Whirlpool HybridCare Dryer Review

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pulsator

pulsator

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I am an employee of Whirlpool Corporation and these are my personal opinions which do not reflect the opinion of Whirlpool Corporation.

 

After a very lucky raffle at work, I got one of these beauties delivered straight from the factory to my basement! I am absolutely in love with this machine! Being a Heat Pump dryer, there are some expected changes in how it's used and how it operates.

 

1) It does take longer than a regular vented dryer. Previously, I dried this very load of towels in my vented electric dryer on low heat and it would take about 1 hour and 30 minutes to fully dry the load. The HybridCare, in Eco Mode takes about 3 hours and 26 minutes to dry this load of towels. The load consists of 7 thick bath towels and 7 thick hand towels. It's a full load in my 4.5 cubic foot Fusion-Oasis washer. Most other loads take less than two hours on Eco Mode. I could make the dryer run faster by using Balanced Mode or Speed Mode... But I prefer the lower temperatures of Eco Mode. Even on the high heat setting, in Eco Mode, the dryer still runs cooler than the low heat setting on my vented dryer.

 

2) There are 2 filters to clean. The main filter which I clean after each load and the HybridCare filter located on the bottom front right corner. That one only needs to be cleaned every 5 loads or so. The dryer will tell me when it needs to be cleaned.

 

I put together a quick video showing the machine's operation... It is slightly louder than a regular vented dryer, but the sound level varies depending on what it's doing. There are multiple fans (at least 2, but there may be more... I'm not sure) that do different things. The main fan seems to be attached to the motor that turns the drum like a normal dryer but it also seems to move more air (possibly spinning faster?) while it's running. There is a fan on the back of the machine near the bottom, about where you'd expect a vent to be on a regular dryer. I'm not entirely sure what this one does. It turns on and off periodically throughout the cycle and blows air out of the back of the unit. I can also hear the compressor come on once the dryer has heated up. The compressor running is hard to pick up, it's pretty quiet. The main blower and the fan on the back are the most prominent sounds from the machine. Certainly not unpleasantly loud.

 

I'm thinking of getting some cheapy towels and maybe some cheapy t-shirts to do some comparisons between Eco Mode and Speed Mode. I don't want to put any of my stuff through the Speed Mode or Balanced Mode because I like drying everything on really low temps. I've never used anything above low heat on any dryer for almost as long as I can remember.

 

I'd recommend cranking up the quality of the video, you can see the console more clearly. At 0:42 you can hear the compressor (barely) and the main blower. The fan at the back is not running at this point in the cycle (though it did come on when the dryer first started running). At 1:03 the compressor has shut off and the fan at the back is running again.

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfe3FaWh-gk
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pulsator-2015032913073802727_2.jpg

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Wow, 3:26 is quite a time, even for a heatpump dryer. Our EU Whirlpool hearpump dryer barley ever takes longer than 2 1/2h, maybe 3 at the most. But knowing the approximate temperatures in a vented dryer, this thing seems to run pretty darn cold by your description. Can you name any numbers temperature wise?
 
[COLOR=#000000; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'andale mono', times]According to Reviewed.com, on the Normal cycle (medium heat) [/COLOR]"Temperatures on the Speed, Balanced, and Eco settings peaked at just 135.4°F (one hour and 9 minutes), 127.7°F (one hour and 18 minutes), and 118.8°F (one hour and 28 minutes), respectively."

 

I'm not sure about temps on the Towels cycle.
 
Malcom brings up a very good point

We may have to change our washday habits.  I usually do my laundry on weekend.  But I've already started spacing things out throughout the week.  The new dryer seems very tempting. However, I have a gas speed queen right now so it would be hard to justify going to electric dryer.

 

 
 
Different options

I would be interesting to see the drying times when you select the different modes for the same load. An average load in my Miele heat pump takes around 90 minutes.
 
How can you love a 3.26 hour long dryer? My gas speed queen would take no more than 40 minutes for a load like that out of the Filter-flo, and you also spind dried them before... well yes it was the eco cycle not the speed or balanced..but man 3 and half hours for a load of spind dried towels?
smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif

I think that if I spin dryed my towels it would take like 15 minutes in the Queen.
I don't know the consumption but how much is it supposed to save? How many watts per hour does it use in that cycle?  It would be nice to know...do they make Plug-in meters for 240 volt US plugs?
I see it does also have a water inlet? what is that for?
In any ways I think I couldn't and wouldn't want to deal with a dryer like that, I put a cross over EU heat pump time ago also, this sounds no different, forget love it....but as they say world is beautiful because is varied....good they made it to satisfy those who could love it as you do, and those who cannot vent outside,  but they just don't have to dare make it kind of "mandatory" like the washers or we might have a HUGE problem...
I'll stick to gas...and I think I'll never leave the vented.
Thank you for your honest review.

[this post was last edited: 3/29/2015-19:54]
 
New WP Heat Pump Dryer

Thanks for posting this Jamie, I can't wait to get my hands on one of these machines and take it apart.

 

I would be very interested in how much power it takes to dry the same load as your regular electric dryer. We have an electric meter hooked up at our shop so we can do comparisons of power usage, it should be easy for you to get an old electric meter for this purpose, contact me if you need help doing this.

 

Also if the dryer is in an area where you can check the starting room temperature and humidity and then compare the readings after a load is dried this would also be interesting data. Also how much ventilation does WP suggest for the area where the dryer will be installed, we see a lot of dryers installed in closets and I was wondering if this will cause any problems.

 

I think we will sell a lot of these dryers for buildings where in is impossible to vent a regular dryer and some customers will also be interested because of energy savings coupled with utility incentives.
 
Jamie, great review, neat to hear some early word on this interesting machine. Please share any further testing and first hand knowledge as time allows.

A machine like this intrigues me as I am actively working to minimize venting in my home. When it is well below zero here in MN I refuse to run the dryer (hot humid days in the Summer are the same) The loss of all the conditioned air in the home is significant. Of course I could consider an all electric dryer and just vent it indoors in the Winter, but the humidity load may be too great.

I too am curious what the kwh comparison would be compared to the standard all electric vented dryer. My hunch is that total energy consumption of a vented gas dryer is likely lower for a given cycle. But when the home environmental losses of a vented machine are considered, it may be different.
 
3.5 hrs to dry a load???THIS IS TOO LONG!Time is an important resource to me-more so than power or water.Seems like the clothes washing and dishwashing is regressing-thought the idea of these machines was to SAVE time--not WASTE it.Stick with my GE electric dryer!If heatpump dryers could be made to work faster-then I would consider it.This is just too slow to be of use.You may get your things dried faster by hanging them outside!
 
I read that this dryer uses up to 73% less energy than a conventional electric dryer. Of course, there's a fine print to that: "Compared to pre-2004 traditional dryers, when paired with a matching washer, normal cycle, electric only."

 

Anyway, considering the run time, this must be one efficient dryer. When used on the Eco setting, Miele's most efficient dryer takes 3:26 hrs to remove 21 cups of water from the load - versus the 12.5 cups that the HybridCare extracted in the same time. And the Miele is already in the second highest efficiency tier.

 

The fan at the rear of the dryer is a cooling fan, by the way. It prevents the heat pump from overheating.

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The fact that it takes over 3 hours to dry some loads and over an hour to wash them in todays machines...it would be impossible for one that is doing laundry for a family of four or more to completely do it in one day. Five hours to complete a load of clothing is absolutely ridiculous. A family that goes thru lots of laundry would have to do laundry every day just to stay on top of it.

I will gladly stay with something older that uses gas or electric to complete everything until they can come up with something that is also more time efficient!

Let them come up with something that does that and then everyone can start singing praises about the new wonders of laundry. At the rate they are going you'll have to put it in to wash at sunrise, maybe switch it to the dryer for lunch and hope that it's dry by nightfall.
 
Everytime a debate about washing and drying times comes up, I just can think about the TOL Bosch set in terms of energy use in Germany.
Washing of 8kg laundry at "140"°F (actually, you'd get closer to 90°F, if even) takes 5 hours on the spot. But it only uses 0.45kWh.
The dryer takes 184 minutes (3 hours and 4 minutes) and uses 1.12kWh for the exact same load right out of the washer..
So, pretty much 8 hours to wash and dry a load of laundry. And this is not even a heavy towels load, this is just a load of standard cottons.
What brings me to another point: Towels generally take longer to dry. So, I guess, for a usual mixed load, 2 hours are more likely. But it would be nice to get a confirmation about that by the original poster. (I'm actually quite curious about that so I can compare this to EU dryers.)
And having used a heatpumpdryer 8 hours straight today (the dryer ran from 12 till 8 with only small loading and unloading pauses), I was abled to dry 1 big pillow, one comforter, and 4 sets of bedding (pillowcase, sheet and duvet cover) splitted into 5 loads. The (really voluminous) pillow alone took 3h total, the duvet (pretty thin) about an hour and a half. So, the 3 bedding loads took about 3 1/2h to dry completly, which is about on level with our old condenser dryer.
 
Not good

this is not good for me aspecaly since laundry is on the second floor i would much rather have an electric convental dryer and the more time the dryer takes to dry a load this is not good in term of the electric bill the washer dryer in the fowllowing is much better 1 the washer is a much better cleaner than any wash plate topload model or front load model and the dryer is more energy conservative

pierreandreply4-2015040118574900945_1.jpg
 
Congratulations on your win and they are nice looking machines, but... Good Heavens!
An hour and 30 min. or 3 hours and 26 min. to dry a load of towels? My Maytag will dry anything in 40 min. or less. Do you enjoy spending that much time fiddling with laundry?
 
I'm probably one of the few people that wouldn't mind the longer running times. I usually use the low heat setting on my year old Oasis dryer, and with a full load of towels it runs around 1:20. Depending on which washer spun them out, it could be less time with the Bravos' high spin speed. I've always been concerned with the intense heat of even the low setting being too strong, and if there were a lower setting I'd use it. Most of the loads being dried are done at night, especially in the summer heat, and half the time I end up going to bed before it's done anyway. If the dryer's only option were the Eco-mode, it could be frustrating if I needed something dried quickly, but because the machine gives the choice between traditional drying or condensing drying, or a mix, I'd be the one always using the gentle eco mode. I care for my clothes a lot so lower heat is a plus to me.
 
A mixed load of clothes (3/4 full in my Oasis) generally take about an hour and 45 minutes to dry on Eco Mode in this dryer. At some point I will do some comparison testing of identical loads dried on Eco Mode vs Speed Mode. I highly doubt this dryer uses less power than a gas dryer, after all, a gas dryer only uses power to run the blower, tumble, and ignite the flame. This dryer uses less power than an electric dryer.

 

As for tumbling, I've actually noticed the opposite of what you'd expect, despite having a much finer lint screen, this dryer seems to accumulate less lint than my old top filter Whirlpool dryer.

 

As I've said previously, I use low heat for EVERYTHING. Towels will take an hour and a half to dry in a regular vented dryer for me. They come out softer that way and the lower heat is far less damaging. Aside from towel loads, this dryer doesn't take too much longer than what I'm used to with my old dryer. If I wanted it to take the same amount of time, I could, by putting it on Speed Mode. But I prefer Eco Mode and am happy to live with the longer dry times.
 
Very Cool Jamie!

That is one cool dryer!  If for anything....it is a work of art as far as dryers in the USA right now.

It would be interesting to do a full load of towels at Max everything just to see how long the drying time would be. 

I do think the big sale of this dryer is not efficiency but "non venting". 

I would love to know however how long a full load of towels would take at the "max" setting.  (Whatever that means for this dryer)

For instance I washed 14 large bath towels in my ancient HE3T this morning and dried them in my ancient HET Gas dryer.  It took 38 minutes for perfect drying. 

Savings wise I just wonder several things.  The cost of the dryer?  The amount of actual energy used to dry loads over the life of this unit.  I guess it all equals how long this dryer would have to be in service just to break even?

I would love to use it  just to figure these things out.  I would not like to pay for it however.

So on this note!  Yay Jamie!  Congrats on a nice free addition to you collection!

I do think it will go down in history.

Brent
 
Life Expectancy

I suspect that due to the mechanical complexity of this unit, the life span will be short compared to a standard dryer.

Lowered lint collection could be due to lowered air flow through the drum. Hopefully, the interior of the cabinet will remain lint free too.

Would be interested to know the weaknesses, most common points of failure, and the cost of replacement parts. Like the refrigerant module. Is it replaced as a single part and does it cost 900 bucks?

Malcolm
 
I don't think the air flow is lower. At least here, these dryers were designed to have a way more efficent and stronger air flow. But compared to vented dryers, this might be different. And lint collection within the cabinet is limited to the lint the cooling fan sucks in. To get a somewhat efficent heating up in a reasonable time on the Eco mode, the system has to be suffeciently tightly sealed. For example, the EU energy label has to state condesation rates. Most heatpump dryers score 90% or higher. This means that, from all water that's been removed from the load, 90+% are collected.
The compressor units are indeed modular and only exchangable as one piece. And they are the most expensive part. But AFAIK these are not an overly common failure. The most problematic points in the EU designs were condenser units blocked with lint and fabric softner reidue, blocked condensation pumps and broken electronics.
And they are not mechanicly extensivley more complex. Parts added are the heatpump unit and the cooling fan as well as the condensation pump.
 
Heat-Pump Dryers

It will be interesting to see how such long running times affect the life of the dryer, here in the US we have become use to dryers that commonly last 30 years or even longer. I would guess that the long running times could easily reduce the useful life in half of these dryers, which is more like what we see here with the imported dryers which don't come close to the life of good US dryers.

 

The long times and still considerable use of electricity really still make the case for a gas heated dryer, as Brent and I suggested the best use of these dryers will be for owners that do not have the option of a vented dryer and for people that do not mind very long drying cycles, most larger families will not be candidates for these dryers.

 

I do find it interesting that some of my customers also like drying their clothing at very low temperatures, someone will have to prove to me that it is better for your clothing to dry them twice as long at 120 F vs 160 F for 1/2 as long, I cannot ever recall ever ruining anything in a dryer in my life and as most people who know me can attest most of my clothing is so old and outdated fashion wise LOL, as most of it seems to last forever. One of my other big concerns about low temperature drying is you may lose the sanitizing effect on sheets, towels, underwear, socks, dish towels and on and on, this is one reason that I do not line dry clothing.
 
Low-temp drying

I guess it's less about lasting, but more about the feeling.
I feel that on towels: Our old Siemens dryed at 75°C (~170°F) on normal temp. Towels did feel kind of crisp. At 65°C (150°F, low temp on that dryer), they came out softer. In our heatpump dryer, they come out even softer.
Jeans had to be dried on low as they shrank pretty easy on the higher temperatures. And even then they shrank a bit.
Just try it yourself once: Dry a simmilar load on a high heat and a lower heat to compare them. You should feel the difference.
On sanitizing: Without opening the debate about its necessarity, 140°F (60°) are generally the border thats considered as the start of sanitisazion. So 30 minutes at 140° shouldn't make a big difference to 160°F. And especially the bacteria unfriendly enviroment of a dryer (hot, dry) should kill most of right away. And given you washed your laundry in a hot solution of detergent (which itself has a certain effect againts bacteria), I guess the really dry air in a heatpumpdryer cancels out some of the lower temp, especially with the longer drying time.
 
I think Combo52 and A440 have it right. The non-venting feature is what will draw people in. This still needs a water inlet and drain like a conventional condensing dryer, correct? I know of some condensing dryers that have a jug for the condensate that the user empties once it's full.

There are a lot of people living in old buildings in cities in the northeast. Most of them (or at least all of my friends) would be willing to pay quite a bit for a dryer that required no venting and no water hook-ups, even if it meant filling a reservoir and emptying a condensate jug by hand. Even better would be if it could run on 120v. Yes, I know that using 120 instead of 240 would greatly increase already long run times. However, the fact remains that many buildings don't have 240 available.

I'm willing to bet there'd be a lot of people who'd love to have a dryer they could literally stick wherever. People hate laundromats and I think the industry as whole greatly underestimates what people would do or spend to avoid having to go. I can see it now: A combo in the kitchen and dryer put where it fits. Do your wash in the combo, put half the clothing into the separate dryer and let both do their drying thing. Who cares how long it takes!

Jim
 

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