Dryer recommendations

Hello everyone,

This is only tangentally related to hosting, but I am looking for dryer recommendations. I’m in India. The connection is that guests will be using it. But so will we.

Here is what Amazon India shows:

There is some discussion in this thread: http://forums.hexus.net/home-garden-diy/237785-washer-dryer-combo-separates.html

They mention a company called Miele. They appear to be available in India, but they probably out of my price range.

Miele is a great company, products are German and well made, I love them. The best dryers are natural gas powered. Electric dryers don’t work very well. Best I can suggest!

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Miele is the best, but probably not worth the price difference in my opinion (Miele is expensive enough is EU, I don’t dare imagine how much they sell them overseas !).

I have a Bosch (made in Germany too) with an integrated heat pump and it works great :). I don’t think we have the gas powered dryers @Maggieroni is talking about here in EU. I also had a low-end Whirlpool in my former home (Whirlpool sold in Europe is made in Italy) and it worked fine.

You might want to choose a model with a self-cleaning condenser and which may be plugged to a drain (water from the laundry goes straight to a drain vs into a tank you have to empty after each use), it is less maintenance.

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Thanks for the recommendations, @Maggieroni and @Barthelemy. I had some difficulty finding an Indian Miele quote, but it was something on the order of Rs 200 K. That’s around USD 3k, and a nutty amount of money to spend on a dryer.

Further technical advice about this is most welcomed. Most the dryers I’ve used in my life have been fairly primitive devices, so I don’t know anything about the technical aspects. But I’d like to buy something that will last.

As I understand it, heat pumps are particularly energy efficient, though perhaps slower to dry?

How are Siemens dryers?

Gas dryers aren’t an option here. Our natural gas comes in cylinders. We use it for cooking.

Miele will last, yes it is expensive but worth it in the long run. Unfortunately I have only had gas dryers here in NYC and CA as natural gas is plentiful. They are vented outside and you just need to clean the lint filter. A dryer is a really useful appliance. I have a large backyard and occasionally put a few things out in the sun. But. You can’t beat a good dryer!

Hi @Maggieroni,

Well, for those prices, Miele has better be freaking fantastic. And I bet they don’t have a warranty longer than 1 year either. How much do Miele tumble dryers go for on their home turf? Say in the EU?

Siemens and Bosch are the same appliances with different brands (part of the BSH group).
Here you would pay 900-1000€ for a mid-range Miele. I paid 600€ for my Bosch dryer. A standard dryer (without a heat pump) is around 300-400€. A 2-year guarantee is a legal requirement here, whatever the brand is.

Here in Europe, appliances have an energy rating from A+++ (most efficient) to D (least efficient) and only heat-pump dryers are rated A or better. My former dryer had a C rating and uses three times more energy than the one I have now.

My former dryer (a low-end Whirlpool) lasted at least 10 years and I think it is still working (I left it to the person who bought my previous home). Dryers are fairly simple appliances and I am not sure it is worth investing a lot of money.

As a general rule I believe you can get very efficient and reliable, European-made appliances, without spending a lot of money. I buy a lot of appliances for clients’ homes or rental properties and i am amazed by the quality you can get for very little money.


Samsung.

Hi @Barthelemy,

Thank you. That’s all very helpful and useful information. It sounds like Miele may be raising prices excessively, though imports in India are always overpriced. Are products from Miele/Bosch/Siemens better than (say) LG/Godrej/Whirlpool/Haier? LG is Korean, Godrej is Indian, Whirlpool is American, and Haier is Chinese. I definitely have a pro-European bias when it comes to precision manufacturing.

I didn’t know Siemens and Bosch belonged to the same company.

A 2 yr guarantee is definitely a good thing. What products does the legal requirement cover?

Agreed, but it’s still possible to screw it up. I purchased an LG fridge, thinking (if I thought anything) that a fridge was a fairly simple commodity appliance. But I’ve had (relatively minor) problems with the door - it makes a ter-tuk noise when you open and close it. And I got a replacement which had the same problem. It looks like LG doesn’t have very good quality control. If they can’t fit a fridge door right, I have serious doubts of their ability to manufacture more complicated things correctly. Bottom line - don’t take things for granted.

@faheem I am interested why Japanese brands such as Hitachi and Panasonic are not being considered here? We have a Hitachi washer/dryer in our airbnb and guests rave about it

Hi @hypertokyo,

I didn’t see Hitachi or Panasonic dryers for sale on Amazon. I’m not particularly a fan of either Hitachi or Panasonic, but would certainly consider it. We have had Hitachi air conditioners, and have had mixed experiences with them. One Hitachi A/C in particular has been quite problematic. Maybe it’s different if you are actually in Japan, using products that were manufactured in Japan. I suspect the Japanese brand products they sell in India don’t really have a lot to do with Japan apart from the name.

To be clear, a companies nationality is no guarantee of quality, and I would be out of line if I suggested it was. But it certainly is some indication. For example European products are on average superior to Chinese or Indian ones, though much more expensive.

Hello @faheem,

Around here i would say Miele is considered the best and high-end, Bosch/Siemens are premium brands, Whirlpool and Electrolux are the ubiquitous mid-range brands you find everywhere, LG/Samsung/Haier are considered low-end (for home appliances, I am not talking about electronics!) and mainly compete on price, so maybe we don’t get the best part of their product range.

I have had both Bosch and Whirlpool appliances, and when you use them you do feel that Bosch is better engineered. The ovens are more silent, the racks in the dishwashers hold the dishes better, the washers are more efficient at spinning, details like that. The Whirlpools i had were very good, but Bosch is better.

Whirlpool EU is engineered and made in Italy (or France for their dryers). Their appliances are not the fanciest but I think they are reliable. It’s what Ikea sells around here, with a free 5-year guarantee and I don’t think they would do so if the products were not reliable (given the prices of most of their appliances, a service call would eat any profit).

All-in-all I think that Miele is the best but you definitely pay a huge premium, Bosch is better, and Whirlpool EU and Electrolux EU have a very good quality/price ratio.

The 2-year legal guarantee covers any problem that would impede the appliance to perform as expected, within 2 years after purchase. The manufacturer must repair, replace or refund the appliance.

Hi @Barthelemy,

Thanks, that really helpful. I just had a bad experience with LG here (when buying an LG fridge), and I’m in the process of writing a review about it. I might post it here when I’m done. They seem to have very poor quality control. They’re definitely on my blacklist now. One minor clarification. You wrote:

I’m not sure what you mean by “Bosch is better”. Better than what?

Anyway Bosch/Siemens are available here, so I think I’ll prefer them if they sell what I need.