Basic Gas or Electric Roper Dryer

[SawaSun]

I have a 19 year old Amana gas dryer that works fine but clothes come out very hot and wrinkled on the normal setting and never get dry on the low setting so not really a happy medium. On Black Friday, I saw a new basic $250 Roper electric dryer RED4640YQ with a wrinkle or dryness sensor. It also comes in a gas model and was wondering if either the gas or electric version would be an improvement in quality/performance compared to my Amana (built by Raytheon) of 19 years ago?

Secondly, I have both gas and electric connection in my laundry room and I was wondering if electric would be cheaper than gas because I am on an electric rate plan where weekend and nights are about 5 cents a kilowatt hour, which is when I do laundry. Gas therm rates are $1.32. When I typed in four 30 minute loads per week on this website, electric seems cheaper.

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/dryers.html

I read that there are new energy efficiency guidelines coming out for dryers in 2015. Does this translate to new dryers not performing as well as old ones and prices increasing?

Should I keep my 19 year old Amana gas dryer, or buy a new basic $250 Roper electric or $330 in gas version before the new energy efficiency standards take effect.

 

[SawaSun]

Photo of Current Amana Dryer

Here is a photo of my present 19 year old Amana gas dryer. Feel free to share your opinions/comments about this model/series if you know anything about it. Please excuse the mess.

 

[SawaSun]

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=30bh9b6&s=8#.VIAD8hxYDzM

That's the link to a photo of the dryer.

 

[mrb627]

Serviced?

When is the last time your dryer was serviced? There could be a lint build up causing an airflow restriction which would make it run hot and/or fail to cool down at the end of the cycle.

Malcolm

 

[jerrod6]

If you are sure you will have that 5 cents a KWH rate on the weekend, and you are always going to do laundry on the weekend  then electric might be cheaper, but without that special rate Electric will be more expensive than natural gas.   I have a smart meter that tracks usage by the hour(I can see it on the web site) so the electric company can vary the rate by hour and by day if they want to so for me there is nothing gained by switching from natural gas to electric not even to a heat pump dryer.

 

I don't know.  For me I guess I don't care too much about dryer options. If it dries too hot, I will get there and remove the clothes when I think they are done regardless of what the dyer does.  The new dryer is $250.  How much did your 19 year old dryer cost?  If it was close to $250 how long do you think this new dryer will last?  I have this feeling that if the cost is close to the same the new one will not last more and a few years....this is nothing but my opinion because I think nothing new is made to last more than 7 years. 

 

I would do as Malcolm suggests and have the vents cleaned and the dryer serviced and see how it performed before buying a new unit.

 

The new guidelines?  I seem to think that the new guidelines have the dryers stopping before most people think the clothes are dry--but hey it used less energy.  I don't know why I think this, but consider that.