tumble dryer

Hello all,

After a small load of clothes has taken three days to dry, I'm considering buying a tumble dryer as I have a small family. The utility room I would be putting it in doesn't have a vent hole cut out as we have in the states. Are there types of dryers that don't require a 'ventilation tube' as we tend to have in the states?

Thanks.

Speck

IMO vented tumble dryers work better than condensers (they either have a water tray or box where the water condenses for you to empty, or they can be plumbed in like a washing machine to drain the water)...

You can buy condenser kits for a vented tumble dryer where it takes the vent tube and connects to a box that does as it says and leaves you with a box full of water to empty.

You can buy the condenser kits at most electrical retailer shops or online - just search for vented dryer condenser kit or condenser vent kit.     They usually sell anywhere from about £5 to £25 depending on make and quality.  The manufacturer of your tumble dryer could even sell / make them.

I have a condenser dryer .. I LOVE it.. yep you have to remember to empty the water tray every couple of washes. For me the advantages are you can put it ANYWHERE in your house/flat whatever..
Others opinions may vary 

We have a condenser dryer, too.  I love it.  But I had a year of washer/dryer combo to break any expectations I might have.     It seems to take a bit longer to dry a load -- maybe 25-30% longer than it would have back home in a vented dryer (and, of course, the loads are smaller!).  But clothes come out dry, fluffy and soft.  And did I mention DRY? 

 

We have a tumble dryer and just stick the vent hose out the window when it's running, and my partner's parents stick theirs out the kitchen door. Most tumble dryers here will come with a long flexible hose that allows some flexibility for that, so if you do have a window or door in the room that could be an option.

I have an integrated tumble dryer in my kitchen (couldn't live without it) but before that we had a tumble dryer that we used to vent out the window, not ideal, but better than nothing. After that, we had a builder come and make a vent for the dryer in the kitchen, it lived there for years until we had our new kitchen built, but it was a godsend.

I would get a Condenser if I hadn't had the room! Good luck!!

Since you say you've got a utility room, another option is to get a dehumidifier instead of a tumble dryer. Our laundry room is tiny, and in the summer everything dries fine on its own from leaving the 6inch porthole open. In winter, we've got a dehumidifier in there and put all the clothes on racks around it and crank it up - everything's dry in a few hours and I'd wager there's less electricity used than a tumble dryer, plus we can move it around to use it in other rooms, too, if we need to.

I love our condenser dryer. As others have said, you just have to remember to empty the water container now and again, but ours will stop itself and put a little digital message up reminding you to empty it when it's full. 

We have a vented one and put the house out the window.  You can buy extra long hoses on Ebay, too.

There's no way I'd be without it!  We have 3 young children and it's wet here most of the year.

I love our condenser dryer. As others have said, you just have to remember to empty the water container now and again, but ours will stop itself and put a little digital message up reminding you to empty it when it's full. 

Same with ours.  I was scared at first because I imagined some big tray of water at the bottom or something but it's not.  It's a 2litre or so plastic jug thingy at the top (so you don't have to bend down) and you just whip it out, take it to the sink, empty it through a little hole and put it back in, no trouble at all.  It does take a little longer to dry clothes compared to our US dryer but compared to hanging them in our damp house it's a dream come true.  And it warms up the living room when it's running too. 
Major disadvantages are the noise - it is pretty loud when it's running: you have to turn up the telly and you have to turn the dryer off to make a phone call, and the location - it's too big to go in the kitchen and since we live in a little back to back, it's in a corner of the living room.  Our dining table is also in the living room because there is no where else for it.  Of course if you have a bigger house you could put it in an unused room and the noise and size would not be an issue.
To me, the huge advantage of being able to transform a load of dirty clothes into clean dry clothes in about 3-4 hours as opposed to 3 days is worth any inconvenience!!

Thanks for all the replies!

I guess my only other question is my British colleagues keep saying, "Oh but they just eat electricity! Your electric bill will go up." How much of a difference could I expect? Frankly, to avoid hanging laundry everywhere on a permanent basis, I'd probably pay a fairly high price!

Speck

We just bought a tumble dryer a few weeks ago- we're tight on space, so it's a condenser, and I love it.  The trick with condensers is that the cheapest ones on the market often don't work that well, so we spent on one a few models up (a Bosch) and it was so worth it.  Gets my clothes very dry in about 1.5-2 hours depending on the load size and heats up the room to boot!  

With regards to the electricity bill, we haven't had it long enough to observe the effect on our bill yet, but if it's important to you, I'd go with a dryer that has a high efficiency rating- our dryer has a B rating (I think the lower end models often have a C rating, and I'd stay far away from anything with a D rating!)

If your utility room has an outside wall then installing a vent is a relatively simple DIY job.  I've no idea how much a builder would cost but it shouldn't take an hour or 2 so it shouldn't be that expensive.

I guess my only other question is my British colleagues keep saying, "Oh but they just eat electricity! Your electric bill will go up." How much of a difference could I expect? Frankly, to avoid hanging laundry everywhere on a permanent basis, I'd probably pay a fairly high price!

They're right.  Tumble dryers tend to use a ton of electricity, quite a bit more than the washer does, for example.  I can't give you numbers, though.  Maybe a few hundred quid a year?  I'll ask my husband later, but if I don't get back to this thread within a day or so, it's because he's still explaining it all in intricate detail.    (he's got his PhD in electrical engineering, and he's German, and this subject is one near and dear to his heart)

We have a 1-year-old, and I still manage without using a dryer, but I suspect as our family grows, I will at least want the option to be able to throw in a load of sheets, or whatever, when needed.  Dishwasher is higher on my wishlist at the moment, though!

It's not difficult to cut a vent hole through an outside wall - I've done it in 2 houses and I don't have any building expertise or anything.  But if you don't have any DIY skills then any builder should be able to do it in a few hours. 

And we keep our electricity bill down by doing almost all of our washing and drying at night when the electricity rates are soooo much lower.  We put a load on most evenings and set the timer on the washer.  Then when my husband first gets up for work (5:30am), he just shifts the load to the dryer and it finishes before the rates go up at 7am.  Works great for us anyway!  Good luck.