Why You Should (or not) Buy a Dryer, and a Review of Electrolux Dryer EDV7552

Living in Malaysia with it's abundance of sun and high heat, it is a bit controversial to propose to people to buy, especially when you're saving that money to buy something more important (such as an aircond?). City dwellers who live in bird houses aka apartments are slowly being equipped with clothes dryer, but let me convince to you to consider one, even if you're living in a landed house.

Why should you buy a dryer?

1. Instant washing and drying - You can wash and dry within the same night.
1. useful for uniforms, since you don't need to have too many of them. Our children manage to get by 5 days of school, just by having 2 pairs of uniforms. This was not possible during my school days, where I had to have 5 shirts and wash them all during the weekend. 
2. Your office has a themed event, and you just a bought a new cheap/preloved dress just for that? Dip in the washing machine and then dry it.
2. Time-saving - dryer saves time
1. You don't need to hang your clothes to dry. Especially for those small items such as socks, underwear and baby mittens, which are pesky to hang, and gets all crumply and smelly if not dried properly.
2. Certain dryer have less-crease feature, which helps with ironing, which reduce your time.
3. Malaysia tends to rain randomly, especially in KL. Sometimes the downpour is so sudden, that you don't have the time to ''angkat kain di jemuran'' . You then end up having to wash the clothes again.
3. Dryer saves space - well known for apartments
   
1. While living in an apartment, we used to waste one room just to dry our clothes. And the room smells bad
2. but even if you're living in landed house, space is still valuable. Instead of filling your lawns with your underwear, why don't let them dry in the dryer and have plants in your landscape. And your kids have place to play to, especially more important in this time of MCO.
4. More hygiene -  this is more in perception and not evidence base
1. Your drying room? It normally smells bad, right? And probably there are countless types of bacteria there. Molds can grow too.
2. Even in rainy seasons, your clothes are dry and not musty.
3. You tend to wash more often, especially things like bedsheets, mattress protector, car seat covers and fluffy toys. You can even dry your shoes (with certain dryers)
4. If you've been going to self service laundry, now might not be advisable to do it anymore, or in the next few years. #stayhome #staysafe

And why you should not:

1. If you live somewhere sunny, such as the northern states. Even then you might find much use for dryer, especially the rainy seasons.
2. If you're single, and do laundry weekly. Fortnightly.

Review of Dryer Electrolux EDV7552

Before I review, a bit about dryers. Generally there are three types of dryers, which uses electric. Here's a summary:

Type	Vent	Condenser	Heat Pump
Price	$ - around RM 1000	$$ - around RM 2000	$$$$ - above RM 4000
Time to dry	Short - around 30 minutes	Around 1 to 2 hours	Sometimes 3 hours more
Garment care	said to be bad on clothes, and I agree	said to have less wrinkles	said to be gentle on clothes. My personal experience, this is not worth the time.
Water discharge	No water discharge, hot air is released to the surroundings	Water is collected into a container. Has to be emptied after each cycle.	Some has drain for water discharge, like a washer. Room will be a bit warm

The pros and benefits

EDV7552 is a vent type dryer. The reason I chose this and the pros are:

1. It is the cheapest, compared to other types.
2. It can hung, either normally or upside down. Most condenser type are heavy and cannot be hung, but can be stacked. Heat pump type dryers are even heavier.
3. It is fast. A drying cycle normally finish faster than a washing cycle. Compared to a condenser, you will have wet clothes waiting to dry if you wash 2 cycles.
1. Dryers sometime missed out certain spots on clothes, especially ones with multi layers. So these clothes has to be re-dried. Short drying time for the vent type dryer, helps if you want to re-dry. Compared to a heat pump dryer, which will take 2-3 hours and after waiting for that long, you take out the clothes and find out just one piece of clothe is not dry. To run another cycle just to dry that? 
4. Certain dryers has a shoe rack, that can be put into the dryer for drying shoes, so they are not tumbled around. Another easier (cheaper hack) is to just put a stool, or hang your shoes in front of the vent (as picture below) while the dryer is running, and your shoes will be dry too.
5. There's an anti-crease feature. For shirts, they are easier to iron.

The not so good

1. Clothes tend to wear out faster, compared to drying by hanging. Maybe because of the tumbling.
2. Higher electricity bill, naturally. To calculate the cost (or savings) compared to going to the laundry, please refer to calculator below.
3. Your room, or yard is warmer.
4. There's no remaining time. You have to guess how much longer the drying is going to take. There's an indication though on what stage it is; heating, drying, cooling.

Tips and Precautions

So you've decided to buy a dryer. What are the things to be aware of?

1. Dryer uses high current/electricity. NEVER use a power extension.
2. Even if you plug it directly into the wall, sometimes the socket is looped from another socket. If the circuit is overloaded, i.e. you use a water kettle, rice cooker etc, your house might trip. Make sure the wiring is 'enough', or ask a wireman. Generally a dryer uses 2000+ watt.
3. Combined washer and dryer or separate units?
1. Try to avoid combined unless you have very limited space
2. Combined washer/dryer is more expensive than if you were to buy separately. It's also infamous for being prone to break down.
3. By having a washer and dryer, you can have two cycles of clothes. You save time.
4. Every dryer has filters. You HAVE to clean this filter after each cycle, to prolong the life of the dryer and to reduce electric consumption.
5. Arrangement of washer and dryer
1. Stacked - Dryer on top of the washer. You need a stacking kit, which basically 'screws' the bottom of the dryer to the top of the washer. Buy same brand of washer and dryer, so that the stacking kit fits. 
2. Side by side - Washer's door normally opens to the left, and vice versa for dryer. So washer needs to be on the left and dryer on the right. Remember this, in order to fit them into the laundry room/yard, and also to fit all the piping, ducting and power cables.
3. Hung - upside down, so that the opening is closer to the user/you. Normally if you do this, you need to bypass the vent or install another part. Ask when you buy if you want to hang the dryer.
6. There are dryers that uses LPG(Liquefied Petroleum Gas aka "tong gas"), but it is similar to the vent type. They are normally used in laundry bars and hotels but the use is similar to the vent type. My sister uses one, and it seems cheaper. Only thing is you have to buy a LPG and allocate space for it.
7. Choose a dryer that has the same load rating as your washer, example EDV7552 has a load of 7.5kg, which is the same as my washer. Otherwise your clothes will have a hard time drying.
8. Self-Laundry vs At Home dryer - use the calculator below to compare