The cost of drying your clothes

An exciting look into the magical world of clothes dryers and how much money you can save if you buy a energy efficient dryer over a less efficient one.

Choosing a dryer wisely can save you over $1,000 in the long run! And before I get someone writing in, yes we all know, drying your clothes outside in the sun is free! But for a few families out there a clothes dryer is one of those 21st century perks they can't do without.

So, let's take the dryer market for a spin.

The best value for money is a heat pump dryer if you know where to look

Here is the worst pub trivia fact ever: there are around 580 different models of dryers available in Australia at the moment.

This spans the spectrum of the standard vented dryers, fancier heat pump condenser dryers and the two-in-one washer-dryer. There are so many options its overwhelming. How can anyone balance finding an affordable, decently sized, energy efficient, reliable dryer when there are dozens of more important things to worry about in a day. So, I put together a list of over 500 dryers and then calculated the cheapest, most energy-efficient units to run for a full year. Then looked at their upfront purchase cost to see if being energy efficient even matters. For this research I even read through the thrilling Standards Australia rules of how those Energy Star rating stickers for dryers are calculated.

Below are six popular dryers that give us a wide variability in load capacity, energy efficiency, running costs and upfront purchase cost.

One important note, is the running cost is based on the Standards Australia energy rating methodology used for the energy star rating system. They have their own in-lab testing methodology and formula to find the running cost of each dryer unit and then extrapolate that to a full year of running costs. Also, I set the energy price to 30¢ a kilowatt hour (kWh), which is fairly average for most parts of the country.

The major point that jumps out in the above table is we have two 9kg dryers on either end, an energy efficient heat pump dryer by Hisense and an energy-hungry vented dryer by Kogan.

If we saw both of these two dryers in the store we might just choose the $450 Kogan dryer over the more expensive $900 Hisense one. They look basically the same, and surely the energy rating can't make that much of a difference, right?

But going back to the running cost of each dryer, we see the difference is $94.80 per year, and with a purchase price difference of $450 between the two units that means in roughly 4 years and 9 months, the more expensive dryer will begin costing less overall than the cheaper one.

Not everyone can afford to buy a $900 clothes dryer, but it's okay

Luckily there are multiple options under the $900 mark that are more energy-efficient than the Kogan unit. In particular the Onix unit is only 1kg less in capacity but is a fraction of the running cost. Also, that unit has been on sale in the past for around $400 to $550, so with a bit of bargain hunting, it's totally possible to get one for a steal.

So now let's look at the running cost of each dryer over 5, 10 and 15 years into the future. From this perspective, it becomes crystal clear how much money can be saved using the more energy-efficient options.

Already within five and ten years the more energy-efficient models are out saving the less energy-efficient models by a huge margin.

And then finally to really hit this home, the table below is a combination of both the upfront cost and the running costs together. So now we can see the overall cost of each dryer unit at 5, 10 and 15 years.

Even within five years the Onix heat pump dryer costs less overall than the cheaper Kogan unit. In fact, within five years, the Kogan unit is already the most expensive unit to own out of all six!

So next time someone says, let's just buy the cheap dryer on the showroom floor, take a step back and really think about that energy-efficient rating. Just because something is a bargain price to buy doens't mean you won't pay for it and more later down the road. A smart choice in that split second to go more energy efficient could end up saving you $1,000 or more!

If you want access to the dryer data for your own research let me know

If you're thinking about getting a new dryer and want to easily find the best dryer for your home then let me know, and I can send you a copy of the data. I have the energy rating, running cost and other data of every dryer available in the country.

Also, I'm not making any money from this, to be frank, I wasn't too familiar with the brand Onix before this, so I would definitely recommend doing some research about the brands and models before buying. But no matter how you cut this up, it's clear that buying a more energy-efficient dryer pays dividends for the home into the future, and there are plenty of big names out there offering energy-efficient options.