Disagree. Some people just have a problem with very normal noise levels. It’s a tumble dryer, far away from them, in a detached house. They are batshit and OP will regret it if she entertains the idea that this is any kind I’d a problem, never mind her problem to fix.

Yes me too. I just don't get why people's first thought isn't "Gosh I had no idea, I'll go and listen and see if I can fix this."

net result = years of happy neighbourly relations

It takes five minutes

TBH I think I might know what they mean - I kept hearing a very low frequency hum for certain periods and I have come to assume that it is probably our neighbours' either washing machine or tumble drier. I assume the dryer because it doesn't align with the spin cycle sound I can extremely rarely hear, and because of the length of time it happens for (about 2 hours at a time).

The hum of the tumble dryer is unbearable because although it is quiet, there is something about the frequency of it and the constant-ness of it that bothers me, the only way I can describe it is you know when people say "It's so cold I can feel it in my bones" - I can "hear" their tumble dryer in my bones, so it feels very loud. (I completely know this sounds insane!) It is similar to things like traffic noise.

I can also hear our own tumble dryer in the same way, although it's much less loud and doesn't bother me - I think it must be some kind of vibration thing, because putting it on quiet mode doesn't make any difference to this part of the sound.

I haven't complained to them because DH and DS1 can't hear it, and I honestly think it's just me who is sensitive to it and it's perfectly reasonable for them to use a tumble dryer anyway. I try to put headphones on and listen to music when it happens, which sort of works, or I get up and walk around the house, which seems to make it less bothersome.

The only thing I could suggest which might reduce it is one of those foam/rubber mats you can put under the feet, it might be that it's transferring somehow through the foundations rather than through the wall? But that said, we have this on ours since we used to live in a flat, and as I said I can still hear a similar sound from our own dryer, just not as loud.

We live in a tiny hamlet and our pool pump is in a pool house at least 60 feet down the garden. We can’t hear it unless we stand next to the pool house. However, when it needs replacing our neighbour who lives at least 300 ft away can hear it.
Fortunately he’s a very chilled guy and never complains.
So living in the middle of a field doesn’t always afford you freedom from noise, especially when the hunters are out every weekend from September to February shooting wild boar and deer.
In summer it’s the farmer.
And the French airforce seem to love flying their jets as low as possible several days a week.
At night there are mice in the loft who sound like they’re wearing clogs.

The countryside is very noisy.

Quite right! Definitely not elderly!

OP could it be a completely different noise they are hearing and not necessarily anything to do with you at all?

Exactly. I don’t think the majority on this thread can even comprehend this attitude though. I’m not sure if it is an age thing but it doesn’t bode well for society in the future.

What are neighbours doing at home during the working day, that a neighbours clothes drier is going to disrupt?
If ndn can send a message, get him to send a recording of the noise?
Maybe ndn wants to buy OP a drier that’s quieter? Or will dry her laundry in their house foc?
Has nd got double glazing in the window which faces the drier?

Tell them you don't have a dryer, just to see their baffled expression.

Are they also have problems with your vacuum cleaner, microwave and running your taps too? They are being ridiculous.

Oh fgs in a detached house any noise heard will be minimum. They clearly have oversensitive hearing which is up to them to manage.

I've lived in semis and even terraced where washers and tumblers make everyday noise you have to suck up but in a detached any noise will be negligible.

Just ignore and don't engage.

I live in a terrace house and about once/sometimes twice a day there would come a regular thumping noise through the wall which lasted a couple of hours. Could tell it wasn't music but otherwise puzzled.

Wouldn't have had a problem if it had been once a week or so but was beginning to get tired of it disturbing my every evening. So I went round to ask them politely what it was and if it was possible they could do something about it. Said I didn't mind the noise if it was less often etc etc

It turned out they were using some kind of fabric conditioner ball that was bumping against the dryer door - they were very apologetic and said they'd use a normal conditioner in future.

I had a bunch of flowers delivered to them to say thank you.

Still puzzled as to why a couple would need to use a tumble dryer twice a day - must have been costing them a fortune.

Surprised that a similar noise can be heard in a detached house but will confirm that it could well be very annoying.

Solar panels do not hum

I thought exactly the same! Jeez. It's so depressing. No wonder we are all isolated and depressed.

'The hum of the tumble dryer is unbearable because although it is quiet, there is something about the frequency of it and the constant-ness of it that bothers me'

Wear earppugs/earphones then. We can't expect others to tread on eggshells because the 'hum' of a dryer is so very intolerable.

If it's not been a problem for him before, then something has changed.

You could buy a twenty quid anti vibration mat from Amazon. That sorted out the sound of everything between ours and the neighbours (other than his 4.45am Vitamix breakfast and his inconvenient habit of needing to leave for work twenty minutes later). Make sure there's a gap between the dryer and the wall so it isn't bashing against it if the load is uneven, too.

I'm in a semi and l can't hear when my neighbour has her washer/dryer on.
Or vice versa.
They're either nuts, have hyper sensitive hearing, or picking an argument.

I’d asked to come into their house for a listen - tell them you can’t hear it in the garden so wonder if it’s something else entirely and don’t want to cause a problem