Heat pump clothes dryer

[jteneyck]

This sounds like technology looking for an application.  Reminds me of on-demand hot water heaters.  No matter how many times I've run the numbers it never comes out ahead.  

Simple (old) technology often is still best from both a cost and real world performance standpoint.  

John

[Cooler]

This sounds like technology looking for an application.  Reminds me of on-demand hot water heaters.  No matter how many times I've run the numbers it never comes out ahead.  

Simple (old) technology often is still best from both a cost and real world performance standpoint.  

John

I'm not sure it is.  It has a certain elegance to it.  It is a fully self-contained system. You are not generating heat and then sending it out the window.  You are generating heat and cold and using both. 

The only real question is can they make these competitive with regular dryers. 

A Bosch dryer will cost $1,000.00 to $1,400.00.  A Whirlpool dryer is about $600.00.

The heatpump dryer is competitive with the higher end Bosh dryers, but not with the lower end products.  I agree it does sound more complex, but my refrigerator has been reliable and is about 15 years old; my parents had a refrigerator that moved with them from the Bronx in 1956 and was still working when they sold the house in 2001--45 years.  So this tech can be made reliable. 

Certainly more reliable than a washing machine.  The repairman (GE) said that the life span of a modern washing machine was 6 to 7 years on average.

[EricU]

engineers know how to make cheap refrigerators, so that really isn't a problem

I was considering a heat pump dryer last year, but then I realized our venting didn't run straight enough and fixing that made our dryer work like new.  I understand that the European dryers take a while to run and there are efforts to make them work more like the much larger dryers that most Americans have.  Hopefully they will have everything sorted by the time we need a dryer.

[Robert Adams]

engineers know how to make cheap refrigerators, so that really isn't a problem

I was considering a heat pump dryer last year, but then I realized our venting didn't run straight enough and fixing that made our dryer work like new.  I understand that the European dryers take a while to run and there are efforts to make them work more like the much larger dryers that most Americans have.  Hopefully they will have everything sorted by the time we need a dryer.

               They won't be any better then. They are nothing new people in England have given up and accept that their dryers will never work well. Americans won't stand for it so we have real dryers.  The physics behind heat pump dryers just isn't in it's favor and should only be kept for nitche markets like RVs and boats.

[Cabinet Monkey]

The way this works it that it is basically the reverse of an refrigerator.  A refrigerator creates cold and generates heat. 

The dryer takes that heat end of the unit and pushes it into to the tumbler.  It then becomes laden with moisture and passes over the cold end of the unit.  The water then condenses and ends up in a tray or reservoir.

That reservoir can then be hooked up to a hose and allowed to drain or you can empty the reservoir manually after 3 or 4 loads. 

You still have to clean out the lint from the lint trap.  And once in a while you probably have to vacuum the condenser coil which will accumulate dust and dog or cat hair.

On a theoretical level this really appeals to me.  But on a dollars and cents level it does not. 

But I once lived in an apartment with a combination washer/dryer.  The dryer was not vented outdoors and took forever to dry the clothes and generated so much heat that the elastic bands on my bvds died and they would fall to my ankles.

I think for some apartments this would be a nice option.  For my house, not so much.

This sounds like technology looking for an application.  Reminds me of on-demand hot water heaters.  No matter how many times I've run the numbers it never comes out ahead.  

Simple (old) technology often is still best from both a cost and real world performance standpoint.  

John

Yea, try taking a shower after your spouse fills 120 gallon tub, or your three kids just took long showers.  And tell me how long you can use that car wash shower with 4 sprays and a rain head on a 50gal tank heater. 

Everything is not about being cheapest. On demand beats tanked heaters in my builds everyday, and twice on Sundays.   It’s also cheaper on my spreadsheets too.  But my needs are clearly not the norm. The efficiency just can’t be touched on a tankless. 

There simply isn’t one size fits all for these things.  

With re: to the dryers. I had two idenTical Bosch dryers at two houses years ago. One reg. , one condensing and did not notice any real diff. In dry times. Certainly didnt take hours like the Euro experience. 

I know for a fact the condensing one is still being used daily by the new owner.  It’s 20 years old now.  The reg. one has gone to recycling because the control box replacement cost didn’t justify the spend. Same part as on the condensing model. 

So, there’s no real world evidence one is better or worse than the other on the whole. Different people will have different experiences as with any appliance or other consumer good.

[toolmiser]

We needed a new dryer a few months ago. Went to our local "small" retailer. I asked about the "heat pump" version, and he said he sold a couple, and they were a lot more expensive. Plus I decided that they would have a lot more chances for failure.