Whirlpool Corporation Introduces New Hybrid Heat Pump Dryer Technology, HybridCare™

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Frigilux, thank you, exactly my first thought, longer cycle times equal more wear and tear. How long to dry a load of jeans or towels? Next thoughts, when will these become mandated for electric dryers, when will the speed cycle be banned, and is this partly the result of gas industry lobbying? Which will fail first- the control boards or the heat pump system? I noticed the Miele link mentioned a special cooling mode to prevent heat pump overheating. A bit of complication to a formerly simple appliance.
 
There is a big difference between a Air Cooled condenser dryer and a Heat Pump condenser dryer. The both have the same time drawbacks, but the heat pump unit has the following benefits over air cooled condenser

1) Works in all temperatures, infact the warmer the room the better the outcome.
2) Doesn't return heat to the room, heat pumps just move warmth from place to place
3) Only needs about 1-2Kw vs 4-5kw to operate.

If the machine has a heating element in addition to a heat pump, it should get up to speed quickly and still be able to condense rapidly due to the refrigeration. Someone needs to try one before everyone assumes that they're the same as a euro Heat Pump only model.

I've toyed with the idea of replacing the current Miele condenser with one, but for the 20 loads a year I actually put in the dryer, its definitely not worth it.
 
Someone needs to try one before everyone assumes that they&#

That someone won't be me, that I can promise you. *LOL*

Two thousand plus when you factor in taxes and delivery for a dryer that will take longer to get the job done *and* uses new to the USA technology? Not with a barge pole..... One condenser dryer is more than this household already required. *LOL*

So long as there is a vast and plentiful supply of used electric dryers on the resale market or otherwise it could be decades before any sort of government mandate really took hold. I mean you can find dryers from the 1950's still perfectly chugging along. Modern versions have more bells and whistles but in the end what most persons want is dry laundry done quickly.

I'll tell you something else, this Whirlpool "Hybrid" probably is going to have to be teamed up with a "HE"/fast final spin speed washing machine. Otherwise performance will suffer. Even with 900rpms final spins in a front loader condenser dryers suffer. Standard advice is to spin the load at greatest speed that won't harm the machine and or clothing, then chuck it into condenser dryer. You need to get residual moisture levels down.
 
I have an old vintage GE dryer-at this stage keep using it until it dies-then go dryer shopping at the appliance swap shop near me-Don't think I want a heat pump dryer.At 2 loads a week-the HP model will NEVER pay for itself-esp priced at 2K.
 
@laundress:

One thing to note is that heat pump dryers don't throw out any heat to the room. The traditional condenser dryers are using the room as a heat sink with an air-to-air heat exchanger. They have to dump some of the heat into the air to drop the temperature of the recirculating air cool enough to cause the moisture to condense out of it.

With a heat pump that's all done in a closed refrigeration cycle.

The result is that they do not heat the room and they do not depend on the room temperature being cool enough to condense the water either.

A traditional condenser actually works best somewhere like in a cold garage as it can rapidly lose heat. In a warm centrally heated home, they're actually very annoying or at best will heat the room they're in.
 
A properly designed and built heat pump dryer SHOULD be faster at condensing the moisture out of the air since it POTENTIALLY can have a colder condensation chamber than an air-cooled condenser. How well the actual iteration of the idea works out remains to be seen. The big advantage for the power companies would be the reduction in current used to dry the load of laundry. They are not concerned about how fast the load is dried, just if it can be dried without adding too much to the demand on the generating and transmission equipment. Reducing demand is the reason that electric water heaters are slower than gas water heaters; they only operate one heating element at a time. If an electric water heater could run full out and heat with 9KW of energy, it would be very fast, but if every house with an electric water heater had them operating at that load every morning when people were showering, we would need twice the generating capacity that we have now, but for about an hour each day and heavier transmission and service entrance equipment and then it would not be needed again until the next day.

Sometime back, an owner of a heat pump dryer said that no-iron garments had to be spun at slower speeds because the dryer did not get hot enough to remove wrinkles as well as a standard dryer. The hybrid dryer design should overcome that. [this post was last edited: 10/21/2014-18:13]
 
I've found our Bosch heat pump dryer pretty fast. The only major annoyance is that it doesn't reverse and tangles large items like fitted sheets, but that's nothing to do with the heat pump system.
 
Yea! Have fun!

Give me new or vintage Gas Dryer any day!  Or heck...I will deal with an electric over this new find any day.

It will be interesting to hear the reviews at others expense.  I am sure most will not tell the truth about the wonders of it all at first.  

B
 

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