The Great Debate. Gas vs Electric Dryers

[carolina128]

Quite specific to my house, but I would never own a gas dryer because of the bad venting situation I have. My laundry room is in the worst possible location: the exact center of the house. So the dryer vent has to snake its way down through the crawlspace and underneath the kitchen to reach the outside wall. It’s a bad setup (and one that I can’t do much about short of renovating the house), but at least with an electric dryer I don’t have to worry about this terrible venting situation killing me with carbon monoxide.

I’ve often thought about getting a heat pump dryer so I can be rid of dryer venting entirely. Still, my early-2000’s Whirlpool electric dryer keeps chugging along. Fun fact about my dryer: it was apparently the matching dryer for the Calypso! (My washer is a direct drive though).

 

[bpetersxx]

Late to the party

I actually have both

The Maytag de808 in Harvest gold in in the upstairs laundry room with the Maytag a806

My gas dryer Maytag DG608 is in the basement with the other Maytags

gas was easy in the basement since the dryer is next to the WH

Short gas line and short rigid vent pipe

 

[combo52]

Reply number 19

Gas dryers produce an insignificant amount of carbon monoxide, and gas dryers are also more tolerant of bad and long vents. You don’t get the overheating of the heating element that you get with an electric dryer with a bad vent.

That said for best performance, you should have a good vent for any vented dryer, have you considered having a new vent run going up through the attic and through the roof it might be a lot more Direct.

A heat pump dryer would be a lot more economical than continuing with an electric dryer, they are about twice as expensive and they do require more maintenance so it’s not the perfect answer either.

John

 

[thatwasherguy]

I prefer vented electric dryers too...

They don’t have as many rust issues as they age due to the heating element not producing acidic moisture during operation, they don’t have the risk of explosion in the event of a leak, they don’t produce CO, so they can be vented indoors if you wish. They are also simpler, as they don’t require a gas valve or igniter. I’ve heard of people having issues getting gas valves for some vintage gas dryers, while heating elements for electric ones could be re-created much more easily. They do have a nasty habit of creating larger arcs on the contacts of the timer than gas dryers do, but a simple HVAC relay for the heater circuit will take care of that. I’m not the biggest fan of heat pump or condensing dryers either. They’re a bit complicated for my taste, and they take a long time to dry. I certainly don’t hate any of them, and love watching the gas burner cycle on the SOH Maytags at one of the local laundromats I visit sometimes. I would also happily use a heat pump or condensing dryer just for the experience. I just wouldn’t want one as my only dryer is all.
Thatwasherguy.

 

[maytag85]

“They do have a nasty habit of creating large arcs on the contacts of the timer”

That’s why I specifically put a low heat 120F double throw switch on the Maytag DE806 I put together last year, usually the heating element will be off right before the timer enters the cool down, sometimes it’ll be on before the cool down engages, but most of the time it’s off before the cool down engage. Sure, it’ll take longer do dry with a 120F temperature, but will certainly be easier on the machine since it’s not getting too hot which helps make the front felt seal and door gasket last longer along with the contact in the timer since the heating element will be off before the cool down.

 

[simpsonencore]

Sorry to resurrect an older thread, but it all depends where you live and how much you get charged for utilities...

Where I live, natural gas prices rise faster than electricity, and have been for the past decade or so; before this, gas was the cheaper one!

For comparison, my power bills are about $200-250 per quarter (using an electric vented dryer), but when I had central gas heating, iirc the highest winter gas bill I ever got was about $900? I now have central reverse-cycle inverter HVAC, which has shaved off a significant amount from gas charges, but the power bill hasn't risen nearly as much!

 

[henene4]

In don't know how US gas billing works, but in Germany at least, you get billed gas on the basis of kWhs just like electricity.
That makes billing somewhat complicated since gas composition here varies slightly throughout the year and from place to place, so the gas company has to adjust accordingly.

But from there, it's pretty simple to just make the comparison.
A gas dryer uses ever so slightly more energy for the same evaporation than electric as one of the combustion products is water vapour. That reduces how much moisture the air can take.
The effect however is miniscule, so you can just assume that a gas dryer uses about the same as an electric dryer in terms of kWh's.



Once you bring heat pumps into the game, that comparison gets more complicated as COPs and specific usage and cycle patterns suddenly play a way larger role.