Input on Heat Pump Dryers
alexdorf
| Posted in General Questions on
I’m looking at adding a Heat Pump dryer to a new construction build I’m doing next year in a mountain region in California (snow in winter, warm not humid summers).
Would love any input from the community on their experience.
Why I’m considering a Heat Pump:
1. removes a penetration in my building envelope.
2. better on the clothing
3. energy efficient
Concerns:
1. doesn’t dry well, especially sheets
2. size limitations on most models. I like the Miele , but concerned about the small size.
3. cleaning is very cumbersome.
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Replies
I've read several recent threads on this topic. (Searching with Google is usually better than relying on the GBA search function.) Miele usually receives high marks, but it is a bit pricey. The larger, USA-made units seem to be less reliable. Samsung has a large capacity HPD on sale that gets pretty good reviews on the HD site. LG has a model with a 4.2 cubic foot capacity for a few hundred dollars more.
We had a Samsung condensing drier in a previous home. It was a bear to clean but great at not over-drying clothes.
I have a compact Whirlpool unit. I like it.
It works well but it does takes longer to dry clothes especially a big load of towels (4 to 5 hours). A washing machine with a spin cycle is a must to extract as much water from your clothes as possible before putting them in the dryer.
Cleaning it is not a problem on my unit because it has a two stage filters. One in the door and one at the bottom. I don't need to disassemble the whole unit to clean it like some previous models.
We're a family of six and after burning through washers and dryers every three years we switched to Miele. We have both the smaller (and much cheaper) set plus the Little Giant set. The smaller set is fine and I'd recommend for maybe 2-3 person house. The wash/dry cycle takes about 3-5 hours depending on your setting. The Little Giant is much faster maybe 2 - 3 hours for a wash/dry cycle. It also holds a larger capacity and can heat the water to 200F. It's also built much better. I've seen them used in coin-op commercial settings in Germany as well. Cleaning the dryer is similar to other dryers.
@mgensler, the Miele Little Giant set is a gold standard, good for you. I have a Miele washer WWH660WCS (cost somewhere between $1500-$2000), which is OK, with a high temp of 170F (75C). 2ooF is nice but usually requires 240V, the lower end Miele I have operates off 120v/15A. My heat pump dryer is Blomberg, which has performed adequately. On "extra dry", the clothes come out sufficiently dry (living in Western MT). Many in Europe like some moisture in the clothes for ironing (roller irons are common) and in some places vented dryers are banned (fire hazards). Pairing high rotational speed front loaders with heat pump dryers makes sense as the high rotational speed extracts quite a bit of water. If you don't spin at high speed, then certainly longer drying and less dry. The Miele I have has max spin of 1600 RPM. The machine is 211 lbs (about 100 kg) with good load balancing (a heavier machine will be more stable).
As to the dryer duct/penetration, I told the HVAC guy to not install, however, it was REQUIRED BY CODE - ugh. So, I just plugged it up. I actually have two W/D stations, one without a W/D but, again, had to make the penetration as REQUIRED BY CODE (so another penetration that's plugged up).
Overall, as to performance, once in a while king sized bed sheets (very high count cotton) need to be taken out after a first round and restuffed into the dryer, but it's not too much of an inconvenience. The Blomberg is easy to clean and I've had no problems with over 3 years of use. If Miele had the heat pump available at the time, I would have gotten that as I've had years of experience (work and residential) with Miele products. That said, I'm satisfied with the Blomberg heat pump dryer.
We love our Miele but don't do anything bigger than Queen size. Have had it for a year and very satisfied. I'd never by anything from Samsung. All Garbage. The big hit was that our Miele uses a 15A circuit and can run off a small size PV solar array with no issues.