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Sorry.
Ours has packed up after 20+ years service. Yes we try and use the outside line as much as possible for drying.
Any ideas for a replacement (which hopefully will be a lot more energy efficient these days)? Any tips, recommendations appreciated. Cheers.
We have a White Knight very impressed, better than the pile of Bosch crap we had before.
I'm hoping those vacuum dryers will be available when ours goes bung.
Don't buy a Hotpoint heat pump one.
First one leaked water in control panel on first use and had a huge thunking sound in use, even unloaded .
Second one leaked all down the front and into control panel.
Neither actually dried the clothes without a second go - so negating any energy saving.
Utter tosh. Then they tried to stall me a fortnight and send me on merry goose chase to return it. Cue myself and son carrying it into Currys on busy Day and refusing to leave until sometime signed it back in.
You’ve three choices.
The cheapest blow hot air through the churning clothes then blow that hot air out a pipe to the outside. Cheap, simple, potentially lasts another 20 years, needs a vent to the outside.
Then there are condensing dryers. Basically like the above but with a mini fridge built it to turn the water vapour back to liquid which can be collected or fed direct to a drain. Big advantage is no need for a vent. Main draw back is lots more to go wrong.
For energy efficiency the third type, heat pumps are by far the best - they essentially recycle the heat from the outgoing air to warm the incoming air. They are much more expensive to buy. They also take longer to dry your clothes.
Have had a heat pump dryer for about ( years now. Does take longer, but energy consumption is a fraction vs that if a conventional dryer. It’s also much more gentle on the clothes.
Cant beat a cheap ass White Knight. £100 8 years ago and still going strong.
Got a white Knight gas dryer. Cheap, simple , energy efficient and cheap to run. Reliable as. It technology or anything complicated to go wrong. If you can get a gas line installed to your dryer location then a good choice.
Thanks, really helpful tips.
Got a Miele tumbler and a W/mchn about 12 years ago, both still going strong, though I had to replace the rubber door surround in the W/mchn and it was an eye watering £100ish. Back then they were around £500 a pop, even worse now, if they go for another 8 years I guess it will have been worth it
+1 for the White Knight gas ones.
Don't have one in the garage with the bikes...
We've a compact 'blowy' one we have in the porch - just leave the porch door open when on. It's need used for years - god knows what will happen when that goes kaput.
We have a heated clothes airer.
Sits in the utlility room and also gets used for drying shoes and next to the rack for jackets.
Wouldn't go back to a tumble drier - ever.
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/21736/Dry%3ASoon-Standard-3-Tier-Heated-Tower-Airer
Miele. It sheds thermostats regularly (five min to replace) being a condenser, but shows no signs of burning down the house.
I have a Bosch condensing one which has been fine for 7 years & was only a few hundred quid, now if you had asked about washing machines i would bang on about how great the Miele machines are, mines 10 years old so just coming to the end of the warranty that i have never needed so £1000 well spent considering we replaced every other machine we bought on a yearly basis at best or suffered downtime whilst waiting for warranty repair.
We spent £270 on a bearing, seal and shock absorber replacement service on our Miele washing machine after 12 years. I reasoned I’d not be able to buy anything as good for the cost of the service. The engineer said it was still young. They had one who’s owner wanted a replacement part after 40 years. Nobody had worked there long enough to recall the model! The old Mercedes estate of the washing machine world.
The tumble drier has been less reliable, but the thermistor burns out if you don’t clean the filters regularly. The engineer showed me how to 1) replace the thermistor and 2) clean the bottom filter that I hadn’t known existed!
the heat pump dryers don't work very well when it's cold. so if your dryer sits in a cold garage (like ours) you're better off getting a condensing one.
Siemens condensing dryer coming up for 10 years of use. Wouldn’t consider anything other than condensing after this. The hot air blows out the front and heats the house. 👍🏻
That was my reasoning too. If you are making hot air, why pump it outdoors? Condenser driers heat the house at a time when, by definition, it’s too cold to dry stuff outside.