No, heat pump tumble dryers don’t need a vent. Like condenser dryers, heat pump dryers collect the moisture extracted from clothes in a tank, which you can then empty down the sink.
This means you don’t need to put a hose through a hole in the wall or window to extract the moist air. You can therefore put a heat pump dryer anywhere in your home without worrying about it causing damp.
They also don’t normally need plumbing since the condensed water is collected in a tank which you empty manually. However, some heat pump dryers use a drain hose to remove the condensed water, which will need to be connected to a sink, floor gully, drain outlet or the drainage system of another appliance. Check the particular installation requirements for the model you’re interested in before buying it.
What’s the Difference Between Heat Pump and Condenser Dryers?
Since neither heat pump nor condenser dryers need venting, you might be wondering what the difference is between them.
The difference between a heat pump dryer and a condenser dryer is that heat pump dryers recycle the hot air, ‘pumping’ it back into the drum after the moisture has been removed.
Condenser dryers, on the other hand, release hot air into the room after the moisture has been extracted, which means they need to constantly replace it in the drum with freshly heated air, requiring more energy.
Heat pump dryers are cheaper to run since they recycle the hot air. However, because the technology involved is more advanced, they cost more to buy up front.
Condenser dryers have maximum temperatures of 70-75 °C, while heat pump dryers only reach 50 °C. These means that clothes usually take longer to dry in a heat pump dryer. On the plus side, this protects your clothes, as drying at lower temperatures helps prevent shrinkage and other damage.
Even though you will need to run your heat pump dryer for longer due to the lower drying temperatures it will still work out cheaper to run, as it uses the heat in a more efficient way.
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