How to choose a clothes dryer

Ah, the good old-fashioned clothesline. It’s still the cheapest and most environmentally friendly option for drying laundry. Yet in the colder months that can be tricky – and there’s nothing worse than the smell of clothes that have taken too long to dry.

With councils pushing for housing intensification – which means more people living in apartments or with almost no outdoor space – more people than ever need to use a dryer more often.

A bonus of electric clothes dryers is they avoid the tedium of pegging out washing, yet that convenience comes at a cost to both the household budget and the environment. Dryers are one of the biggest drains on power in Kiwi households – it costs around a dollar to dry a big load. Plus the electricity used generates greenhouse gases – and dryers are also hard on clothes. All that lint in the filter represents extra wear on your washing!

What’s the best kind of dryer?

Vented dryers: Where venting to the outdoors is impractical, a condensing dryer or heat pump dryer must be used. However both are expensive. Retailers are now selling similar numbers of vented and condensing dryers. Most dryers are vented dryers, in which damp laundry is rotated in a steel drum with holes in it through which hot air is blown. The warm moist air resulting should be vented outdoors, though a few cheaper models vent into the room air – which should be avoided as damp air indoors is harder to heat, and can lead to mould and damp which can cause illnesses like asthma.

Condensing dryers: A condensing dryer passes the hot humid air through a heat exchanger to cool it, and most of the water vapour can then be collected as water while the air is recycled. However, this recycled air retains some humidity, so condensing dryers often have longer run times than vented tumble dryers and use more power.

Heat pump dryers: Heat pump dryers use the cold side of a small internal heat pump to chill the humid exhaust air from the dryer (which dries it out) and the hot side to rewarm it so it can be reused. They use half the power of a vented dryer but cost about five times as much!

Buying and using – the tips

Choose a model that fits your space! Some can be mounted on walls or stacked on top of a frontloading washer, saving space.

What’s your average load size? Different models handle from 4-9kg, and since they work most efficiently with close to full loads, consider whether you might want to do more small loads or fewer large loads, bearing in mind that it’s best to dry light synthetics separately from heavy, slow-drying cotton.

What controls do you want? The simplest models use a timer and if the washing isn’t dry, you reset it. More expensive models use sensors that detect when the clothes are dry and then switch the heat off. Some can stop drying at different degrees of dryness and others gently roll the cooling laundry to reduce creasing. This feature may reduce ironing, which can be a plus.

Dryer performance: In many models the drum periodically reverses direction as this spreads the washing and shortens drying times. A key to dryer performance is spreading the clothes gently and getting the hot air to blow through them—like on a clothesline! A tumbling ball of wet washing won’t dry quickly. Different manufacturers have their own solutions to this problem and it pays to check these out.

Does it have drying temperature options? Lower temperatures are better for sensitive fabrics.

Do you want a delayed start? Having a delayed start can also be useful, especially if you’re on solar power and want to run loads during daylight hours.

Which side does the door open on? Having the door hinged on the side away from the washer makes it easier to transfer wet laundry – it’s worth thinking about which side you want the door on before you buy.

Will you need surge protection?  The main problem people have with dryers is electronic breakdowns from power surges. So if a surge protector isn’t built in, it could be worth buying one that sits on the end of the plug – you can get them from any electronics store.

Money and the greenhouse effect

Typically, making electricity releases greenhouse gases, so the less energy an appliance uses, the better it is for the environment, and the cheaper it is for you.

Dryers are rated on electricity use by the standard star system, with scores ranging from one (worst) to six (best). Most vented and condenser dryers score in the range of 1–2.5. Sensor models score slightly better than non-sensor models because they shut the dryer down as soon as the washing is dry rather than running it beyond dryness as can happen with a timer.

According to the EECA, drying two 6kg loads a week with a one star dryer will cost $167 annually in electricity and produce 90kg of greenhouse gases. Using a 2.5-star rated dryer will cost $131 a year and release 70kg of greenhouse gases, 4 stars will get you down to $101 and 50kg emissions and 6 stars will reduce you to $74 and 40kg. Although dryers generally carry a two-year warranty they should last for 10 years, and over that time a 6-star model will save you at least $930 in power, and prevent the emission of 500kg of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of driving a car from Auckland to Wellington more than three times) compared with a 1-star model.

Bear in mind that the information on these energy labels could be misleading. The annual energy consumption figures for dryers are based on doing only one load per week. If you do three loads a week your power costs will triple. If you are blessed with five daughters, power savings will likely make a more expensive heat pump model cheapest in the long haul!

Getting the best deal

While a dryer can be bought for $400, 6-star rated models (all with heat pumps) sell for $2100 to $3150. Condenser dryers range from $1200 to $2400. Remember that condenser dryers will not generally be cheaper to run than vented models and neither will they have a smaller environmental footprint. You should be able to get a respectable sensor-based vented dryer with a good selection of useful features for $600–900 on sale.

In 2013 the independent non-profit society Consumer NZ tested 40+ models and recommended the Bosch WTW84360AU heat pump dryer (~$2600), the Simpson 39S600M (vented $690), the Ariston AS600VX (vented $1129) and the Simpson 39S500M (vented $580). Surveys of owners show Fisher & Paykel vented models, such as the Aerosense DE50F56E1 (~$550–$800) are also well-regarded, and Bosch is considered the most reliable brand.

Tips for smarter drying

• Get as much water out of your laundry as possible with the spin cycle of the washer. Spinning removes water much more cheaply than heat.
• Shake your clothes out before you put them in the dryer. A big sodden ball takes forever to dry.
• Dry heavy cotton items like jeans in a separate load from synthetics. You’ll reduce dryer wear on your synthetics because they dry much faster than cotton.
• Dryers use relatively more power on small loads so run fairly full loads.
• Clean the lint filter on the dryer – preferably after every load – to keep it working efficiently.
• If you’re being naughty and using the dryer to get one special item dry in time for an event, put some dry towels in with it – it will dry much faster!