Choosing a dryer for your home. TOP 5 dryers 

We will deter­mine the pros and cons of the dry­er, get acquaint­ed with the types and main char­ac­ter­is­tics that you need to pay atten­tion to when choos­ing. Also, the TOP 5 dry­ers of 2019 will be pre­sent­ed to your atten­tion.

Choosing a dryer for your home

Today, when buy­ing a dry­er, there is a good selec­tion of devices. First of all, you can choose between a dry­ing cab­i­net and a tum­ble dry­er.

Our rat­ing, to a greater extent, is devot­ed to dry­ers with a drum, due to their com­pact­ness and con­ve­nience in urban envi­ron­ments.

• In a more bud­get dry­ing cab­i­net large items are hung, and small items are stacked. For exam­ple, you can hang your coat with­out wrin­kling it. In addi­tion to dry­ing, things in such a clos­et can sim­ply be ven­ti­lat­ed from unpleas­ant odors or refreshed before prepar­ing for the new sea­son. The cab­i­net is con­nect­ed to the ven­ti­la­tion pipe, and the fan dri­ves out the mois­ture evap­o­rat­ing dur­ing dry­ing.
• Tum­ble dry­er: in this case, it is pos­si­ble to buy a reli­able dry­er from a well-known man­u­fac­tur­er. The prin­ci­ple of oper­a­tion of the drum dry­er is that things are loaded into the drum through the hatch. Hot air pass­es through numer­ous holes in the drum — and dries things. Depend­ing on the dimen­sions of the drum, such a dry­er can dry from 5 to 10 kg of laun­dry at a time.

The auto­mat­ic drum dry­er is divid­ed into two types: “ven­ti­la­tion” and “con­den­sa­tion”.

• Ven­ti­la­tion dry­ers work like this: moist air goes into the ven­ti­la­tion shaft or pipe. A heat pump is run­ning inside the device. In this case, it is nec­es­sary to install a pipe for the removal of moist air.
• Dry­ers of con­dens­ing type: water goes into the con­den­sate tank, after which the own­er of the machine pours out the water. For some mod­els, waste water is sent direct­ly to the sew­er. This type of dry­er is more prac­ti­cal, more expen­sive than ven­ti­la­tion dry­ers, how­ev­er, its instal­la­tion site should not be tied to a ven­ti­la­tion shaft or an air out­let pipe.
• Heat pump con­denser dry­ers: have a cool­ing cir­cuit that pro­motes rapid con­den­sa­tion and dries faster than the above types of clothes dry­ers. The air con­denser-heat exchang­er is also called a “recu­per­a­tor”. The heat released dur­ing the con­den­sa­tion of mois­ture is used to heat the air, which dries the laun­dry. This con­tin­u­ous cycle is the most effi­cient and these dry­ers are con­sid­ered the fastest. Also, a dry­er with a heat pump dif­fers from a dry­er with a heat­ing ele­ment in that it almost does not heat the air. It’s con­ve­nient in sum­mer.

As an alter­na­tive to the above types, a wash­ing machine hav­ing a laun­dry dry­ing func­tion can be con­sid­ered; how­ev­er, it costs 2–3 times more than a tum­ble dry­er. In addi­tion, tum­ble dry­ers usu­al­ly have fil­ters that col­lect lint and hair, while wash­ing machines keep every­thing in the drum.

Dryer pros and cons

Pros:

• dry­ing clothes in any weath­er;
• effec­tive dry­ing of any linen, includ­ing out­er­wear and blan­kets;
• speed of work;
• very sig­nif­i­cant time sav­ings;
• option­al iron­ing (when using the func­tions “easy iron”, “anti-crease”, “anti-crease”);
• treat­ment of chil­dren’s clothes and linen with hot air (in some mod­els — steam treat­ment);
• a large num­ber of modes (for dif­fer­ent types of fab­rics);
• elim­i­na­tion of unpleas­ant odors;
• col­lec­tion of vil­li and hair fil­ters;
• no need to install an air vent (for a con­denser dry­er);
• it is pos­si­ble to install direct­ly on top of the wash­ing machine / hang on brack­ets (space sav­ing).

Minuses:

• addi­tion­al costs (for the pur­chase of a dry­er);
• it is nec­es­sary to con­nect to the hood, air out­let (ven­ti­la­tion dry­er);
• it is nec­es­sary to con­nect to the sew­er or pour out con­den­sate (in the case of a tum­ble dry­er);
• high noise lev­el;
• heats the air (if there is no recu­per­a­tor / com­pres­sor);
• takes up a lot of space in the apart­ment / house.

Useful tips when choosing a dryer, what you should pay attention to first

• The dry­ing cab­i­net is very large, but often cheap­er than a dry­er with a drum.
• When buy­ing a tum­ble dry­er, look for a mod­el with pad­dles designed to even­ly dis­trib­ute the laun­dry.
• Please note that a con­dens­ing machine with a con­den­sate tank (that is, with­out a direct drain) can be installed any­where, with­out being tied to an exhaust hood and sew­er­age.
• If you like the idea of ​​stack­ing your dry­er on top of your wash­er (to save space), then care­ful­ly mea­sure the dimen­sions of your wash­er, and be sure to take into account the depth of the cab­i­net and the prin­ci­ple of waste water drainage. In this case, the load­ing of linen in both machines should be frontal.
• Capac­i­ty is an impor­tant fac­tor when choos­ing a unit, so you have two options:

• • become attached to the capac­i­ty of your “wash­er”;
  • Dry laun­dry from 2 cycles of the wash­ing machine imme­di­ate­ly in one cycle of the dry­er.

• The oper­at­ing time of the machine must be indi­cat­ed in the instruc­tions for the device. Please note that:

• • the full cycle of the dry­er, on aver­age, is 1.5–2 hours;
  • In quick dry mode, the tum­ble dry­er runs for 40 min­utes as a rule.

• The resid­ual mois­ture con­tent of the laun­dry is a tech­ni­cal para­me­ter that the dry­er has. In some mod­els, the resid­ual humid­i­ty can be adjust­ed using a timer. This fea­ture is impor­tant when you are wear­ing fab­rics that can­not be dried out and need to be ironed when slight­ly damp.
• The qual­i­ty of the main com­po­nents (motor, drum, heat pump, sun­roof) and mate­ri­als mat­ter. Signs of a qual­i­ty dry­er: a reversible motor, the pres­ence of a heat pump, with a con­den­sa­tion type of dry­ing; the pres­ence of fil­ters of the heat exchang­er (dust col­lec­tor) and con­den­sate; gal­va­nized drum, enam­elled body, infor­ma­tive dis­play.
• The func­tion­al­i­ty of the dry­er is usu­al­ly deter­mined by the afore­men­tioned resid­ual mois­ture, as well as the speed of move­ment of hot air inside. For the con­ve­nience of the user, the pro­grams are linked to the types of fab­rics: wool, cot­ton, del­i­cate fab­rics, etc. In this case, the man­u­fac­tur­er has already entered the nec­es­sary dry­ing para­me­ters into the auto­mat­ic pro­gram. Quick dry­ing, air­ing and steam­ing are addi­tion­al pro­grams that will be use­ful in any home.
• In order to deter­mine the cost of the dry­er, we offer you a brief sum­ma­ry:

• • from 100 to 150$: mod­est dry­ing units for 5–6 kg, exhaust type, with 1–2 pro­grams, includ­ing out­dat­ed mod­els;
  • from 150 to 200$: dry­ers with a large capac­i­ty; decent dimen­sions (about 85 × 60 × 60 cm); enough pro­grams. In such machines, you can set the dry­ing time, but the resid­ual mois­ture con­tent of the laun­dry can­not be set;
  • from 200 to 250$: such auto­mat­ic dry­ers are elec­tron­i­cal­ly con­trolled, capa­ble of dry­ing from 7 kg at the same time, have more than 10 pro­grams, a delayed start timer, child pro­tec­tion, a laun­dry ven­ti­la­tion mode; the abil­i­ty to set the dry­ing time and resid­ual mois­ture;
  • over 250–300 $: dry­ers with an enam­elled body, a high-qual­i­ty drum, a manda­to­ry quick-dry­ing pro­gram, often blades from knock­ing clothes into a ball, a delayed dry­ing timer; but con­sume more elec­tric­i­ty than bud­get mod­els.

• The ener­gy class of your future dry­er will depend on its capac­i­ty. Typ­i­cal­ly, mul­ti­func­tion­al mod­els have a large ener­gy con­sump­tion — class B (about 4 kW of elec­tric­i­ty per hour.), C, D). For those who want to go eco­nom­i­cal, there are many less pow­er­ful and sim­pler tum­ble dry­ers with A, A+ or A++ ener­gy rat­ings; and it is these mod­els that are present in our rat­ing.
• The noise lev­el of the dry­er should not exceed 65 dB. Machines with pad­dles to pre­vent churn­ing of laun­dry are nois­i­er than oth­ers.
• When choos­ing a con­den­sate dry­er with a con­den­sate con­tain­er, please note that the con­tain­er must be eas­i­ly removed from the body and insert­ed back, and also have a mark (full indi­ca­tor). Also be sure to check for a filter/dust catch­er.
• A delay start timer, like a wash­ing machine, will help you save time.
• Today, well-known man­u­fac­tur­ers of house­hold appli­ances offer dry­ers con­nect­ed to the Smart Home sys­tem. In this case, the device is con­trolled from a dis­tance, from your smart­phone. If you are inter­est­ed, this is pos­si­ble.

TOP 5 dryers 

5th place: Hotpoint-Ariston FTCF 87B 6H 

The most inex­pen­sive dry­er in our rank­ing. Ini­tial­ly, you should pay atten­tion to the fact that the man­u­fac­tur­er offers to hang this over­all device on brack­ets (includ­ed) above the wash­ing machine. This will help save space.

The con­den­sate is col­lect­ed in a tank, so the machine does not need to be con­nect­ed to the ven­ti­la­tion. There is a pos­si­bil­i­ty of a con­clu­sion of mois­ture in the sew­er­age.

A large num­ber of pro­grams also pro­vide for a dif­fer­ent dura­tion of the work­ing cycle: for exam­ple, it will take 1.5 hours for cot­ton and 30 min­utes for syn­thet­ics. Most of the clothes do not need to be ironed.

The dust fil­ter should be cleaned reg­u­lar­ly, after 1–2 dry­ing cycles.

Characteristics:

• Dry­ing type: con­den­sa­tion;
• Max­i­mum load­ing: 8 kg;
• Num­ber of dry­ing pro­grams: 16 pcs;
• Ener­gy class: B;
• Depth: 61 cm;
• Door: round with glass;
• Dis­play: yes;
• Func­tion­al­i­ty: con­trol of humid­i­ty of linen, the timer of a delay of start, fast dry­ing;
• refresh­ing cycle, child proof;
• Man­age­ment: rotary knob, but­tons;
• Dimen­sions (HxWxD): 85×60×61 cm.

Advantages:

• low price;
• many pro­grams;
• there is a quick dry­ing;
• capa­cious drum;
• con­ve­nient dimen­sions;
• there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty of hang­ing on brack­ets.

Flaws:

• suf­fi­cient­ly high ener­gy con­sump­tion (class B);
• weak mesh dust col­lec­tor.

4th place: Samsung DV90K6000CW

This dry­er attracts with a large capac­i­ty — 9 kg of washed laun­dry. The reversible motor is also one of the advan­tages of this mod­el. In addi­tion, the machine uses Heat­pump tech­nol­o­gy (heat pump), using refrig­er­ant with­out heat­ing up and sav­ing ener­gy. The anti-crease func­tion makes iron­ing eas­i­er, while the quick dry func­tion and timer will be use­ful for those who save time.

The mod­el does not cause much trou­ble: a dig­i­tal dis­play with the name of pro­grams in Euro­pean, an indi­ca­tor of the full­ness of the con­den­sate tank, a child lock are at your dis­pos­al.

Characteristics:

• Dry­ing type: con­dens­ing (with heat pump);
• Max­i­mum load­ing: 9 kg;
• Num­ber of dry­ing pro­grams: 14 pcs;
• Ener­gy class: A;
• Depth: 60 cm;
• Door: round with glass;
• Dis­play: yes;
• Func­tion­al­i­ty: anti-crease, laun­dry mois­ture con­trol, delay start timer, quick dry­ing, child pro­tec­tion, drum light, con­den­sate tank full indi­ca­tor;
• Man­age­ment: rotary knob, sen­sors;
• Dimen­sions (HxWxD): 85×60×60 cm;
• Noise lev­el: 65 dB.

Advantages:

• opti­mal cost;
• capac­i­ty;
• reversible motor;
• dry­er with heat pump;
• the pres­ence of illu­mi­na­tion;
• low pow­er con­sump­tion;
• a large num­ber of pro­grams;
• there is anti-crease;
• there is a timer;
• infor­ma­tive dis­play;
• there is a con­den­sa­tion indi­ca­tor;
• high lev­el of pro­tec­tion;
• does not heat the air in the room;
• qui­et work.

Flaws:

• bad instruc­tion;
• the need to con­stant­ly clean the heat exchang­er fil­ter;
• black things turn white (whitish stripes after dry­ing);
• strong squeak when switch­ing modes.

3rd place: Candy CS4 H7A1DE

Dry­ing machine of con­dens­ing type, with recu­per­a­tor — heat pump. The main advan­tages of the mod­el are a large load (7 kg), laun­dry humid­i­ty con­trol using sen­sors and high ener­gy effi­cien­cy (class A +). The reverse rota­tion of the drum pre­vents clothes from creas­ing and squeez­ing them into a ball. This machine is the spe­cial­ist for del­i­cate gar­ments, no mat­ter how big the load. The Can­dy CS4 H7A1DE dry­er has 14 pro­grams that take into account all pos­si­ble types of laun­dry. The mode and tem­per­a­ture are shown on the dis­play. Among the pro­grams, there is a refresh­ing cycle, which is offered by the man­u­fac­tur­er to remove unpleas­ant odors from clothes.

The con­den­sate tank must be emp­tied accord­ing to the appro­pri­ate indi­ca­tion. At the same time, thanks to the fil­ter, well-puri­fied dis­tilled water enters the water tank, which can be used for house­hold needs. The man­u­fac­tur­er empha­sizes that the hatch for load­ing laun­dry is locat­ed 3.5 cm high­er than that of oth­er machines, and this plays a role in ease of use. The start of work can be delayed by 23 hours. The mod­el inter­faces with the Smart Home sys­tem, sup­port­ing con­trol from a smart­phone via NFC.

Characteristics:

• Dry­ing type: con­dens­ing (plus a heat pump);
• Max­i­mum load­ing: 7 kg;
• Num­ber of dry­ing pro­grams: 15 pcs;
• Ener­gy class: A+;
• Depth: 47 cm;
• Door: round with glass;
• Dis­play: yes;
• Func­tion­al­i­ty: anti-crease, laun­dry mois­ture con­trol, delay start timer (24 hours), quick dry­ing, refresh cycle, con­den­sate tank full indi­ca­tor, child pro­tec­tion, own pro­gram;
• Man­age­ment: rotary knob, but­tons;
• Dimen­sions (HxWxD): 85×60×47 cm;
• Noise lev­el: 67 dB;
• Drum vol­ume: 115 l;
• Con­den­sate tank vol­ume: 5 l.

Advantages:

• opti­mal cost;
• 15 pro­grams;
• reversible drum;
• there is an anti-crease func­tion;
• con­den­sa­tion indi­ca­tor;
• ener­gy effi­cien­cy;
• the pres­ence of a delay start timer;
• nar­row;
• does not heat the air in the room;
• con­ve­nient man­age­ment;
• con­ve­nient dimen­sions;
• smart touch;
• smart­phone con­trol via NFC.

Flaws:

• not very roomy;
• woolen clothes shrink when dried.

2nd place: Bosch WTH 83000

An inter­est­ing and high-qual­i­ty mod­el of an auto­mat­ic dry­er. The Bosch WTH 83000 dry­er has a gal­va­nized drum, the holes in which cre­ate streams of hot air that gen­tly treat any fab­ric. Anti-crease also con­tributes to the del­i­cate atti­tude of the machine to your linen. When choos­ing this device, you will have 15 pro­grams at your dis­pos­al, for each the man­u­fac­tur­er gives rec­om­men­da­tions in the instruc­tions. The pro­grams include “wool”, “mixed linen”, “clothes for sports”. The con­den­sate can be drained both into a con­tain­er and direct­ly into the sew­er, as it will be con­ve­nient for the own­er of the car. Dur­ing oper­a­tion, this dry­er almost does not vibrate, as the body has AntiVi­bra­tion Design anti-vibra­tion strips. The noise lev­el is a max­i­mum of 65 dB.

Characteristics:

• Dry­ing type: con­den­sa­tion;
• Max­i­mum load­ing: 8 kg;
• Num­ber of dry­ing pro­grams: 15 pcs;
• Ener­gy class: A+;
• Depth: 64 cm;
• Door: round;
• Dis­play: yes;
• The vol­ume of the con­den­sate tank is 4.8 l;
• Func­tion­al­i­ty: anti-crease; laun­dry humid­i­ty con­trol, delay start timer (24 hours), quick dry­ing, child pro­tec­tion, con­den­sate tank full indi­ca­tor;
• Man­age­ment: rotary knob, sen­sors;
• Dimen­sions (HxWxD): 85×60×64 cm;
• Noise lev­el: 65 dB.

Advantages:

• opti­mal price;
• high dry­ing speed;
• high degree of automa­tion;
• many dry­ing modes;
• there is anti-crease;
• full­ness of the tank with con­den­sate is con­trolled;
• there is a con­tain­er for con­den­sate and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of drain­ing into the sew­er;
• eco­nom­i­cal ener­gy con­sump­tion;
• sound noti­fi­ca­tion about the end of dry­ing (and the abil­i­ty to turn it off).

Flaws:

• noisy pump and com­pres­sor;
• the declared load of 8 kg applies only to cot­ton, for all oth­er types of fab­rics there are sig­nif­i­cant weight restric­tions;
• opaque door.

1st place: Siemens WT 45W561 

Not all buy­ers know that the Siemens brand has long spe­cial­ized in dry­ers. The man­u­fac­tur­er offers a wide range of dry­ers with a vari­ety of func­tions. Proven qual­i­ty is one of the rea­sons why the dry­er mod­el from Siemens leads our rank­ing. Regard­ing the spe­cif­ic mod­el, it must be empha­sized that this is prac­ti­cal­ly a “3 in 1”: a con­dens­ing type dry­er with an addi­tion­al heat pump and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of steam treat­ment. Ide­al for a large fam­i­ly and lovers of sim­ple eco-friend­ly cot­ton cloth­ing.

The anti-crease func­tion allows you not to iron many types of fab­rics, and sim­ply neat­ly fold­ed into the clos­et. Resid­ual mois­ture con­trol is con­ve­nient for sub­se­quent iron­ing.

Quick dry­ing and delayed start make the mod­el very con­ve­nient for plan­ning your time. Ener­gy effi­cien­cy (class A ++) is anoth­er impor­tant advan­tage of the Siemens WT 45W561 dry­er. Qui­et oper­a­tion, min­i­mum vibra­tion and gen­tle dry­ing are ensured by the brand­ed drum with the Sen­si­tiveDry­ing sys­tem and the spe­cial design of the side walls. Clean­ing the Easy­Clean Fil­ter con­den­sa­tion fil­ter is easy, but the pump fil­ter (accord­ing to the own­ers of such machines) requires peri­od­ic pro­fes­sion­al clean­ing (1 time in 3 years). In this dry­er, the laun­dry does not dry out, as the man­u­fac­tur­er has pro­vid­ed the device with very pre­cise con­trol of the degree of resid­ual mois­ture and tem­per­a­ture.

Characteristics:

• Dry­ing type: con­den­sa­tion (heat pump dry­ing + steam treat­ment);
• Max­i­mum load­ing: 9 kg;
• Num­ber of dry­ing pro­grams: 14 pcs;
• Ener­gy class: A++ (258 kW/year);
• Depth: 65 cm;
• Door: round with glass;
• Dis­play: yes;
• Drum vol­ume: 112 l;
• Load­ing hatch diam­e­ter: 32 cm;
• Func­tion­al­i­ty: anti-crease, laun­dry mois­ture con­trol, delay start timer, quick dry, steam dry, refresh cycle, child pro­tec­tion, con­den­sate tank full indi­ca­tor.
• Man­age­ment: rotary knob, sen­sors;
• Dimen­sions (HxWxD): 84×60×65 cm;
• Noise lev­el: 65 dB.

Advantages:

• price-qual­i­ty ratio;
• eco­nom­i­cal ener­gy con­sump­tion;
• elec­tron­ic humid­i­ty con­trol;
• there is an anti-crease func­tion;
• timer;
• the pres­ence of a heat pump;
• steam dry­ing;
• does not heat the air in the room;
• there is a con­den­sa­tion indi­ca­tor;
• qui­et.

Flaws:

• high price;
• no con­den­sate drain hose;
• very sen­si­tive touch pan­el;
• incon­ve­nient clean­ing of the pump fil­ter (requires pro­fes­sion­al main­te­nance);
• large dimen­sions.

Summing up

An auto­mat­ic dry­er is a large cost item, so our rat­ing con­tains only reli­able con­dens­ing type devices that will not cause trou­ble with installing hoods and will last a long time.

Of the 5 mod­els reviewed, all are gen­tle on laun­dry and high­ly ener­gy effi­cient, includ­ing 3 mod­els with a heat pump and com­pres­sor. To keep your tum­ble dry­er run­ning smooth­ly, fol­low the man­u­fac­tur­er’s rec­om­men­da­tions for max­i­mum load and fil­ter clean­ing fre­quen­cy.