Energy efficient tumble dryers

[letim]

Hello

I'm considering replacing my old tumble dryer. I'm quite keen for it to be as energy efficient as possible. I've found 2 which are A rated and are both condensor models. The ones I've found are AEG T59840 and John Lewis JLTDC10. (I do believe, however, that JL products are made by AEG.)

http://www.aeg-electrolux.co.uk/node146.asp?ProdID=30164

http://www.johnlewis.com/230475118/Product.aspx

I'm not sure how they are A rated as most dryers appear to be C rated. I wonder if they are A rated for just one programme that's rarely used or just take hours to gradually dry the washing?

Does anyone have any practical experience of these machines and are they as energy efficient as they claim to be *and* actually dry the washing!?

Any other suggestions of good, energy efficient, tumble dryers would be gratefully received.

Thanks for your help!

Tim

 

[mark1973]

Hi Tim

Im not an expect on energy effeciency as im quite naughty and take no notice of the energy rating.

What I do remember though is White Knight bringing out their "A" rated tumble dryer. I think it was designed to run overnight or throughout the day and im sure it took 8 hours on the "A" rated programme.

Mark

 

[jwilson00]

Hi

Both use the new heat pump technology, miele has one, siemens and Bosch too. The siemens and Bosch I believe claim to clean the condensor using water from the bottle. I think there was a thread on here about the siemens/Bosch A rated dryer.

Last time I checked siemens had a 5 year parts and labour warranty.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Our stoves/cookers and clothes dryers are not energy rated AFAIK. We dont have condenser dryers which IMHO can vary more than vented ones in efficiency.

Seeing many Bosch condensers in new construction and renovations where venting is too costly or otherwise not practical.

Wait until Mr. or Ms. average America figures out how much heat it dumps into the room! In summer many of these installs have no other drying option.

 

[chestermikeuk]

"A" Rated Tumble Dryers....

Hi Tim

The only A rated dryers are the likes of the White Knight that tumbles with a high airflow for a very long time ..OR the new heat Pump technology tumble dryers, from V-Zug, Miele Siemens & AEG...dryers basically break down into:

VENTED: air from the room is sucked into the dryer , through a heater, passed through the clothes and the warm damp air is vented out through a pipe outside preferably..these tend to be energy rated B or C and dry pretty quickly..can also be quieter in action.

CONDENSER: air from the room is sucked into the dryer, through the heater, passed through clothes and HOT STEAMY AIR is passed through a Heat Exchanger, which is a plate cooled by the ambient air (they work better in cold rooms) where the hot steam is turned to condensated water, this is then pumped to a water tank to empty, usually cost more to run but do take a longer time...and are louder than vented, have extra fans etc.

HEAT PUMP: these work by passing the hot steamy air through a heat pump, the cold plate condenses the water vapor into a water tank or drain pipe and the hot side reheats the air. The dryer also keeps in most of the already heated air and recycles it..using far less energy and cost than a normal condenser dryer..usually around half the cost to run, as these are relatively new they tend to be more expensive to buy!!!

If you are really looking at Eco Efficiency you really need to look at:

1.Where the dryer is to be sited, is it near a wall to vent that you can vent outside??

2.How fast does your washer spin??, 1600 / 2000rpm will give max water extract resulting in shorted drying times and therefore less energy cost to run...

3.Is the dryer to be placed in a warm room?? or will it be in a cooler utility room or cold garage??

4.Sensor drying is a must as it takes the guesswork out of using a timed dryer (for most people anyway..sucking eggs here I know!!!..Lol) and will give you options on degrees of dryness which is great for clothes that require iron or rotary ironer pressing!!!also saving running costs..

Heres a diagram of the way the Heat Pump Technology Works..!!

p.s. I`m road testing the V-Zugs with Heat Pump Technology this week,so you can join with me..Yay...!!!!

http://www.thewashingmachineplace.c...px?Category.id=201&brand.id=2&t.tag=Lavatherm T59840 AEG

 

[ronhic]

Mike...

Let me just say right now...

'I'M BLOODY JEALOUS!!!!'

ok, that's out of my system....

BTW, what are the V-Zug washers like? They are coming to Oz in November and I am thinking that I may take out a 2nd mortgage, skip Miele and go direct to the top...

 

[letim]

Well, thank you all for your comments. Particularly Mike whose description and diagram were very helpful!

In answer to Mike's questions I would answer as follows:

1. The dryer can be vented and there is already a vent there although my current tumble dryer is a condensor one.

2. The washer's top spin is 1400rpm.

3. The dryer will be in a utility room which is usually cool, particularly in winter when the dryer will be used the most.

I also found the earlier discussion regarding the Siemens/Bosch A rated dryer thanks to Jamie. I found this very interesting and very relevant to what I'm looking for.

It appears that the heat pump technology is quite new for tumble dryers. I would really like to know about the practical use of it as manufacturers claim all sorts of things on their websites! I hope that Mike will let us know how he gets on with road testing the V-Zug this week! Have you tried the AEG model as I note that you stock this machine?

Thanks, Tim.

 

[rudin1969]

Mike, any reviews about the V-ZUG Adora SLQ?
I got one in April and am very happy about it, but would like to know what others think about it....

 

[askomiele]

Siemens - Bosch...

are good dryers but beware you buy the right model, the one with the modificated pump... there has been some problems with the condersor dryers where the pump got stuck with lint because it was to narrow to let it pass. The maintanance on the BSH Arated dryers is limited. You clean the regular lintfilter and dump the water out of the container into a bucket/sink. The lint on the condensorunit is flushed with the condensed water, than pumped back up and filtered, so the lint doesn't enters the container, and when you empty it, the filter is flushed.

AEG, MIELE and V-zug have extra filters you have to maintain, but they give you the possibility to clean around the condensing unit too, BSH gives you no acces to that part.

If you use your dryer regulary it's a good investment. If you don't, just hang out everything, except a few loads...
The drying times are a little longer, mostly because the dryers use a lower temperature.

Oh and an other thing NEVER, and I'll repeat NEVER compare the labels of condensor dryers with vented ones. They are not comparable at all. If you look closely to the manuals, you'll see that a B-rated condensor unit still uses more than a C-rated vented unit. One thing is for sure. A-rated is more effecient than all other dryers, but the way they achive it is mostly a little bit different.

 

[targus]

i have the aeg 59840 heat pump dryer myself and it really uses less energy to dry a load of laundry. But the programmes take longer and it is noisy compared to normal dryers I have had in the past. the noise is a constant brum and I don't mind it being noisy because it stands in the cellar.

when you want to save energy with your dryer then a heat pump dryer is what you need

 

[toggleswitch2]

Hi speedy/targus:

S'il vous plait...would you kindly post a user's/owner's manual link for your dryer.

Merci beacuoup!

 

[favorit]

AEG tumble dryers

there's also the Iron Aid (steam dewrinkling) model
and a black one...
Call them AEG, John Lewis or Zanussi ... euro E'lux dryers come all from the same factory

http://www.aeg-electrolux.co.uk/node145.asp?CategoryID=2890

 

[favorit]

AEG Lavatherm T59840 heat pump dryer manual

British E'lux customer care dept has a nice library of new and OLD zanussi/aeg/electrolux manuals

http://www.serviceforce.co.uk/pdf_search.asp

pity, here the manuals isn't available
So the french version in the next link :

http://www.electrolux-ui.com:8080/2007/125/989670FR.pdf

 

[favorit]

doubt about condenser design

Hi Mike,

I guessed that in ALL condenser and heat pump designs the drying air flow was fully recirculated inside the machine, while only the flow that cools down the condensor or heat pump came from room.

Guessed in these designs was possible to run the dryer in a kitchen even while frying without having burnt oil smelling laundry.

is that true or i'm missing something ?
Does exist any hybrid sys ?

T.I.A.
Carlo

 

[passatdoc]

I have a smallish home (1500 sq feet or c. 150 square meters) and cook, dry, heat the house, and heat water with natural gas. For two persons in summer, when no house heat is used, the gas bill is $10-12, with 7-10 loads of laundry per week. This is a vented, natural gas model Frigidaire 1442. The gas bill includes hot water for washing and showering, gas for drying, and gas for cooking (gas range with oven and four gas burners). The washer spins at 1000 rpm, but 1000 rpm in a US sized machine extracts more water than 1000 rpm in a European sized machine, because centrifugal force is proportional to the radius of the wash basket. So if my wash basket is say 20% greater than a Euro-sized machine, my 1000 rpm is roughly equivalent to 1200 rpm in Europe. Also, machines spinning at 1000 rpm are in general QUIET. My laundry area doesn't sound like a jet airport which is often the sound coming from the laundry rooms of my European friends. I have the laundry in the garage, so noise isn't an issue, but I wouldn't want a noisy machine inside the house.

 

[passatdoc]

I have a smallish home (1500 sq feet or c. 150 square meters) and cook, dry, heat the house, and heat water with natural gas. For two persons in summer, when no house heat is used, the gas bill is $10-12, with 7-10 loads of laundry per week. This is a vented, natural gas model Frigidaire 1442. The gas bill includes hot water for washing and showering, gas for drying, and gas for cooking (gas range with oven and four gas burners). The washer spins at 1000 rpm, but 1000 rpm in a US sized machine extracts more water than 1000 rpm in a European sized machine, because centrifugal force is proportional to the radius of the wash basket. So if my wash basket is say 20% greater than a Euro-sized machine, my 1000 rpm is roughly equivalent to 1200 rpm in Europe. Also, machines spinning at 1000 rpm are in general QUIET. My laundry area doesn't sound like a jet airport which is often the sound coming from the laundry rooms of my European friends. I have the laundry in the garage, so noise isn't an issue, but I wouldn't want a noisy machine inside the house.

 

[favorit]

euro gas dryer

Till some year ago miele made the T 478 G gas dryer.
It's a pity now it's discontinued, guess because of its burner fed by room air.

Recent euro safety laws dealing with gas appliances/heaters say that over a certain power their burners have to be "sealed" meaning that both feeding air and fumes are't in communication with the room, but coming from/going to outer side of the building. This *should* be safer even in case of gas leakage

Otherwise it's true that those old, not sealed flow-through water heaters (aka geyser) killed many people because of CO emission, expecially when installed in bathrooms. Just a long shower was enough to saturate air with steam and to start a bad combustion that released carbon monoxide

 

[toggleswitch2]

~Recent euro safety laws.

Then how do gas cooktops circumvent (get around) the law?

To me this topic/issue sounds like a great new thread.. (hint, hint!)

This plus the (old?) Greek practice of turning off the electric storage-type hot water heater while showering to avoid electrocution. I want to beleive their electric hot-water heaters are just as safe as anyone else's and the hihg cost of heating water electically and their sense of economy is the true drive behind that custom.

 

[favorit]

Gas cooktops - V-ZUG in Italy ?!?

Toggles,

cooktop/oven gas burners are LOW power ones (0.5---->5 KW)
so there's no circumvention

Another law says that kitchens having gas cooktops and/or ovens must have a vent in the wall/door/window. The higher is the total power of burners, the wider has to be the the vent.

The odd point : those laws didn't forbid the sale of those cooktops without safety thermovalves. For our sake now such cooktops are indeed rare.

Rudin1969 - i'm very curious ... where did you buy the Zug dryer ? did you go to switzerland ?