Heat Pump dryer recommendation

[Unground]

Our 12 year old Zanussi vented dryer is making intermittent scraping noises as the drum rotates. Bearing on its way out? Anyway, I’m guessing that at some point it’s going to fail and the repair cost won’t be worth it. So I’m looking at recommendations/experiences with heat pump dryers. Normal domestic use, say 3-4 loads per week. It will be freestanding in a garage (doesn’t get that cold) so looks not important. Fancy programmes not needed though a timer would be useful to take advantage of cheaper overnight electricity.

Realistically we’re not going to spend Miele money unless it’s really really worth it, and we’re not fussed about badge-engineered premium branding or cosmetics. Something as decent as possible for reasonable money will be fine. I saw a good deal on a Haier unit the other day but was scared off by the drubbing the brand gets on here.

All views welcome!

Cheers.

[kwatt]

Have a read of this before you decide:

https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/buying-advice/tumble-dryers/3845-are-heat-pump-dryers-worth-it

K.

[Unground]

Cheers. Now decided on a vented. Not quite as easily swayed as I sound – it was touch and go on the heat pump vs. vented to start with. But I (stupidly) hadn’t appreciated the impact of the additional complexity of the heat pump. Makes sense. Cheapo vented it is then I guess. All recommendations welcome, if they aren’t all much of a muchness.

[don]

If you are going for a vented I would recommend a sensor dryer rather than a timed only option.

Don

[Unground]

Much appreciated. Reading between the lines I think you are implying that other than features all vented dryers are much of a muchness in terms of build quality or reliability. Would not surprise me given that it is the bottom end of the market. No need to reply if I understand correctly.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers.

[electrofix]

one of your problems now is a lot of the good manufacturers have stopped making vented dryers

of the bigger makes you have

hotpoint / indesit with a very weak rear bearing thats prone to failure

hoover candy which has the worst access of any dryer i know to repair if things go wrong and is now a chinese owned company

Dave

[andyjawa]

Some of the following info might be out of date. Well the vented tumble dryers ( like everything else) are not all the same quality nor the same have the same back-up. The question really is what to avoid some of which have already been mentioned but I`ll add to the list: Bush. Turkish. Cheap, do dry fairly well but u/g (under guarantee) service is poor out of u/g expensive and even poorer on parts availability; like none listed poor!. Bosch vented if still available – strange cutting out faults in my experience, service u/g much better spares available ok but not cheap e.g. if front stat fails have to buy the whole front drum support – ridiculously expensive. Curry`s Logik. Very popular. Chinese. Can be seen under many brand names. As a curry`s logik you can get the spare parts though SOME of those parts are not cheap for what they are and no pattern parts available as far as known. Since can be bought under various brand names beware of spares availability, just because you can get under a /logik brand does not mean you can get any parts under the ElectriQ brand for instance or Montpellier (that one usually gets a 2 year warranty) AND what is a downer too is there is no official X referencing either as to what is really what and so any difference in spares costs on the whims of the various importers. The facia panels differ between these differing brands but the filter behind the door does not -that is how you can tell they are the same machines! White Knight – not produced in normal washing machine sizes as UK company sold out (in so many other ways) to the Turks which makes a change as it is usually the Chinks !.
My own view is, if in your shoes, would be to get a Zanussi vented if they still do them. So long as things haven`t changed Zanussi could be vented from three positions: middle rear i.e. the back, l/h/s rear side and r/h/s rear side so might be handy to know that. Spares ok u/g ok service. OR a Beko vented: spares fine, easy to work on too and inexpensive spares too, made in Turkey or China.
Programme /timer. would always try to get an electromechanical timer rather than pcboard but because they were really useful and reliable you may have trouble getting one(!) except for Indesit but then the rear bearing is a stupid fast wearing design issue which exists BUT that may now have been changed to the condenser t/dryer set up in which the bearing would last (due to the tension in the belt being taken via a jockey pulley rather than directly but you would have to check that if at all possible).
Anything genuinely British available?…..Very doubtful and if there was would be expensive for no real gain as parts would be bought in i.e. like Whirlpool USA = made in stars and stripes flag waving USA except the electrical gubbins are imported from…., you guessed it….China.
Haier = Chinese, Hisense = Chinese, Gorenje = Chinese owned. Samsung Korean, but could be made in Poland ( that might be the washing machines only?) or China, Upper range stuff S Korean.

Can you see a certain pattern emerging here?

Welcome to the crazy world of domestic appliance retail.

[Unground]

Thanks for your help everyone. Not surprising that inefficient low-margin vented are being gradually phased out. This is trickier than I thought it would be actually given that our usage probably doesn’t really suit a condenser or heat pump dryer. Our existing Zanussi vented has been fine. There seems to be the odd old Zanussi unit knocking about but otherwise Zanussi vented are no longer in production as far as I can see. Beko units seem to get crappy reviews.

At this rate I might see if we can get our existing Zanussi serviced to keep it going another 10 years. Unless something major is about to give, it’s been faultless. Feel free to recommend any repairers in the Coventry area – I’m always happy to give money to a good independent who cares about what they do.

[andyjawa]

Not surprising that inefficient low-margin vented are being gradually phased out. I completely disagree with you they are wonderful machines vented tumble dryers but heavy on the power but then at least they dry the clothes in a reasonable time! The trade has lost what few marbles it ever had but heat pumps are all the rage: the consumer ius alkways right…except when they`re not. Since you say you 3-4 times a week a new vented one should have more or less the same running cost as your vented Zanussi
Normal condenser and trendy heat pump condenser usually suffer from blockages but there are loads of other screw-ups that can and do occur and some of those can cost mega bucks to put right out of warranty. Heat pump dryers, overall, are now better than they were but that does not say much – you are basically buying a computer operated contraption with cheap proccessor components in a hot enviroment so what could possiibly go wrong? Which works on the reverse of a fridge that is expensive to buy, but cheaper to run, but takes longer to “dry” that is until it goes wrong…..which it will and out of warranty. Trendy junk in my opinion. Used to be bought by unthinking trendy green conscious brigade in Henley whilst owning an Audi SUV gas guzzling tank or rather make that 2 …yeah, I know they could not make the connection between the two differing concepts, typical of Henley, Gerrards Cross and Chalfont St Peter!.
Disregard all reviews or if you want to be selective to suit an agenda Beko vented models DTGV7000 or the 8kg 8000 got 8.2 out of 10 reviews and the Zenith ZDVS700W which is the same as the DTGV7000 got slightly higher based on a fewer number of reviews because they have far less sales. So where did you read the bad reviews please? Hardly anyone sells vented anymore and I`ve been through most of the common retailers but that does not mean they are tat it just means old hat in a new improved modern Britain (sarcasm should be noted there)
“Our 12 year old Zanussi vented dryer is making intermittent scraping noises as the drum rotates. Bearing on its way out?” Possible rear phosphor bronze plain bearing is at fault but not common on these more likely to be the front drum *cloth/ spongy/felt support and plastic bearing (depending upon your model and product code) belt will be on last legs check for splits / fraying = they are cheap especially the pattern version usually same make as genuine but at 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} lower in price. Jockey pulley belt tensioner knack`ed = inexpensive, motor bearings possible = scrap machine based on cost unless you have a bearing puller. Something trapped at the front due to worn out felt*- pretty common failure point and it is usually a coin or zip toggle. Split plastic fan – not unknown.There ain`t that much to `em is there? Why not have a look yourself OR you could at least look up the model number and product code number and go to Zanussi UK spares site that will give you the proper part numbers and line drawings to locate parts and the price of the parts; it t`aint difficult so long as you know what you want and turn the power off whilst fettling around.
I myself do not know of any repair bods in the Coventry area.

[Unground]

andyjawa wrote: I completely disagree with you they are wonderful machines vented tumble dryers but heavy on the power but then at least they dry the clothes in a reasonable time!

Yes sorry that’s what I meant. I’m assuming that manufacturers and retailers don’t make much money from selling vented dryers now as a) they are not shiny and new technology so can’t attract a price premium and b) there is no way to engineer out more cost to increase margin that way. And they’re stuck with a C-rating for energy usage, which looks bad next to A+++ ratings or whatever. And all that means manufacturers and retailers prefer fancier looking machines that they can sell at higher prices and margins.

I’m very happy with a cheap and cheerful dryer. We don’t even need any programmes – the simple timer on our Zanussi works fine. And we run it off the solar anyway so reduced energy consumption, whilst always a good thing, doesn’t make a massive difference to us (other than in winter).

Thanks for all the advice about possible faults. Quite a few there. I am definitely not the right person to fiddle inside the machine. I’m sure I could, but would much prefer to pay a good tradesperson.

Thanks all for the help – really useful.

[Author]

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