Clothes Dryers

Dryers

Nobody likes leaving the house to do laundry, which is why washers and dryers are so popular. Having a good dryer at home means that your laundry is not only clean, but ready to wear when you need it. It saves time and money because you can dry your clothes on your schedule. Besides, there's nothing like coming out of the shower to a clean towel fresh from the dryer.

Vented dryers are very simple in principle: they take the moisture from your wet clothes and deposit it outside the home. Often relatively inexpensive, the key to these models is figuring out where to put the vent. Some homes have a built-in vent hose that connects directly to the outside air, but sometimes you may have to open a window to fit the vent hose through.

Condenser dryers are often more expensive than vented, but they are easier to locate. These dryers collect the moisture from your clothing and deposit it internally. This means they don't need a vent, and they are independent of the humidity. You do have to drain the water after drying though, it's not enough just to clean the lint screen.

Closely related to standard condenser designs, heat pump dryers offer a more efficient approach to the same principles. By working at a lower temperature, they use less energy and are gentler on your clothes, so they keep that like-new look that much longer. They are also quieter, which anyone who has to go into your laundry room will appreciate.

When it comes to measuring your dryer's capacity, a good rule of thumb is that one large bath towel is about 1 kg. So for a normal family, a 5 kg or 6 kg dryer is usually a good choice. Smaller households can get by with something smaller, say a 4 kg unit, and the biggest families may need to run an 8 kg dryer all day long to keep up with their laundry.