Heat Pump or not Heat Pump (Dryer)

spackbace on 01/05/2025 - 16:07
Last edited 01/05/2025 - 16:50 by 1 other user

So my old dryer needs upgrading coming into Winter coz it's just a basic one with no sensor etc, but I'm torn between buying a decent sensor dryer, or a heat pump, mainly due to some of the negatives I've read on here about the heat pump dryers.

So, looking for advice and feedback from those who have made the switch to heat pump, how do you find them? In particular, I've heard of them taking far longer and not fully drying. Yes, I know they save on electricity, but I don't want something that takes 3+ hours to dry.

Thanks!

Electrical & Electronics Clothes Dryer Heat Pump Dryer

Comments

  • joshash on 02/05/2025 - 14:57
    +1

    I use fusion energy from a star called "The Sun".

    • Switchblade88 on 05/05/2025 - 18:44

      50% duty cycle is about the only issue

  • MXsoul on 02/05/2025 - 15:00

    Heat pump is good, takes bit longer comapred to traditional but uses less kw/h.

    Usung Essato heat pump dryer and pretty happy with it.

  • Nebargains on 02/05/2025 - 15:34

    I have a Bosch heat pump one and no complaints, mind you I have never used another dryer. We mainly use it for towels, bed sheets, socks jocks and some clothing that we know won't shrink. Otherwise most other stuff gets hung up outside if possible or inside if it is raining.

  • India pale ale on 02/05/2025 - 15:39

    I have been using Bosch Heat pump dryer for about 5 years now
    The electricity usage is very low and no surprises on the bill

    Heat pump is the way to go

  • Parentheses on 02/05/2025 - 15:48

    Honestly it depends on what the context of the dryer is. I currently have a combo wash/dry in a city apartment where it's attached to a bathroom, and it is the only thing I will ever use again in that context. No dripping wet walls or lint being blown over everything. It dries things as much as you want them dried - whether that's desert skeleton dry or just off damp, just run it longer. I usually never dry things to the point of being super dry though, because that's how you get wrinkles, and gtfo with ironing. Very slightly damp and hung in a wardrobe to finish drying = no need to iron anything.

    If you have a big family and need to dry a lot, and if if you can direct exhaust the dryer rather than dump super humid hot air into the room (aka you own your own place and can cut holes in the laundry), then the old style is probably better.

  • MrMarket on 02/05/2025 - 16:37
    +1

    didnt know there is such technology, my dryer still going after 20 years, will definitely get a heat pump when she does go

  • drillvoice on 02/05/2025 - 23:12
    +1

    I love a good heat pump

  • kobeduck on 03/05/2025 - 11:00

    I have an Essatto equivalent heat pump dryer from one of these ALDI Ozbargain deals. It has lasted a long time but I'm looking after it well (removing lint regularly, clearing the vent - very low effort). It's not just "drying quickly" it's making sure it doesn't damage your clothes. You watch anything dry it will seem like a long time.

  • CocaKoala on 03/05/2025 - 11:25
    +1

    Our heat pump dryer is wonderful. It does not shrink the clothes like the traditional dryer used to do. I do not understand the complaints about it taking long to dry because it's irrelevant to me. I am not wanting those clothes dried and ready immediately because you know, I've other clothes I could wear. It also uses comparatively much less energy, so that's really nice as well! It's been a blessing especially in those cold/rainy winter months.

  • Hangryuman on 03/05/2025 - 12:00

    do heat pump dryers need emptying water or a drain installed ? That would be an extra work factor.

    • CocaKoala on 03/05/2025 - 17:49

      It has a reservoir you could empty once in a while or just connect the drain pipe that can be connected to the laundry sink (if you do this then there's no more work).

      Laundry sinks normally have one drain on either side. At my place both are used; one by the washer and another by the dryer.

    • OzzyOzbourne on 04/05/2025 - 00:50

      Mine has a smaller drain pipe than the standard washer pipe so they both wedge in together into the sink hole

  • wozz on 03/05/2025 - 12:18

    If i lived by myself or just my partner heat pump is fine.. but completely pointless with 3 kids. We have solar and a battery so running dryer during the day is no issue anyway..

    Can dry thin things but no thick towels, jumpers etc and not big loads

    • serpserpserp on 03/05/2025 - 15:20

      Yes it can dry those things fine. I have kids and my heat pump does a great job. But it might take awhile.

      I find best combo is small loads and using the clothesline. In the middle of winter you just need to be more organized.

    • CocaKoala on 03/05/2025 - 17:54

      Can dry thin things but no thick towels, jumpers etc and not big loads

      Mine just dries towels and all, no problem.

    • inasero on 08/05/2025 - 13:20

      Towels will take longer as they retain more moisture. Have you tried spin drying on the highest setting before putting them in to the dryer?

  • Dyl on 03/05/2025 - 17:33

    If you’re using it to completely replace line drying probably heat pump, far more power efficient and Australia has the weather most of the year around that there’s plenty of heat in the air. You’ll save thousands on power over time.

    If you need it specifically for when it’s too cold / overcast to line dry a heat pump may struggle a bit on those days, unless it’s inside and the heater is on too. They’re only a few hundred watts, so can struggle a little in really cold conditions.

    Would love to see combo dryers, a heating element is so cheap it makes no sense they don’t exist. On the cold days you could just hit a boost option and use extra power

  • EtherZa on 03/05/2025 - 17:37

    I bought an LG DVH5-08W about a year ago. A typical load takes 70 min to dry. Towels and bedding take a little longer. Cheap to run and relatively quiet. Haven't looked back.

    https://www.lg.com/au/washer-dryers/dryers/dvh5-08w/ LG has it at $1299 down from $1699 , but looks like a few other places have a better price today

  • bonezAU on 03/05/2025 - 18:48

    Yes they do take a bit longer but they use waaaaaaaaaaay less power. I've had two, both ordered through Appliances Online. The first one packed it up after about 12 months but it was replaced under warranty, they couldn't supply the same model as it was EOL but they gave us a Haier model instead that was actually a little bit more expensive. It's brilliant, it doesn't seem to use more than 1kW at a time.

    You get used to it taking a bit longer but you really will notice the reduction in power usage. If it's for your olds then I assume there's only two of them, we have 5 people in this house and the length of time a cycle takes is by no means an inconvenience.

    • tenpercent on 03/05/2025 - 19:11

      How long is a full load?

      • bonezAU on 04/05/2025 - 13:09

        I don't really know to be honest. It varies depending on how much you put in. When I turn it on, it just says auto. Towards the end of the cycle, it will display how many minutes it has left, but it really only shows this when there's 40 or less minutes left.

        It's connected to my Google Home and if I ask it how long is left on the dryer it seems to give me a pretty accurate figure, even though the dryer itself just displays "Auto".

        A couple of hours if it's a full load of clothes, maybe 3 and a bit hours if it's chocka block full of towels. Much less if you don't do a full load.

  • MikeySteele on 04/05/2025 - 16:50

    I have a Samsung one and I have never had any problems with it not drying things properly.

  • AEKaBeer on 04/05/2025 - 17:36
    +1

    Freebie off the side of the road, for the best bang for buck ever.

  • buckethat on 04/05/2025 - 20:42

    Have had LG Washtower for about.. 7 months now, so I haven't gone through winter with it just yet, but its been 10/10 in terms of efficiency. It uses very little electricity. A whole month of laundry costs me about the same as using the coin laundry one time.

    Not sure about comments that clothes dont dry properly.. I haven't had that experience. It definitely does take a little long though, not sure how this compares to traditional dryers.

  • xfiledavid on 04/05/2025 - 21:03

    using a Hisense Heat pump dryer now for about a year, rarely use the line to dry now, only issue is clothes shrinking.

  • TEER3X on 04/05/2025 - 21:18
    +1

    If your heat pump dryer isn't working as good as it was when you bought it, you may have a completely clogged condenser.

    I cleaned mine and it runs good as new. Only things that doesn't dry properly is (thick) bamboo work socks.

    • inasero on 05/05/2025 - 13:02

      How do you clean it without bending the fins? Is there some special tool?

      • TEER3X on 08/05/2025 - 12:22
        +1

        you can buy the tool, "heat pump condenser fin tool"

        or use a toothbrush or something, but only use up and down motion not sideways

  • NatoTomato on 05/05/2025 - 10:00

    I have a… bosch one? It's awesome. No humidity.

    I haven't even got mine plumbed, so I have to empty out the container thing and still prefer that to the humid mess you get with traditional dryers.

    So the clothes not drying properly, that's actually just a humidity thing. Because there's a lot of moisture in the dryer its self, the clothes feel moist when you pull them out, but it's just due to the humid air and when you pull them out they dry almost instantly.

  • MrKnowItAll on 05/05/2025 - 13:39

    We have an Electrolux heat pump dryer. I noticed a drop in power usage when we switched to it from a standard vented dryer.

    There's a few benefits, mostly the reduction in power costs, quiet running and not turning the laundry into a sauna.
    Downsides are the usual in that they're harder to clean, need more maintenance and take FOREVER to dry. If you do a load of towels (6 towels) in our machine (even after a deep clean) it takes a good 5-6 hours which is basically a whole day. I now run towels overnight - not a big deal given how efficient they are.

    I should add that at one point the seal got caught and pulled into the machine and partially destroyed - the little missing section vented humid air into the room, which wasn't ideal, but drying time was cut significantly. Makes me wonder if there's a way to have an automatic vent that monitors room humidity and vents as much as it can.

    Lastly, I modified the dryer with a temp / humidity sensor and an ESP32 to log dryer cycles in Home Assistant - super cool to see how the different cycles run. Like the 'energy saver' mode - which when looking at the data, is no different to the cotton cycle!

    • Crimzic on 05/05/2025 - 16:49

      My experience with an Electrolux heat pump dryer bought around 2 years ago is about 2 - 2.5 hours per load, and about 1 - 1.5 kWh of power consumed (3 times less than a vented we had before that). The laundry becomes a little humid though, maybe something is wrong with my unit :-)

  • wayfastwhitie on 05/05/2025 - 16:08

    I have just gone this route - must say not a fan of the heat pump. 6kgs of washing on for 3.5 hours and still not dry. It could be user error

    • UltimateAI on 05/05/2025 - 22:18

      Nope quite common

  • bennib0i on 05/05/2025 - 18:57

    Hi all,

    I just purchased an Esatto 8kg Heat Pump Dryer from Appliance Online and got it delivered last week for $550 bux. I've got no room in my apartment hallway laundry to stack it on top of my washer and want to place it in my kitchen next to the bench top just on the ground.

    The problem is it is a bit far from any plumbing. Does anyone know if I can just run the Esatto Heat Pump Dryer without connecting the drainage overflow pipe?

    Can I just plug in the power plug and empty the reservoir instead?

    Thanks!

    • YadaYadaYada on 05/05/2025 - 20:55

      You can just empty the reservoir out manually after each run. But double check the manual in case they've changed the design.

      • bennib0i on 05/05/2025 - 21:53

        Thanks.

        I purchased the current model Esatto EHPD800-W. This is the manual: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60b4343adf3b1702ea342…

        Page 7 shows how to install the drain hose, but it doesn't say it ifs 100% required or optional? This is the first Heat pump dryer I've purchased so I don't actually know if the drain hose is 100% needed or not.

        • knasty on 06/05/2025 - 08:08
          +1

          You don't need a drain. Just empty the water container every time.

          • inasero on 07/05/2025 - 10:39

            @knasty: You don't need it, but it makes life a lot easier not having to empty out the container every tim, and is easy to drain in to your sink

  • UltimateAI on 05/05/2025 - 22:18

    When needed, I just use a normal dryer on delicate\iron dry (even in winter there is normally enough solar to cover it).
    Interested if anyone has done the math;
    - Cost running normal (assume shorter cycle) vs Cost running delicate (assume longer cycle). Never really noticed a spike in the power bill, say vs running the A/C, now that I notice.

    • [Deactivated] on 06/05/2025 - 15:50

      My back of envelope calculations came to saving around $100 per year with a heat pump dryer, using it twice a week. After 4 years the additional upfront cost is outweighed by electricity savings.

      You would need to give figures to calculate your bespoke scenario. Plug in a power meter and work out exactly how much electricity 1 load uses.

  • ScribbleSass on 06/05/2025 - 13:02
    +1

    Very happy with this dryer: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/876367

    It's been more than 4 years and working great.

  • Chandler on 06/05/2025 - 13:14
    +3

    In my my opinion, for my use case, the electricity saving doesn't justify the capital expenditure.

    My use case:

    • Coming from a 5kg Vented Dryer
    • 1-2 loads per week (towels), with some ad hoc usage when needed
    • Wall mounted
    • Concern regarding the complexity of the heat pumps (essentially an AC unit) making them more difficult/expensive to repair, more components to go faulty, etc.

    If you're comparing apples to apples with respect to size (kg), you're looking at (vented vs heat pump):

    • 50% the price for the unit, so a saving of >$300.
    • 200% the electricity usage, at a cost of ~$40 per year (for my use case)

    To recoup that increased capital, you would need ~7 years. I reckon you'd be seeing maintenance costs on the heat pump unit within that timeframe. My vented dryer lived for >15 years with zero maintenance.

    Below is a link to a spreadsheet I made comparing various units. Feel free to have a look and pilfer as desired :)

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jHWatal1krUPijm6Jlxv…

    • [Deactivated] on 06/05/2025 - 16:11
      +1

      That seems similar to the figures I calculated. It doesn't make sense for 1-2 loads per week, but anything more than that it is worthwhile.

      For anyone in an apartment or with a laundry room that doesn't have a window there are additional benefits from less noise, less dust, no moisture and heat inside. Even if it was a 7 year period to break even I would pick the heat pump dryer in that case.

      • Chandler on 07/05/2025 - 15:21

        Yeah that's why I mentioned "use case" so much - vented made sense for me, may not for anyone else.

        Agreed regarding heat & moisture. Mine is in a laundry with an external door, so no issue. But if the door's closed it does get quite warm and humid in there!

  • inasero on 07/05/2025 - 10:41

    Very happy with my Esatto.
    Just remember to clean out the lint trap after every load and the lint buildup on the condenser fins periodically

  • spackbace on 09/05/2025 - 11:41
    +3

    Well thanks all for the help! I have been reading the comments as they come in and the discussion has been really useful

    Took delivery of a new F&P heat pump dryer this morning, just gotta set it all up tonight after work. We also decided to splash out and replace the washing machine so we could stack the 2 as well. Hopefully all good!

    • Make it so on 13/05/2025 - 17:18
      +1

      We have a F&P washer. Great machine but the seal is prone to tearing at the bottom. Known issue - first replacement is free. Be gentle when you take laundry out not to drag it across the seal.

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