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How reliable is your clothes dryer brand? 

The top clothes dryer brands, as chosen by the CHOICE members who use them.

pulling dry laundry out of dryer
Last updated: 04 June 2021

Every year, the CHOICE reliability survey asks thousands of members about the clothes dryers they own, what they think of them, and how they've held up over time.

More than 6000 members took part in our 2020 reliability survey and, of them, 54% (3270 respondents) told us they have bought a dryer brand new. The information they provided gives us a really good indication of how various clothes dryer brands stack up over time – something we can't test in our labs.

Use this article to find the most reliable clothes dryer brands from our latest survey.

How we get the data

In total, 6009 CHOICE members participated in our 2020 Product Reliability Survey. Of these, 54% said they had bought a clothes dryer brand new.

About the scores

Reliability

Reliability figures are based on owner assessment, not test data. We use the data we collect from members to rate the most popular brands for reliability. We ask owners if their product has broken down in the past 12 months. We take into account the age of the products so we can compare brands in a fair way.

Owner satisfaction

We ask owners to tell us what they thought of the products they own, rating them from "Excellent" to "Terrible". We've used this information to give each brand an owner satisfaction rating so you can see what people who use the brand, day in day out, think of them.

Brand reliability results are for CHOICE members only.

Our guide to buying the best clothes dryer is free and has lots of great information and advice.

Our brand reliability scores helps guide you when choosing a product – with the knowledge that the brand is well regarded by CHOICE members for customer satisfaction and reliability.

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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

The top performers

Most reliable brand

Simpson

Highest owner satisfaction

Miele

Common problems: Sensor dry doesn't dry properly, clothes dried unevenly, takes too long to dry.

This year, 3270 people told us about their clothes dryers. Simpson tops their list for reliability, while Miele is ahead in the satisfaction score. Most of our members who have a clothes dryer said they have an electric vented type (56%, down from 72% in the previous survey), 18% have an an electric heat pump dryer, 17% have an electric condenser dryer, and four per cent have a washer-dryer combo.

In terms of reliability scores by type, electric vented dryers' performance was consistent with the previous survey data with a reliability score of 91%, both electric condenser dryers and electric heat pump dryers dropped to 79%, and washer-dryer combos scored 80%.

When it comes to satisfaction scores by type of dryer, electric heat pump dryers have the highest score at 89%. Both electric condenser dryers and electric vented dryers score 84%. Washer-dryer combos had the lowest consumer satisfaction of any dryer type, scoring 79% – well below the average of 85% for the category.

We also asked members who'd bought a clothes dryer in the past eight years whether they'd had any problems with the product. Six per cent said the sensor program didn't dry their clothes properly, five per cent had clothes that had been dried unevenly, and five per cent thought the machine took too long to dry their clothes.

Only nine per cent of consumers had contacted the brand for service support, but more than half (60%) of them did so due to a major failure.

Clothes dryer performance

Clothes dryer performance by brand
Brand Reliability score (%)* Satisfaction score (%)
Simpson (201) 96 85
Electrolux (240) 89 84
LG (130) 88 84
Fisher & Paykel (330) 87 84
Miele (195) 84 90
>Other (289) 84 82
Bosch (193) 79 86
Average (1578) 86 85

Sample sizes in brackets. * Differences of 3% or more are significantly different.

Clothes dryer performance by type
Type Reliability score (%)* Satisfaction score (%)
Electric vented (855) 91 84
Condenser (270) 79 84
Heat pump (316) 79 89
Washer-dryer combo (63) 80 79

Sample sizes in brackets. * Differences of 2% or more are significantly different.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.