John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

[simtoms]

These condensers with heat pumps are a new one on me :eeek: . I don’t really want to walk away from it but soon got baffled trying to diagnose a no heat fault on sensor or timed drying. Its a John Lewis JLTDH14 with a pnc of 91609680300.
Can anyone offer any pointers please?
Thanks, Simon

[kwatt]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

I can get you a load of info on it if you want.

Heat pump dryers are probably the future so, we’d all better get used to them I guess.

I do have a prototype ISE one that I still have to plug in and see how it works but in essence, they only employ a reverse heat pump to provide heat over an element as far as I am aware, So, same basic system, different implementation.

It makes heat, dries clothes. Not a lot to be scared of IMO, just different to what we’re all used to.

Study up on aircon and you’ll be fine.

K.

[captaincaveman1]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

This dryer has no element fitted but instead use’s a refridgeration system to draw the moisture out of the clothes. On this model they have gone back to using a fan belt at the rear like they did back in the late 90’s on the likes of the TC470 so its worth checking that first.

[simtoms]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

Thanks for your responses, the belt is fine. I’m not into refrigeration systems except on electrical faults, so better pass on this one…
Regards
Simon

[madangler1]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

There not bad once you get your head around it I was trained on the Hotpoint one a few years back. Its an dehumidifier basically.

one big problem we found with the HP one is instead of a condenser there is a filter for the evaporator and condenser, this must be clean very regularly, more concerning was the amount of lint build up in the evaporator, one I saw was so badly blocked it barely worked at all, te major issue is there is no easy way to clean this, I ended up completely stripping it down, removing all the electrics out of it and hosing it down in the garden and then rebuilding it.

Was sweet as a nut after that mind.

First things to check is the compressor running ? It can take a few minutes to run when first turned on , You should only get around 50 degrees (that’s what HP state) in the flow duct to the drum.

[kwatt]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

They’re not that hard I don’t think, beyond less room to work and a new way of doing the same old thing.

Basically on most I’ve seen the compressor etc all comes as the one unit but madangler is totally correct, if people don’t maintain them and, you can apply the same to most modern dryers, then they will break. I can 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} assure you that if people don’t clean the filters often enough on most any modern dryer, they will go wrong.

Beyond the heat exchanger, which you can look at as a heating element if you like, they’re just normal dryers pretty much. Drum, timer, thermostats, motor, belt… all the same old same old really.

I wouldn’t be frightened of them if I were you. TBH, I’d look at it as experience and a way to learn about new things because I reckon that, in time, these dryers will become the new norm, much as condenser dryers did a number of years back. Back in the day, our engineers whined like hell about those as well now, it’s just the norm.

But if you’re going to be frightened of them and dodge the bullet then you may well be chopping off future income, especially so given that these machines aren’t exactly cheap so people are much, much more likely to have a repair than bin it.

K.

[Martin]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

kwatt wrote:I wouldn’t be frightened of them if I were you. TBH, I’d look at it as experience and a way to learn about new things

The average repair guy has every reason to concern themselves over this new technology. Having removed the side panel and spotting the wealth of copper pipes the first shock. The heating element has vanished and replaced by this black (or mucky grey as it will be covered in layers of dust I expect) compressor abounding in copper pipes! The hardened fridge engineer less concerned should he need to squirt a fresh supply of R134a into it I shouldn’t wonder but beyond that he too will be a little concerned over its flimsy layout.

The thing with heat pump dryers is that everything has to be in place for it to work correctly. Even down to the air seals each end of the drum. Worn seals never much of a worry with conventional dryers as they can still function OK but not so the HP dryer. They also have an electric fan (same as in washer dryers) to circulate the hot dry air into the tub whilst the compressor is pumping its heart out and being cooled by a electric fan at the back!

Talking of compressors, they aren’t too well made for fridges these days and failure rate is high. HP dryer compressors are smaller and I wouldn’t mind betting are even less reliable. So at some point engineers will be called into replacing one and being as most have no evac plant tooling nor knowledge of how to regass many will simply walk away and BER these machines.

Lack of knowledge based of lack of service information will be their biggest challenge. Trial and error the forefront of most diagnostics, recalls will abound. Seeking out the wealth of new error codes these things give out only the start of their troubles. So yes, how these HP dryers work is simple enough but fixing them is going to be a long hard slog for most. Recalls, complaining customers and throwing the wrong parts at them the norm is the coming years!

[kwatt]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

All the refrigerant units in them I’ve seen thus far are replaced as a unit, you don’t need to gas them. For most people, refrigerant will never be required.

Compressors, so long as you don’t use the cheap muck, are fine I find. Even many of the Chinese ones are not that bad, if a bit agricultural engineering wise IMO, given it’s an antique technology.

K.

[Martin]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

simtoms wrote:Can anyone offer any pointers please?

Sorry old chap but was busy prognosticating on the wonders of these rubbish HP dryers I completely missed your question. So in order to make amends give me your email address and I will send you a wealth of info in return. 😀

[iadom]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

Well Appliancesonline seem to like them,

Or perhaps not 😆

Jim.

[kwatt]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

There’s more and more of them coming onto the market.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic- … 9-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/lg-rc9042a … 8-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/beko-dpu83 … 5-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hoover-dyc … 0-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/bosch-wtw8 … 3-pdt.html

Guess we better get used to them eh? 😉

K.

[madangler1]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

The HP uses a rotary compressor so I don’t know if they are any more or less reliable than a standard one. Never changed a base or heard or any changed either but not that many of them around.

They are the future though, as has been said seals and far more important as they only provide a low heat at around 50 degrees and rely on on a completely sealed system to ensure the air is circulated with out leaks.

basic principle is air is drawn through the drum collecting moisture from the load, then it flows over the evaporator releasing that moisture when cooled to dew point , then that cooled dry air is used to cool the condenser and remove heat from the refrigerant allowing the refridgeration system to work correctly, the the warm dry air from the condenser is pushed back into the drum to start the whole process again.

If there are any air leaks anywhere in this process then the whole system fails.

[captaincaveman1]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

I’m sure I heard a few months back that legislation is being put in place so that on some future date only heat pump dryers may be sold by retailers here. Any truth in that??

[DrDill]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

The to models gave a self cleaning mode

Sent from my iPhone
http://www.kitchenkitsw.com

[simtoms]

Re: John Lewis condenser drier with heat pump

Wow chaps, I didn’t realise my innocent question was quite so loaded!!!
I’m very glad of all this info though, (even the cries of “chicken!” from Ken when I was ready to give up!) and will be going back with fresh impetus to explore the bowels of the said drier.
Hope I get out alive… 😯
Martin, I’ll take you up on your kind offer of more info thanks. Here comes a PM. Simon

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