Driers? Worth getting?

[velosam]

I dont have one as I never used it before. However my house is costs a fortune to heat and having damp clothes around in winter is rubbish.

I am fortunate enough to be able to wash clothes when its dry and can hang stuff outside. However I have been offered a drier as a present and wonder if I should get one?

Thoughts and advice please

I know that they cost another £60-£70 in elec consumption.

[quixoticgeek]

From an environmental stand point, I'd say not a good idea.

J

[BrianI]

I'd say its worth it.

I replaced my old washer dryer, with a separate washing machine & tumble dryer.

[Greenbank]

We run a dehumidifier in our flat for about 1/3 of the time over the winter. That costs us about £50 or so in electricity[1], plus any spare heat it outputs is not wasted as that just means the heating needs to do less work.

Living in a house converted into flats means the ventilation is nowhere near good enough. Such flats weren't designed to have clothes dried inside and the ventilation routes that would have been present in the original house all get blocked up as the place is partitioned up. Even without clothes drying inside the flat we often get condensation on the windows just from the 3 of us that live here.

If we ever get our place refurbished (new wiring -> replastering -> redecoration) I'll get the builders to sort out the ventilation so the place can breathe better.

From an environmental stand point, I'd say not a good idea.

If the alternative is heating/drying a whole house to the point that clothes dry properly in it then a drier may be the more environmentally option. Of course, insulating and improving air-flow is the real correct answer, but that might be £000's rather than £00's.

Personally I'd just go for a dehumidifier next to an airer full of damp clothes just because it can kill two birds with one stone as we need a dehumidifier anyway (I can't run a tumble drier to remove damp from my flat).

Tumble driers are a huge cause of house fires too.

1. UK rule of thumb is 1W for an entire year costs roughly £1. So a 400W dehumidifier on for 8 hours a day for 5 months a year =~ £55.

[rogerzilla]

£60-80 is rubbish, unless you have a large family and/or use it every time.  I use mine when I can't hang stuff out, for about 100 minutes on low heat (1.5kW, I think)  That's about 40p a week, 26 weeks a year.

[Canardly]

Had one for years and would  not be without.

[Diver300]

The heat-pump dryers are significantly more efficient than either vented or regular condensing dryers.

Heat-pump dryers don't need any plumbing, or a vent, but it's convenient to have a drain so you don't need to keep emptying the water container. They are heavier and more expensive than the other types, but there is much less risk of fluff catching fire in one.

A heat-pump dryer is basically a dehumidifier in a box, and the air circulates through that and the drum. As with a dehumidifier, all the water ends up in the container or the drain, so you don't get any problem of moisture in the room.

We've had a Beko one for about 8 years now. It just works. The only issue was when we had it on carpet, it wasn't getting rid of all of its heat as it turned out to need some ventilation under the sides, and the carpet was blocking it. It put is on some blocks to raise it a cm or so.

[Mrs Pingu]

Wot Greenbank said, get a decent dehumidifier.
Advantages;
Less wear on clothes
Generally less moisture in the home from breathing, cooking etc
You can move it if there's somewhere you're having particular trouble with.
If your house is already a bit moist you will find that you don't need the stat on your heating set so high as you will feel warmer in drier air.
You can shove it in storage when you don't need it in the summer if storage is an issue.

[chrisbainbridge]

We have both. Our last house had an airing cupboard which I specified when we built it. The new house does t. It it does have an unheated cupboard for keeping clerical vestments in.
I have a very small dimpled on a thermostat and a dehumidifier with a humidity setting. It runs on when we put damp clothes, boots, garden cushions in and otherwise is on standby most of the time. Commuting becomes a real pleasure when you know clothes and boots will be warm and dry at 6:00am in February!

If you need clothes drying and living quarters dried then I would thoroughly recommend a dehumidifier.

[Ruthie]

I love my drier. Wouldn’t be without it. So much better than damp musty clothes and a damp musty home.

[Feanor]

Would not do without a drier.

A dehumidifier does work well to dry clothes ( we have one in the kit drying room at work ), but I don't have a drying room at home where I can rack out wet kit and let it de-humidify to dry, and I'm not really interested in having drying racks set up in my living space.

The drier gets the job done in short order, taking up the space of a standard 600mm base unit in the small utility room.

[velosam]

Thanks all food for thought.

I like the idea of a dehumidifier.

[rogerzilla]

As running costs are low if there is one or two of you, capital and repair costs are important.  A vented dryer is cheap and usually very reliable.  A condenser, being far more complex, is neither.  The energy ratings for the two are not comparable and make condenser dryers look better than they are: a vented dryer will use about 80% of the energy of a non-heat pump condenser dryer.

The main disadvantage of a vented dryer is that you need a hole through the wall for a neat installation.

[rafletcher]

I would add that getting a washing machine with a decent spin speed - ours tops out at 1400 rpm - can make quite a difference to the moisture remaining in clothes post-wash. In winter we'll spin twice - we don't have a dryer (no space for one, and I don't like combined washer-dryers for reliability reasons) so will often have stuff on the radiators when it's no good for outdoor drying. Not a major issue as it's a house (albeit a small one) with an open stair way off the living/dining area, so room for air movement. It also has leaky window and an open fireplace. More modern properties are of course more airtight.

[ian]

We've never had issues using a dehumidifier and spare room. Put the stuff out, turn on dehumidifier*. Usually takes a few hours, even in deepest darkest winter (in summer we can just open the windows). Requires space of course.

Probably no cheaper than a drier, but I find less faff.

*a proper condensing one.

[Kim]

Typical 1890s terrace here.  Dying clothes indoors barely registers on my humidity graphs (it mostly comes down to weather, central heating, showering and which doors and windows are open where).  Borrowed a dehumidifier for a bit, and it barely made a difference, either.

That said, if you've got a damp problem in a less draughty house, not drying clothes will probably help.

Personally, I only see the point in driers if you're dealing with industrial quantities of laundry.  Eg. Maybe if someone's incontinent, or you've got a dog-washing or haberdashery business, or far too many children.  And if you do, you probably can't afford the solar panels needed to make it an environmentally sensible proposition.  Or I suppose if you've got an autistic person who needs the stiffness beaten out of fabrics before wearing them.

[De Sisti]

I have a Creda Reservoir Sensory System tumble dryer, purchased in 1990*. During its ownership,
essential maintenance has been the replacement of a rubber pulley for the drum and a new condenser.

The pulley was less than £10 and the condenser was about £28. Replacing the condenser was
easier than I thought, courtesy of a youtube video.


*£149

[grams]

I live in a tiny flat where there’s nowhere sensible to put an airer that isn’t completely in the way*. A washer/drier is a magical machine that turns dirty clothes into clean clothes.

(* that isn’t already filled with bicycles and bicycle accessories)

[quixoticgeek]

I have a drying rack that hangs over the front of the bedroom door. I then have a broom handle between two sets of shelves across the doorway to the living room.

Most stuff goes on the door rack, but trousers and cycle kit hangs from hangers on the rail.

I live alone so it's no major issue to walk round the washing. The main issue is that my propensity for using hair sticks to hold my hair up, the bit that sticks out the end occasionally will catch on some small item of clothing as I walk into the bedroom, resulting in a pair of knickers hanging off your hair...

J

[Wowbagger]

We have an ancient tumble drier which I object to using and a dehumidifier. I'm very careful about using the dehumidifier as well, as it's a stipulation of the 5year guarantee on the piano that the humidity in that room remains above 50%.

As long as the weather is reasonable, we hang stuff outside.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I think that most of you live somewhere dry.

Ambient RH in York is frequently over 80%

Drying outside is something simply impractical for much of the year.

[quixoticgeek]

I think that most of you live somewhere dry.

Ambient RH in York is frequently over 80%

Drying outside is something simply impractical for much of the year.

Humidity in my flat right now is 50.1%. But I live in a swamp...

J

[Mrs Pingu]

In the mornings this week our bedroom has been reading high 70's %rh when I get up in the morning (we are not drying clothes indoors yet). It's getting cooler, I haven't turned the heating on yet, our double glazing has no trickle vents. All of the above probably not helped by the fact that I painted over our lath & lime plaster walls with an unbreatheable latex emulsion before I knew about such folly. 
I'd love to be able to rectify that but I suspect I can't without ripping all the plaster off the laths.

[ian]

On any given day, the RH in the Asbestos Palace is between 30-35%. I'm a big ventilation fan. I never thought I'd write that, but I am. We usually leave a few windows on the catch, even in winter (and there's an open chimney). I'm not convinced that unless an house is designed for it, that a 1960s era building should be hermetically sealed. Also, as you know, mould is my enemy. I will not fear the mould. I will offer no solace to the mould. For the mould is my enemy.

[hellymedic]

On any given day, the RH in the Asbestos Palace is between 30-35%. I'm a big ventilation fan. I never thought I'd write that, but I am. We usually leave a few windows on the catch, even in winter (and there's an open chimney). I'm not convinced that unless an house is designed for it, that a 1960s era building should be hermetically sealed. Also, as you know, mould is my enemy. I will not fear the mould. I will offer no solace to the mould. For the mould is my enemy.

The RH in my lounge is usually over 60%, dropping when the patio doors are opened on a dry day.
RH in the kitchen is about 10% less because fridge.

RH outdoors is currently ~80%; it is WET.

Piano keys a getting sticky and we have Dampp-Chaser installed. RH here seems to have increased enormously recently. I think it's mostly the weather.