How to choose the best tumble dryer for your home and lifestyle

Let's go for a spin through the latest and greatest in tumble dryer technology

Miele Heat Pump tumble dryer, priced from around €1080 (TCF640) for a 8kg Miele model, married to a TwinDos Miele 9kg washing machine. Prices from €1134 (WCG660) - multiple suppliers.

We have to some extent tamed the kW-crunching monster that once was the elder vented tumble dryer. When you’re ready to make the change, weigh up the capital outlay on a new machine against the considerable difference in running costs and load finessing features now on offer. 

Take a fingertip wander through real user reviews online of budget models from Candy, Grundig and Beko before warming to any machine in the sales. After size and mechanics, prices will vary depending on the mode — free-standing, integrated or semi-integrated.

VENTED OR HEAT PUMP?

Vented dryers are generally the most economical buy, and work fast, under the simple mechanics of driving wet warm air out of the dryer into the outdoors via a telescopic hose and sealed box fitting. 

The vent can go straight through the wall or via a window unit. Linked directly back to the drum, properly fitted, they should not cause a draught.

Don’t attempt to drill out the vent grille position unless you’re truly competent. The shorter and straighter the hose the better as kinks can cause the machine to overheat. Plastic hoses are easily punctured.

Vented dryers dry a load faster than most condensers and all heat pump machines. The biggest con of vented machines — is placement near an outside wall. Otherwise, they are relatively straightforward to use, and drying out completely on each run they don’t harbour smells and damp hairy goo in their crevices as a condenser can. They tend to carry fewer tech’ features such as variable speeds and modes as a condenser dryer. Prices for a budget 7kg-8kg vented dryer start at €230.

Best buys

It’s important to check the various cycles offered in any vented dryer. A useful inclusion (and don’t depend on it) Sensor Dry technology monitors the moisture levels in your clothes and stops the cycle once perfectly dry. This overcomes the traditional problem with cheap, vented dryers — timed cycles that atrophy clothes and burn up kWs with them.

If you do stick with manual settings — get to know them well. German engineered machines tend to have more puff in terms of cycle choices, and innovative goodies like Miele’s PerfectDry which detects the mineral content of the water and modifies the drying process.

Always opt for at least a damp decision — Ready to Iron, Dry Hanger, Dry Wardrobe and Extra Dry over bald timed cycles. The Hoover HLV10LG 10KG Vented Tumble Dryer (C-rated) offers a whopping 10kg drum, 14 cycles and Sensor Dry for a steal at €260 (Argos on offer).

The Indesit Ecotime IDV75 takes the energy-efficient to a laudable B for less than €220, offering 2 heating settings, 12 easy-to-follow programmes based on fabric type. It even throws in Anti-tangle — a reverse tumble action to ensure that your clothes dry evenly and without knotting together, €216.41, Argos.

CONDENSER DRYERS

Condenser dryers collect the water created during the drying cycle using condensing technology, either pumping it off into a domestic waste pipe from the drum, or allowing you to collect it in a tank hung on the door or set in a cassette unit behind a dedicated door on the base of the machine. The warm, dehumidified air can be blown back into the room, creating a little gentle ambient heat. There’s no need to pierce the wall, meaning that the machine can go just about anywhere ventilation of the warm, dry air allows.

The water reservoir must be emptied regularly — best practice is every cycle along with the lint collectors. You can use the condensed water to water plants and in the iron. Major con: condensers tend to be more expensive to buy, take longer to do a cycle and are therefore a touch more expensive to run but that really does depends on specifications like sensors and intelligent timers, the energy rating and your attention to using the unit well. Leave the door open between uses or they can get a touch whiffy.

Best buys

Together with a raft more technology, check out the ease of emptying the integrated condenser reservoir if you’re not pumping off the water via the supplied hose. Tanks can be hefty when full, so this can be a nuisance. Look for a nice big door, a B energy rating and watch for those dBs (noise) if your dryer is set near living space. 65-70dB would be typical. Remember that those quick/40-minute programmes will decimate the energy rating — use only occasionally. At around €375, you can see that jump up in terms of price with the mid-range Zanussi 8kg Condenser Tumble Dryer ZDC8203WZ. It has a stylish XXL porthole for shovelling in armfuls of clothes from a stacked washer/dryer arrangement.

B-class for energy, it includes Sensor Dry and a handy delay start, which lets you pre-programme the cycle to start within from 1 to 20 hours — handy for night-rate meters used early in the morning (I’m not keen as are many safety specialists on dryers running totally unsupervised), Harvey Norman.

HEAT PUMP DRYERS

The latest arrival on the warm air laundry front, a heat pump dryer is a variant on the condenser dryer. Using a combination of heat pump technology that recovers heat from the cycle and condensing — heat pump dryers use up to 60% less power than a conventional condenser or vented dryer (half of a B-rated machine) to run. HPs do not require venting, making them ideal for apartment dwellers.

Heat pump models cost from €200-€250 more than an equivalently sized and detailed standard dryer and tend to be offered in larger 8-10kg models. Prices have fallen to €450 for middling brands with prestige Bosch and other German brands coming in at the €500 plus range.

Using cooler air (which is actually kinder to clothes), the cycles are inevitably longer — a three-hour eco cycle would not be unusual, and around one hour per 7kg-8kg compared to vented and condensing machines.

A 10kg whopper will swallow down 50 adults’ T-shirts or a King size duvet. Rapid dry cycles of 40-45 mines’ are generally available for light clothes in a hurry. Otherwise a HP dryer is hopeless for an emergency turn around for an outfit.

I have found my HP perfect for use with a PV array on a sunny morning or afternoon as the wattage demanded is low enough for even a cloudy day of sequential appliance use. The exchanger must be cleaned every couple of months unless the unit is feted as “self-cleaning”.

Best buys

Prices for a good heat pump dryer with sensors and A+ to A++ ratings impossible with vented and condensing machines start around €450, with the vast number of machines in the €500-€800 range. There is some brand snobbery here with German machines heading the pack.

If you want to lose your mind app wise, take a look at the Wi-fi enabled Siemens Avantgarde WT7XH940GB, but open wide your wallet for that remote control, A+++ rating and a wool/shoe basket for odd riders.

I did warm to their fluff container which ingests the makings of 20 cycles. €1,449, various suppliers, siemens.ie. The well respected Smeg DHT81LUK 8kg offers sensor drying, 16 programmes, an LED screen and a 45-minute Quick Dry (in my experience, quick-drying with a heat pump dryer is nearly impossible to achieve without two runs of 45 minutes). The standard run is just shy of three hours — typical with HP machines, €499.99, Currys.

Recalls of certain models of Indesit, Hotpoint, Creda, Swan and Proline dryers sold from 2004-2015 continue.

To ensure your current machine is safe go online to indesithotpointsafety.com. For washing machine notices go to washingmachinerecall.whirlpool and follow the prompts to Check My Model.