OT: New washer/dryer

Just check the height carefully.

And the plumbing in clearance and ventilation if its a tumble dryer. I'm not sure how modern ones work. Brian

The plumbing connections *ought* to be in the next door cupboard to allow full depth for the washing machine.

Not sure about venting the tumble dryer. It would be sensible to get one that's a condenser, seeing as cold water is connected for the washer.

I'll show my ignorance: what's the relevance of the cold water to a condensing dryer?

I can see how a drain connection would be handy, but not a cold feed.

TDing is a waste of electricity for the most part imho. Door lock, I'd take a look at it, they're far cheaper than a new machine.

Yes you can use unfitted appliances. You may find with TDing WMs that the TD only takes half the amount of clothes as the WM. There are better easier cheaper ways to dry clothes.

NT

The cold feed is used to cool the hot water vapour to condense it (via a condenser!). Both condensate and the warmed water then go down the drain.

So one of the posh self draining models then.

via the pump

Having had one in the past, ours did only take half the load for drying and it wasn't that good anyway. It was good though if you wanted to put (a small amount of) washing on at night and have it dry for the morning without having to get up to do it in the middle of the night.

SteveW

Brian Gaff has brought this to us :

I think most these days condense the moisture and pump it out via the drain.

It happens that Robin formulated :

Some use the flow of cold water over a tiny radiator, to condense out the moisture, which they then pump to drain.

I think I heard some now use a chiller, like a fridge, to condense the moisture.

Interesting, thanks. I can see that might the improve efficiency of the condensing - but at the expense of less heat to warm the flat when that's desirable.

Very much depends on where you live and your circumstances.

It can be difficult to get washing put-away-dry without indoor drying of some sort. We have a lot of wet (rain and humidity) and a lot of wind. You might think the wind would be useful, but not so good when it is powerful and gusty and bringing the next lot of rain.

Age and physical ability also have quite an impact.

We ended up with pretty much the highest efficiency heat pump TD we could find. On the basis that if we have one, we want to be able to use it with the least cost of running. And most of the heat it does produce remains within the house.

No point buying one and then not using it because it uses too much electricity.

No cold feed on our Bosch.

I'd think it was rare on a standalone dryer, more likely to have a heatpump, but for a washer/dryer it already has a water feed, so cheaper than a heatpump at the expense of an energy rating notch or two ...

just a normal washer/dryer. the newfangled dryers use a heat pump rather than cold water. they are usually cheaper to run if you are on a water meter.

You like damp and mould?

No. Don't like and don't have.

What makes you think condensing dryers cause them? An innate belief that manufacturers are conning people, with the support of everyone from consumer associations through to intelligent users? Or your personal experience with what may have been a f***ed up dryer?