John Lewis say that vented tumble dryers are "the most popular" but

[PattyMcGinty]

they only seem to sell 6 of them. They sell 40 different condenser ones.

Maybe I should get a condenser one - even if I can have vented? What do you wise-ones say?

Bosch condensing tumble dryer here. Love it. Is done by sensor do you just put in and turn on.

I just had a google and it looks like you can get the venting kit for £12 though hiring the drill bit seems to cost £35-50.
Has anyone done it more cheaply than that?

We're moving house and there isn't a vent in the laundry room so we will either need to replace our perfectly good vented drier or make a new vent.

Has anyone found a condensing dryer that can be plumbed (as per John Lewis blurb). The condensing ones do seem to be more energy efficient which surprises me.

Some of the latest heat-pump condensers are very economical on electricity, but I calculated it would take me 600 weeks (12 years) to save the purchase price.

They might come down to mass-market prices in time.

Tunip we found a builder who whipped over and cut us a hole for 30 quid. Vent from Screwfix.

Thanks, HauntedNoddyCar.

Does sound like good condensers are fine but the one that was here was a Candy and it was terrible.

So bog budget condenser or cheaper vented.

Piglet John is this another type of tumble dryer then...a heat-pump one??

Siemens condenser drier here - absolutely fantastic and dries much quicker and better (full load completely dry in 40 mins) than my mother's vented one. Came with a plumbing kit to drain water but we never bothered with it.

I paid £70 to have a vent put in my utility wall, best money I ever spent so I could get rid of the useless excuse I had as a condenser tumble drier :)

My Beko will drain to the WM waste. And I use the water in our iron to stop it scaling up.

a snip at £1049

I prefer things that are simple and uncomplicated, with not much to go wrong, so got a Bosch vented.

I see :)
Although I do think Miele are very good generally I would rather have something that I wouldn't have to have for the next 20 years. I think Bosch are a good compromise between price and quality so we too will probably go for a vented Bosch, but thanks for all your comments.

PattyMcGinty - All BSH & Miele condensing dryers can be plumbed. I would definitely not have a vented dryer in my house. Have had a Siemens condensing dryer for over 9 years without problems.

Why would you not have one in your house?

Are Siemens still made where they were 10y ago? If so I wouldn't buy anything else when mine go - I bought a Siemens washing machine and tumble drier in 2003 and paid just under £1000. Everyone thought I was mad paying do much. They are both still going strong, despite heavy, large family use (I put all rugby, cricket and football kit in straight off the pitch, three lots of toilet training incidents etc) and I have never had a single issue with either.

The same people who were saying I was mad and pay £100-£200 for a washer or drier are on washer 3 or 4 and drier 5 or 6 at least. Plus weekends of stress and tears when they break down at Christmas, new baby coming home, in laws coming to stay etc.

kmdesign - so now you have put a spanner in the works

Confused because I value your opinion, so I'd like to learn more.

PigletJohn - Condensing are more energy efficient. With vented driers the heat generated is used once and lost to the outside. Condensors recycle that heat to a point. A newer variant of these is dryers with heat pumps which are just fabulous, but a bit dear at the moment. These will come down in price. Just to give you an idea, vented dryers are almost all rated C, condensor almost alll rated B and condensors with heat pumps rated A. So if the dryer is used extensively, its worth investing in a very energy efficient one.

Forago - Siemens are still good but laundry doesnt get better than Miele. They go on and on and they are still the only company that make the product as well as they can and it then costs what it costs. Almost every other manufactuers build a product to meet a price point and it inevitably comes with its compromises.

kmd

so your decision is based on cost, and you would choose a good condensing, drier, which might cost £200 more to buy than a good vented, and might have a running cost which was £30 per year less, is that right?

so would have paid for itself in 6/7 years right? Mine is double that age and I have never had to replace it. Everyone I know (literally) that has paid under £200 for a washer or drier has replaced it multiple times in that time and even in the first 6/7 years.

Cheap washers/driers are false economy imo.

I'm astonished by that, Forago - we've replaced ours once in over 10 years and only ever had cheap ones. If anyone's really on drier 6 in that time they need to choose them more carefully!

I am talking about brands like Beko, Candy, Hotpoint - replaced every couple of years. Maybe its the brands not the price.

my figures were based on Which Best Buys from a good maker like Bosch.

Yes, I think there is a huge variation between brands. I'd always go for an entry level version of a good brand rather than the fanciest model from, say, Indeshit.

My dryer is plumbed in to drain the water. It doesn't have to be though it condenses into a plastic tub thing if not plumbed in.