UKC

With a baby on the way and the ever present risk of a soggy summer, my thoughts have turned to drying vast quantities of diddy clothes.

Any thoughts on what the best solution is: a tumble dryer; or a dehumidifier plus rack?

If so, what is a good make of your prefered device?

Thanks in advance for any opinions!

In reply to Oldsign:

Can't say I've given it much thought re what's best but ...

We have 2 young uns and lots of washing. We have a drier that gets a fair bit of use. We have it in a utility so we also have an over size for the room radiator in there and a light operated extractor fan. At times of year when the central heating is active, we open up the thermostat on the radiator in there so the room is toasting hot and dry things on the rack and a clothes rail that hangs from ceiling over the sinks. I figure over heating one small room, within the context of my household heating makes no odds worth worrying about. When heating is less active we either use the tumbler, the washing line outside and/or move the drying rack into the conservatory and open a couple of windows so you get heat and a draft.

A bit of whatever seems best on the day, in the prevailing conditions really.

In reply to Oldsign:

Tumble drier, tumble drier tumble drier!!!!

When we had the youngest we only had a washer. Drying clothes was a nightmare. Driers absolutely everywhere and of course when walking starts they are a fascinating (an anoying to you) play thing. We therefore bough 50m extension cable and lay a wire to our garage at the other end of the parking area and put our tumble drier in there. It was a faff but vastly better than hanging washing out inside.

Good luck!

In reply to Oldsign:

Less fire risk with a dehumidifier!

http://www.lancsfirerescue.org.uk/2013/01/fire-safety-advice-issued-followi...

In reply to Oldsign:

Living in a cold dusty house prompted me to buy a condensing tumble dryer this year. Went for the best energy rating I could get at an affordable price. I'm very pleased... lots of clean clothes without the whiff of mildew and I'm not constantly working around (or accidentally collapsing) drying racks. It's an indulgence but it does make life a fair bit nicer.

That said, I have no idea what it's costing to run as I still can't get a leccy bill out of my provider!
jk

In reply to Oldsign:

Tumble drier all the way. It will save you a fortune. A dehumidifier will be trying to remove moisture from the whole room and will take ages. A tumble drier is focussed on the drum and will be far quicker imo.

It may make sense to have loads of clothes so that you can last between washes and wait for good weather

In reply to Oldsign:
Congratulations!

I have a little one (now two) and we've just binned our drier (well actually that's not true, it caught fire) and not replaced it.

We don't use a dehumidifier. There isn't that much washing as all the clothes are so tiny.

We do have a garden with a line though. If we didn't have that it might be different.

Tumble dryers are very expensive to run, as are dehumidifiers. Just open a window.

Caveat - ours was born in the summer of 2013 and it was a challenge to keep the house under 35 degrees, so maybe we had less of a problem than other people. Our son spent his first 3 months wearing only nappies and the occasional vest.

edit: I started writing this before the link to tumble driers catching fire was posted. Quite timely it seems!

In reply to ByEek:


I totally agree with that, that's the answer.

In reply to Oldsign:

We had a similar decision to make when the first tmm jnr came along.

We went for the cheapest condensing tumble drier we could find. I seem to recall we got it from Tesco. I has worked brilliantly and I sold it with the house after two years of abuse.

Not green, but well worthwhile.

In reply to Oldsign:

Tumble dryer definitely.

We didn't have one until we had a child (and then another child), we went from two or three loads of washing a week, to at least a load per day. Its just too much to dry on racks unless you have lots of room, dehumidifier or not.

In reply to Phil79:


Good post, you've given one good reason, which I didn't.

In reply to Oldsign:

Oh and one more top tip. Buy your new tumble drier from John Lewis. They will price match, their customer service is second to none and you usually get an additional year's warranty on all their white goods. You can then congratulate yourselves afterwards with a very nice tea and cake in the cafe!

In reply to Oldsign:

Thanks everyone! Sound advice all round. On balance and as we don't have bags of space, we might go for the tumble dryer and just keep an eye on the lint tray so that it hopefully doesn't go bang or woof!

Cheers again folks!

In reply to Oldsign:

Seems like a good opportunity for us all to watch this great video

youtube.com/watch?v=6_PLnInsh7E&

In reply to Oldsign:

I prepare to be shot down but I think that a vented tumble drier is cheaper, less complex and more cost effective to run than a condensing one. So long as you have the ability to vent it. Condensers are unique to washer drier combinations or as stand alone machines if you don't have a window or suitable vent through the wall to plug the vent hose into.

John Lewis are a joy... as another post stated, price match, customer service and when they deliver it the 2 blokes will carry it in, unpack and remove the packaging material for you.

In reply to Ferret:

Condensing units recover heat from the exhaust so are more efficient but more expensive to buy/maintain. Also as you say, simpler to fit.

jk

In reply to jkarran:

Thanks - my only real experience was in a combination unit and it struck me as taking an utter age to produce warm damp clothes, compared with venting ones. Technology may possibly have improved since the examples I suffered.

In reply to Ferret:


Technology has improved. We have a condensing drier. It takes about 1h20 to dry a large load of wet clothes. This is in contrast to condensing washer / driers which are generally crap and break down after a few years... in my experience.

In reply to Oldsign:

If you have a small room that you can fill with washing lines and shut the door then a dehumidifier will probably be slightly cheaper to run. A tumble dryer Iis probably far less hassle as you dont have to hang the clothes just shove them in. Tumble dryer is quicker. Dehumidifier is great for stuff like outdoors kjt that cant be tumble dried.

I can see arguments for both. For mainly baby clothes tumble dryer is probably a winner.

In reply to Oldsign:

I picked up a condensing dryer from a local 2nd hand and refurbished place 5 years ago. £50 and it's never gone wrong. The fluff filter needs emptying every use so you can't forget about it.

Not only is it more efficient than a venting one, all the heat it makes stays in the house, so if you have and use electric heating it's effectively free to run in winter as it just displaces that... So efficiency doesn't really matter!

If you have gas or oil heating that's cheaper per unit heat than electric so you only subsidise the cost of running the drier, not displace it.

In reply to Oldsign:

Get a vented dryer and a hole in the wall.

What the efficiency doesn't tell you is how long it takes to dry a load. Our 2kw dryer costs 30p an hour to run, but drys a big load in an hour.

Condensers are more expensive and have more things to go wrong. Some of the quoted drying times are 3-4hours. If your washer only takes an hour, you can easily build up a backlog of wet baskets of stuff you need.

Steve

In reply to Oldsign:

Use a washing line?

In reply to Ferret:

ENOUGH! have needed to get a fairly substantial amount of stuff recently and John Lewis's price match is a complete JOKE. Customer Service isn't all that and product knowledge seems more about sounding plausible and authoritative than actually having the facts.

"WE SET HIGHLY COMPETITIVE PRICES FOR ALL OUR PRODUCTS" Which means RRP!
"WITH A DEDICATED TEAM REGULARLY CHECKING THEM AGAINST OTHER HIGH STREET COMPETITORS" Rubbish, went into Debenhams a couple of shops up from JL on Oxford Street and found they were having a sale... Surely Debenhams are a competitor but JL was yet again being SELECTIVELY BLIND to the prices. The same can be said for JL in Kingston and its neighbour Bentalls department store. Bentalls regularly have better prices which surprise surprise don't find there way across the road to JL. Which? recently had cause to note that JL was hiding behind small print clauses to deny price matches. Besides walking around JL you notice how surprisingly expensive it is for a shop that claims to be matching everyone else's lowest prices. I note on a number of reviews that JL is giving the customer the manufacturers telephone numbers and saying deal with them.

In reply to Oldsign:

Lots of people seem to recommending condenser tumble dryers..... its old tech and will end up costing you a fortune in electricity bills. What you need to look for is a "Heat Pump" tumble dryers which I believe uses 1/3rd the electricity of a condenser type.

In reply to Indy:

Heat Pump dryers are indeed a lot more efficient, but are a lot more expensive initially.
If you use a dryer occasionally, a vented dryer is best. It dries quicker and in all ambient conditions. You obviously need to 'vent' the steam somewhere, but lots of people just put the hose through an open window.
Traditional condenser dryers are better than vented, in that they don't need a vent hose. They are generally slower than vented dryers, but more efficient due to the way they reuse hot air which allows the heater to be used less for the same heat output. They can sometimes struggle in high temperature and high humidity conditions.
Heat Pump dryers are a modification of a condenser dryer. They still use a 'heat exchanger' type system, but replace the electrical heating element type heater with what is basically a backwards fridge. Drying times about the same time as a condenser, but seem to handle higher temperatures/humidity better.

Which one to get? For the average family, I reckon a B Energy condenser is the best compromise. Get one that has 'Sensor Programs', as they are more efficient than a guessed timed cycle. To save energy, put more stuff in the drum than you think sensible...

In reply to FactorXXX:

Second getting one with sensor programmes where you can choose how dry you want the laundry eg slightly damp for ironing/ less crumpled or bone dry to go straight in the cupboard

In reply to aln:


I have two but this being Manchester they don't get much use

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

But don't use a tumble dryer with the drum stuffed full, everything will come out creased.

Neil

In reply to Oldsign:

Tumble dryer.

We've got one of the compact White Knight ones. Obviously can't fit as much in compared to a full size one but no complaints. Easier to get in the car too (bought at argos).

Has managed 2 years of cloth nappies as well as regular clothes.