Washgeek.com

What is the difference between a dryer and a condenser dryer

The difference between a clothes dryer and a condenser dryer is as follows: A condenser dryer blows the moist and warm air outside while drying. A tumble dryer uses this warm and moist air again, which makes it much more energy efficient.

What is the difference between a dryer and a condenser dryer

Update

October

Yannick
Yannick

A wash geek since 2017

Condenser dryer

Condenser dryers dry using an electrical heating element. This allows the dryer to reach a relatively high temperature, drying your clothes quickly. However, drying at a high temperature does have one drawback; it is not good for your laundry. High temperatures can be harmful to your clothes and other laundry. The chances of wear and tear and shrinkage are higher with a higher drying temperature.

The condenser dryer is relatively inexpensive to buy. Which is nice for many households, because a clothes dryer is not a casual purchase. What you do need to consider is that a condenser dryer consumes quite a lot of energy. This means that although you may be saving money on the purchase of your new dryer, in some cases you will be spending more on energy costs. Most condenser dryers are rated class B. If you look carefully, you’ll find some condenser dryers that are energy efficient (A++ or A+++), but in general you should look for heat pump dryers. Another important consideration when buying a new dryer is the condenser drain. Most condenser dryers have two options for this:

  • It drains through a drain hose and goes directly into the water outlet.
  • Do you not have a free water outlet in your laundry room, for example because your washing machine is already hooked up to it? Then the condensation will go into the built-in reservoir of your tumble drier. You will need to empty the moisture from the tank after each drying cycle.

Heat pump dryer

A heat pump dryer dries your clothes using a heat pump and a refrigerant. This means the heat pump dryer dries at a lower temperature. This means it takes longer for your laundry to dry completely, but it’s better for your laundry. Because the heat pump dryer uses a low drying temperature, it also has low energy consumption. This makes the heat pump dryer much more economical than a condenser dryer. However, heat pump dryers are more expensive. However, because they are so energy-efficient, they may still be the more economical choice. If you choose a heat pump dryer with energy label A+++ (the most energy-efficient), you can save up to 75 euros a year on your energy bills – compared to a regular condenser dryer with energy class B. Over the lifetime of your dryer (12 years on average), you will usually get back that investment.

Like condenser dryers, heat pump dryers give you a choice of how you want the moisture to be discharged, either via a drainage hose into the water outlet, or the condensation is collected in a tank.

Moreover, most heat pump dryers come with a self-cleaning condenser. This keeps the heat exchanger clean, and you have less maintenance to do. The condenser dryer, on the other hand, rarely has a self-cleaning condenser.

Vented dryer

Vented dryers, also known as airflow dryers, are being produced and sold less and less. Like the condenser dryer, this is a relatively inexpensive clothes dryer to buy, but the energy consumption is high. You won’t find them with an energy label better than energy class B, which is why we don’t recommend buying this type of dryer. Airflow dryers are so expensive that it makes sense to buy a more expensive, energy-efficient dryer.

The clothes dryer also uses a relatively high drying temperature, so you can finish drying quickly. You can also choose to buy a more economical dryer.

As for the condensation drain, with a clothes dryer, the warm, moist air is vented to the outside through an exhaust hose. This is done through a window or a hole in the wall. Collection in a tank or connection to the drain is rarely possible with these dryers.

Yannick
Yannick

A wash geek since 2017

Our research