Buying and Using - US Tumbledryers in the UK

Hi all, I have seen a few websites recently offering American washers and dryers for sale in the UK. Does anyone know whether these would be worth getting. I guess what I am wondering is whether they will be like American style fridges that are now common here and work fine or whether they will be imports that may need special wiring etc. Here is the link where I have seen them.

http://www.freenet.ltd.uk/maytag_american_tumble_dryers.asp

Thanks!

Melly

From the description of one of them:

Electric dryers must therefore have a minimum of 30 amp hard wire connection within one metre of the appliance. You will also need to vent the dryer exhaust to the outside, to prevent excess condensation inside the house. Maytag dryer models require a 4” rigid aluminium or galvanised steel duct.

The 30 amp thing is likely to be the big issue - this is pretty much what we'd describe as a cooker outlet (UK tumble dryers usually run on a 13 amp socket). Of course that means that if where you want to put it used to have an electric cooker there...

Depending on the existing state of your wiring (and the age of your house) you might need extra upgrades to accomodate a new high-power circuit.

The difference with fridges is that they are lower-powered devices anyway, so even a big one can still use a standard power outlet. These tumble dryers will be more involved than that to install.

We bought ours at Comet a few years ago. There were no wiring issues at all. They do need to be vented though!

whether they will be imports that may need special wiring etc.

The washers and dryers sold here are not the exact same models as in North America.   

American dryers are fitted with 60Hz motors and have wiring which is designed to work with the standard dual-voltage U.S. residential supply (your dryer outlet in the States actually provides both 120 and 240 volts simultaneously). 

The U.K. versions are wired for 240V-only supplies and come with 50Hz motors so that there's no incompatibility in that regard, but as Cabbage said it's the power drawn by these larger dryers which is the problem.

The standard U.K. 13-amp outlet is good for appliances up to around 3kW.  The Maytag Atlanta dryer, to take one example, is rated around 5kW, which means that it will draw approx. 22 amps, hence the need for a dedicated 30A circuit.

If there happens to be an old, unused cooker (range) or shower circuit which can be diverted to the dryer position that would most likely be satisfactory, but otherwise would mean running a new dedicated circuit right back to the distribution panel.   If there are no spaces in the existing panel, you'd have to add to or replace it.   Price would obviously depend upon what's there, how far away, ease of wiring, etc.