Condenser dryers.... Do they take longer?

Not sure if they dry quicker but they heat the room as they’re drying as the hot air is dry that comes out.

No quicker or slower.

Landlord here - we now almost exclusivley install condensor dryers, better energy ratings and seem better all in. I think the vented ones are just simple heat dumps, hard to get good energy rated ones. The condensers are vastly more expensive as they put a bit of thought in to them.
Note - drying clothes on racks causes horrific condensation issues. Need a lot of ventilation if you don't want condensation issues such as mould.

Heat pump dryers (which are a type of condenser) definitely take longer than vented ones. The washing doesn't get nearly as hot, which means you can dry almost anything without risking ruining it.

Drying racks in winter just take the heat from the house and condense the water on the walls, I wouldn't recommend them. But if she's worried about the time it takes to dry bedding, a spare set of sheets is cheaper than a dryer.

Heat pump dryers (which are a type of condenser) definitely take longer than vented ones

This is my experience too. 50% lower energy, took twice as long.

Ours also pumped out huge moisture, after three uses the display panel and buttons had condensation in. We exchanged it. The next two did the same.
Don't buy Hotpoint.

The bosch condensors are great, never had an issue with them. we have 11 or so running across various different properties.

Ours also pumped out huge moisture, after three uses the display panel and buttons had condensation in. We exchanged it. The next two did the same.

Don’t buy Hotpoint.

Ours is Bosch. All the condensate goes into a drawer in the machine, you just tip it into the sink after each load. So far as I can tell the dryer has no effect on the air in the room.

Note – drying clothes on racks causes horrific condensation issues. Need a lot of ventilation if you don’t want condensation issues such as mould

Good point - they're in a basement/ground floor flat with not the best ventilation.

Thanks all.
Seems like they're the same sort of timings as the vented - with the added benefit of [hopefully] the sensor stopping the drying once the it's reached a predetermined level of dryness.
The only reason I asked is because I don't want them to end up with a massive electricity bill - so they're going to need some educating (i.e. "every time you use this it's going to cost you £2!)

The only reason I asked is because I don’t want them to end up with a massive electricity bill – so they’re going to need some educating (i.e. “every time you use this it’s going to cost you £2!)

Thing is, there aren't really any short cuts. You've got to evaporate the water, get rid of the water, replace the heat taken out of the environment by evaporating the water. If you're air drying inside, you've got to replace the heat you lose when you're getting rid of the moist air - either by opening the windows and heating the air back up again, or using a dehumidifier or a heated drying rack.

Air drying outside is best obviously, but if it's too cold and damp outside to do that, you're not going to get anywhere fast doing in a bathroom with the door closed and window open, so you're back to spending energy and money.

Dehumidifier & a rack, rather than a tumble dryer?

I am not entirely sure how the costs stack-up comparatively, but we got a de-humidifier last winter.
The main reason was to try & reduce the overall moisture levels in the house when drying clothes.

We stick the clothes on drying racks in the spare room, shut the door & whack the de-humidifier on.
Obviously it is better to keep the door shut in the room you are trying to dry the clothes in, otherwise you are trying to reduce the humidity in the whole house!

It has the benefit of being able to dry everything - with the tumble dryer, there are lots of things that you shouldn't put in them as they will shrink etc.
We found if you follow the clothes labels on what you can & can't tumble dry, you end up with half of most loads that have to be dried an alternative way, anyway.

EDIT - also meant to say, a decent dehumidifier can be had for ~£100 & it's more compact than a tumble dryer which might (or might not) be a consideration.

We always recommend that they use outdoor drying space to take the majority and then finish in TD if neccessary.
As long as its not raining or foggy you can always get partly dry outdoors. Do they have any outdoor space?
This bosch dryer is 480, but if you goggle the model number you may get it for less. We also call the local independents and give them opportunity, sometimes they match (or a small bit more) but they will deliver and install/remove etc included.

There is a difference between the extra heating of the house to dry clothes versus using electricity.

Your house may be heated with gas, which is cheaper. Also, your house's heat may not be distributed evenly, so you could utilise heat that you don't otherwise need to replace e.g. on a landing.

We air dry inside at the top of the stairs on a pole hung from the ceiling. It does not make the house damp, but I'm not sure why. We don't open any windows. I think that because there aren't cold spots in here it stays as vapour and leaves via whatever route the CO2 we breathe out does.

We've got one because then we could stick it where we like without having to worry about putting a vent in.

Can't say it's any different for drying times, but being about 20 years newer it's got a lot more options and the waterproof refresher has been useful for the pre-winter re-proofing of kit.

Planning to use it less this winter for obvious reasons, whenever we use the drying rack we stick the dehumidifier on at the same time.

You may find that actually costs more.

we have gone from using a dehumidifier and two or three standard airers together with a rotating fan to a heat pump tumbler. The main reasons being in the cooler months, the items don’t dry as fast so you can run out of space. It’s a pfaff to use airers, much quicker to stick it in the drier. Finally, the dehumidifier whilst having a humidity sensor spent a lot of time on so I’m not sure it was cheaper to run than a drier. Cheaper upfront cost of the airer and dehumidifier solution though.

Several people I know rate the “dry soon” heated airer with the cover on top to form a warm zone. I don’t have one so don’t speak from experience.

I don't have one to check, but apparently a typical dehumidifier uses about 300W. If you have it on 12hrs/day (is that reasonable?) that would be 3.6kWh/day. Our heat pump tumble dryer uses (according to Bosch) about 1.3kWh per load.

This is interesting, as we've always used a dehumidifier with clothes/bedding/towels on a rack, but only at night, this is in the months where I can't hang clothes out to dry on the whirly gig. In the daytime we put the rack into the room where there may be a chance of winter sun, with a small window left open.
I have seen clothing frozen on the washing line once, caught out by an early October frost, which was rather funny.