When it comes to finding the best clothes dryer, it can be hard to sort the winners from the wet blankets.
And if you pick poorly, you’ll cop bigger power bills because dryers are energy-hungry appliances. In fact, the difference in running costs between an inefficient clothes dryer and a top performing model can be hundreds of dollars over a year (which can really add up over the lifetime of an appliance).
Our experts have tested clothes dryers for years in our dedicated lab.
Here at CHOICE, we don’t want anyone to be left high and dry by average products.
Our experts meticulously test the most popular clothes dryers on the market in our labs.
We evaluate key indicators including drying time and energy efficiency, and we analyse and compare features, running costs, noise levels and more.
Basically, everything you need to know to choose the best clothes dryer for your needs.
We don’t want you to end up with a dud buy, so here are the products that scored lowest in our lab tests. Consider becoming a CHOICE member to see the best performers.
The dryers that rated lowest in our tests
Bosch WQG24200AU
CHOICE Expert Rating: 63%
Price: $1749
Type: Heat pump
It might be cheap but this Bosch’s energy use will leave you anything but cheerful.
Just under $1800 is actually pretty reasonable for a heat pump dryer, but in this case it’s a false economy.
You might pay less upfront, but you’ll pay twice as much in running costs for this Bosch compared to other heat pump dryers.
While at first glance this machine appears to be pretty energy efficient, it needs to run for much longer than other models to do the job – a huge 232 minutes, which is almost four hours.
Though drying performance is very good, it ends up using more power per load than other heat pump dryers.
But just because this cheaper model scored poorly doesn’t mean you need to spend big to pick up a good heat pump dryer.
Many of the top scoring heat pump dryers in our review actually cost less than this Bosch.
It’s actually pretty cheap for a heat pump dryer, but in this case it’s a false economy
Instead of buying this dud, you could take out a CHOICE membership, buy a top scoring dryer and come out ahead financially in the long run.
Whichever way you look at it, the numbers just don’t add up for this Bosch.
This Haier vented dryer comes with bigger power bills.
Vented clothes dryers are the simplest and most common type of clothes dryer and are therefore the cheapest to buy, evidenced by the relatively low price tag on this Haier model (it’s one of the cheapest in our current review).
The catch with cheaper vented dryers though is that they’re the most expensive to run, and true to form, this one will add more than $210 to your energy bills per year if you run a full load about three times a week*.
By comparison, more efficient vented dryers cost well under $200 a year in running costs for the same usage, while heat pump models cost on average around $70 a year to run.
That being said, if you’re not using your dryer all that often and you don’t want to outlay too much cash, a vented dryer can still be a good option.
However, our experts advise there are better buys than this one.
It’s relatively inefficient, and there are two models in a similar price range that our experts actually recommend.
This Beko will dry your clothes slowly, and for twice the cost per load as other models.
This Beko is another overpriced disappointment. It has an agonisingly long cycle time of 208 minutes, making it the second slowest in our test (after the Bosch WQG24200AU).
And just like the models mentioned above, it costs more to run than some of the models we recommend – in fact, almost twice as much.
With running costs this high, you have to wonder if it’s really worth it.
And when several top scoring models cost around the same at the till but far less over time to run, there are far better options than this.
All the gear, no idea: even fancy features don’t make this dryer a good buy.
This Fisher & Paykel boasts plenty of handy features including child lock control, automatic dry sensor, anti-crease program and delayed start.
Unfortunately, those bells and whistles are undone by this vented unit’s actual drying performance and power consumption.
It has the longest cycle time of all the vented dryers in our review (137 minutes), so it’ll cost you more to run – in fact, of all the models in our test this one costs the most to run.
It may be cheap, but so are some of the highest scoring vented dryers in our review. We suggest you spend your money elsewhere.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.
For more than 60 years, CHOICE has been fighting the good fight for Australian consumers.
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