First ever Tumble Dryer - what to go for

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Why I don't like condensing dryers...
Electric dryers don't release carbon monoxide, but that doesn't make them safe to vent indoors. Dryer sheets and fabric softeners frequently contain toxic chemicals, including benzyl acetate, which can cause respiratory problems. Venting a dryer indoors can also cause health problems indirectly by encouraging mold growth. Indoor venting also throws dryer lint everywhere and releases small particles of it into the air you breathe.
 
Why I don't like condensing dryers...
Electric dryers don't release carbon monoxide, but that doesn't make them safe to vent indoors. Dryer sheets and fabric softeners frequently contain toxic chemicals, including benzyl acetate, which can cause respiratory problems. Venting a dryer indoors can also cause health problems indirectly by encouraging mold growth. Indoor venting also throws dryer lint everywhere and releases small particles of it into the air you breathe.

That's not about condensing dryers.
 
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Why I don't like condensing dryers...
Electric dryers don't release carbon monoxide, but that doesn't make them safe to vent indoors. Dryer sheets and fabric softeners frequently contain toxic chemicals, including benzyl acetate, which can cause respiratory problems. Venting a dryer indoors can also cause health problems indirectly by encouraging mold growth. Indoor venting also throws dryer lint everywhere and releases small particles of it into the air you breathe.
I agree with that about vented dryers not being vented outside.

Condensers, as mcprinter says, don't do that.
 
We currently have a heat pump dryer. It is Hoover branded. She went for it because it was integrated. I do believe that it uses very little energy, but it takes ages to dry clothes.- that isn't necessarily an issue though if you are not in a rush.

Build quality- I had to replace the capacitor that spins the drum after 3 years... granted the no name replacement was only £15, but my labour time was far greater.

Our previous tumble drier was a 18 year old, vented out, Hotpoint. Over those 18 years, ,I replaced the belt and the two overheat sensors. The machine only cost a couple of hundred quid- the spares, less than £30. Total cost of ownership per year equates to £14pa , the heat pump machine is currently at £280 pa. That said, it is not a far comparison. I am not taking in to account energy costs and I have no idea about the longevity of our current machine
 
I many years ago bored a hole in the wall, lined up with outlet on orignal, but never lined up with replacements, used with 1 kW setting it would take 90 minutes to 120 minutes to dry a load, no sensors so turn back on if not dry, on moving house, hose through the window, in utility room window left open 24/7 and lock on utility room door.

Found mould started to grow on walls, so window open 24/7 not good, it was at least 10 years old so time for replacement, and a condenser dryer seemed best option so no hole required in the wall.

There are three types of condenser drier. When built into washing machines they use cold water to cause the condensing, but the drying temperature seems to be high.

Never had one using cool room air to cause the condensing, but they must heat up the room, OK in winter, not so cleaver in the summer, but needs to be in a large room.

The third uses a heat pump, which means it does not heat up the room as much, the room as with most fridges and freezers must not be too cold, but since the heat pump heats and cools, it is far more efficient, ours uses around 500 to 600 watt when heat pump is running, but does not run the heat pump all the time, so although can run for 2.5 hours, average power more like 350 watt, depending on load.

However fitted August and now on second unit, as first lost gas, did not realise what had happened to start with, if you see condensation on the glass in the door, seems likely lost gas, they still warm up when gas lost, but don't cool, so water not removed.

They are if nothing goes wrong they are clearly best option, at 600 watt that is normally covered by solar panels, so clothes still dried by the sun. But no bird lime or soot to worry about.

Since they can run cooler, less problem with cloths shrinking, but looking at the lint in the trap, it must damage clothes. Time is a problem, I tend to guess 10 am enough solar, so set a delayed start so starts 10 am.

Stacked on top of washing machine so uses same drain. But as far as ease goes, washer/drier must be better, set off and return to ready to wear clothes, no lint to clean out, etc.

But heat pump must be cheapest to run.

Main problem is sorting clothes, for washing machine sorted by colour, but to dry really needs sorting by type, I simply use general, but there are a series of drying cycles. I have an energy meter on ours when I return to PC will see if I can cut and paste to show what it uses. I set to dry level 2, my wife uses level 3, level 1 clothes would need ironing or putting in an airing cupboard.

Since so many programs near impossible to compare cost.
 
I agree with that about vented dryers not being vented outside.

Condensers, as mcprinter says, don't do that.
Oh they do.

I don't know what percentage of moisture gets caught on the cold plates but very hot air blows out that must also contain some leftover chemicals. Also the lint fibres or general dust that gets in the material won't all get caught by the basic mesh screen. Our humidifier reading goes way up when condenser dryer is doing bath towels.
I told my wife to not use dryer with my work ware because of silica dust which is a modern worry.
I'd vent out dryer or use a dehumidifier given the options.
That's me. Others are free to decide
 
Oh they do.

I don't know what percentage of moisture gets caught on the cold plates but very hot air blows out that must also contain some leftover chemicals. Also the lint fibres or general dust that gets in the material won't all get caught by the basic mesh screen. Our humidifier reading goes way up when condenser dryer is doing bath towels.
I told my wife to not use dryer with my work ware because of silica dust which is a modern worry.
I'd vent out dryer or use a dehumidifier given the options.
That's me. Others are free to decide
My heat pump machine doesn't create condensation on the windows when it is running. Yeah, I don't know if it is pumping out lint, or similar.

I did however have to repair mine after 3 years, I was shocked at the amount of dust that was in the main body of the machine. If I had to go another 3 years, I would not want my Hoover heat pump dryer to run if there was no one to watch it. There was a lot of flammable fluff.
 
Not used a tumble before purchasing a WHICH? recommended SMEG heat pump drier about 6 -7 years ago.

Inevitably, drying times are extended compared with all other dryer tech, though more recent heat pump designs are said to be quicker at drying than older designs such as mine. Longer drying times mean more tumbling and therefore more fabric wear (though drum construction will influence the amount of wear too).

Concerning amount of lint/fluff emissions...
I understand that most heat pump dryers have a similar filtration setup to my SMEG, which has two series filters. The first is the fine mesh that needs to be cleared after each load. The second (heat exchanger) filter appears much finer and prevents lint/fluff from entering the condenser plates. If this second filter is undamaged and properly fitted, I would imagine that very little fluff/lint passes through it - though there's bound to be some. Any lint/fluff that makes it through this second fine filter must negotiate a multitude of tightly-packed wet plate surfaces which, I think, would trap most of the remaining fine lint/fluff.

With a few exceptions, condensation efficiency seems to be in the range 80% to 90% for modern heat pump dryers so that means around 10% to 20% of the moisture in the wet fabrics loaded into the dryer ends up being released into the room. And older heat pump dryers, such as my SMEG machine, release even more moisture into the room - the atmosphere in the room feels noticeably humid and warm when the SMEG is running.
 
My Haier has three filters, when it failed, lost gas I assume, it did not dry the clothes at all, and the window in door had condensate running down it.

So it seems no water leaves the unit other than what is pumped out.

The very small room it is in does not really get warm, so would seem very little heat escapes.

Second one running fine, and no cost to change it when it failed, and no quibble, not repaired just replaced. It does worry me a little, that one failed so fast, but it uses so little energy compared with old vented it has to be the way to go.
 
The very small room it is in does not really get warm, so would seem very little heat escapes.
I don't know which Haier model you have but most Haier heat pump tumble dryers are either A** (most) or A*** (a few) rated for energy efficiency and their condensation efficiency is rated class B and class A respectively. Digging around a bit I found that a class B condensation efficiency means the machine is around 80% efficient at condensing (and I assume retaining) water from the fabrics being dried. That means a machine with a class B condensation efficiency rating releases around 20% of the water in the fabrics loaded to the tumble dryer into room as water vapour. A dryer with a condensation efficiency class A rating releases about 10% of water into the room.

Even an efficient spin-drying washing machine leaves about 40 to 50% of water on the washed fabrics (dependent on load, fabric type etc) so 6kg of dry fabric loaded into a washing machine may contain 5 or 6kg of water when loaded into the tumble dryer. If 20% of that water is released into the room, that's 1kg or more.

Whether we notice this release of water vapour into the room is another matter and depends on several variables. Nonetheless, even current heat pump dryers release significant amounts of moisture into the room. Personally, I would prefer heat pump tumble dryers to have a facility that allows through-the-wall venting (to the outside) but I've not seen any that have this. I suppose one could cobble together a DIY arrangement. Hopefully, in a few years time, these tumble dryers will have improved water retention such that expelled water vapour won't be much of an issue.
 
Whether we notice this release of water vapour into the room is another matter and depends on several variables. Nonetheless, even current heat pump dryers release significant amounts of moisture into the room. Personally, I would prefer heat pump tumble dryers to have a facility that allows through-the-wall venting (to the outside) but I've not seen any that have this. I suppose one could cobble together a DIY arrangement. Hopefully, in a few years time, these tumble dryers will have improved water retention such that expelled water vapour won't be much of an issue.

Without disagreeing with you, there is No reason why they should release any moisture at all into the room at all. Washers can be entirely sealed, apart from the detergent drawer system, so why cannot a drier be even better room sealed?
 
Condenser dryers are far more prone to allowing warm moist air to escape into the room they are in purely from how they operate.

They do not extract the heat from the condensed water. So the steaming hot water (upwards of 60c) is constantly evaporating. If the water is kept in the collection tank rather than being pumped down a drain at some point, I would expect this to be more obvious.

Heat pump dryers extract the heat from the condensed water and put it back into the drum. The stored water (if it is not pumped) will be cold/warmish and therefore evaporating into the room at a much slower rate.

Furthermore, an efficient heat pump dryer (this is where build quality comes into play) does not want to loose this extracted heat. They are usually (or should be) better insulated and sealed to ensure the extracted heat is directed back into the drum and kept there.

Condenser dryers are not bothered about re-using the extracted heat. They operate with the same principal as vented. The heat is a waste product.

So while a by product of a condenser dryer is that it warms a room, a large portion of that warming will be due to warm moist air escaping into the room. Whether that is immediately noticeable is down to the ambient temperature of the room the machine is in. But a condenser dryer will increase the relative humidity of the room, and in many situations, that is not a good thing.

Most dryers will get warm to the touch and therefore heat a room that way through conduction and radiating a bit of heat. Again, the better insulated heat pump dryers, that want to keep the heat in the drum, should do this less.
 
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A heat pump drier is a condenser drier, but a condenser drier is not necessary a heat pump drier.

There are three common ways to condense the water vapour, water cooling, air cooling, and refridgation cooling.

Non need to vent the air in drum to the room. Waste heat is only waste heat when not wanted, so if a room needs heating, then heat from light bulb or drier is not wasted.

However the hotter the drier the more damage to clothes.
 

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