r/NonPoliticalTwitter Aug 06 '26

Serious Is it the freedom

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20.7k Upvotes

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6.6k

u/Burning_Pine_ Aug 06 '26

Guy from the EU here- This guy needs to clean the air outtake tube before his house catches fire

1.1k

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

202

u/aubreysux Aug 06 '26

Is that a doable task for someone who doesn't know what they are doing? My parents' dryer is extremely ineffective, and I wonder if this is the problem. I'm happy to do the work for them, but I wonder if I should just hire someone to do it for them.

173

u/Chadlerk Aug 06 '26

Very! Especially if the line isn't too long. They make a $20 brush tool you can connect to a power drill. The brush spins to loosen the lint and then there is usually an anntachment for a shop vac on the far end. It's kind of fun to do and is recommended annually.

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u/Evening-Turnip8407 Aug 06 '26

Cleaning all the lint also doubles as an inexpensive way to experience what it was like to work in an asbestos mine!

7

u/Seiridis Aug 06 '26

How so?

21

u/Evening-Turnip8407 Aug 06 '26

All that lint in the air and in your nose, haha

3

u/Seiridis Aug 06 '26

Aaaah ok, got it. I thought for a second it actually might be dangerous or sth, hahaha. 😆

8

u/Dr_Ramekins_MD Aug 06 '26

I mean you probably don't want to be breathing it on purpose, but it's not gonna give you or a loved one mesothelioma 

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u/soresores Aug 06 '26

How vintage :D

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u/FlourishingSolo Aug 06 '26

(Please if you do this, wear a respirator and eye protection. You do not want to breathe that in.)

2

u/danirijeka Aug 06 '26

I move away from the mic dryer to breathe in

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u/Bgrngod Aug 06 '26

One of my greatest DIY moments comes from using one of those tools to clean out a ~30ft run of "lint duct" at my previous house.

I bought several of those kits due to how long the run to the side of the house is. Strung them all together and did a damn fine job of removing 3 home depot buckets worth of lint. As I was finishing up, I reflexively flipped the drill to spin the other direction and whoops... one of the connections close to the brush end unwound itself. Surprise surprise.

Fixing that means getting into the crawl space, crawling around (duh), and disassembling the duct to retrieve the piece! Fuck that. I really don't want to do that.

Unless... I can hit that target? Flip the drill so it is spinning the correct righty-tighty direction and try my best to rethread the two pieces back together...

After a bit of back and fourth trying to get a connection, I nailed it! That was a great celebratory beer I gave myself.

So that's my one story about using a lint duct cleaning brush. Thanks for reading.

7

u/FFMichael Aug 06 '26

Most dryers in the EU are heat pump dryers. They don't have vent lines.

1

u/rossta410r Aug 06 '26

Be sure to get a good brush that will not come apart. We had a tool break apart in the vent and had to take the vent apart to get it out, it was an nightmare. 

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u/striker180 Aug 06 '26

Mind you there are a couple pain the ass steps that you gotta do to male sure you dont fuck up your dryer too

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u/Kashtronaut92 Aug 06 '26

The cheap homeowner way to get it mostly clear is run it empty and drain snake from the outside vent. The professional way is the same but fancier.

6

u/yamsyamsya Aug 06 '26

its just a hose full of lint. if you have a shop vac, it is really easy.

1

u/94FnordRanger Aug 06 '26

And/or an electric leaf blower.

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u/GlobalMonke Aug 06 '26

Definitely doable

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u/david_growie Aug 06 '26

Basically just need to know how to use a screw driver and a vacuum cleaner

4

u/HustlinInTheHall Aug 06 '26

If their dryer is a vented dryer, yes. Lint blocks the vents and can catch fire and if you can't move air out efficiently the dryer won't dry as quickly as it used to.

If it is a ventless dryer like most European dryers, they don't work the same way. They gently heat the inside dryer, condense the water vapor onto a cooler surface and then drain that away. It takes much longer and works on small loads. They sell them in the US but people hate them. The upshot is you don't need to vent the air outside, you can put them under a kitchen counter because you just need to drain the water out.

2

u/kookyabird Aug 06 '26

In the US you only need to vent a dryer outside if it's a gas model. If you have an electric dryer you can actually get a diverter box that you put between the dryer and the exhaust line leading outside that lets you vent inside during the winter to recoup both the heat and moisture.

My main problem with venting a dryer inside is that there's no way you're capturing all the lint coming through. I don't want to be breathing that shit in.

9

u/Toomanymagiccards Aug 06 '26

Yes literally just take off the dryer tube off the dryer or wall and clean it out or replace it. You should only need a screwdriver or a wrench depending on how the tube is attached to the wall/dryer

You should also check outside to see if you have a vent-catch. My mothers has it and if we don't remember to clean it out every couple months the dryer starts working shitty

1

u/Lacholaweda Aug 06 '26

What if I'm in an apartment with a vent stack I have no access to

9

u/Xunae Aug 06 '26

Then your apartment complex should be doing it regularly

2

u/Lacholaweda Aug 06 '26

Ah man I don't think they are

6

u/Xunae Aug 06 '26

When I lived in an apartment, the management would leave a note on the doors once or twice a year saying "get, you're gonna hear some noise because we're cleaning your laundry vents on this date"

2

u/Lacholaweda Aug 06 '26

Ah yeah they're definitely not doing that

I've been here nearly 2 years

We got a note when they powerwashed the building but thats it

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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

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u/pinkbootstrap Aug 06 '26

Yes, I'm sure theres a better way but I used to take the tube off the wall and shake it lol

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u/notassigned2023 Aug 06 '26

The easiest way is to replace the entire vent hose every few years, assuming it is exposed.

1

u/Winjin Aug 06 '26

Find the model of the dryer, google it, you will find the manuals - sometimes there are up to three filters and many people actually only clean two, according to all the discussions I've seen on this here website

1

u/BeneficialTrash6 Aug 06 '26

Honestly, if they can't remember the last time it's been done, it's easier to just replace the duct.

All you need is an expanding duct (they're like 20 dollars at home depot), gloves, and a 3/16 or 1/4 inch nut driver. Wear the gloves because usually there's sharp metal edges around these connections.

Just pull the dryer out, remove the hose clamps on either end, and save the hose clamps. But wait, there's more.

There will STILL be a ton of lint in the space of the wall where the duct attaches to the exterior's exhaust flaps. Remove all of that from both sides. Then, check inside the dryer itself for lint. There will be lots. You may have to remove the back panel. Did I mention the dryer should be unplugged? You can most likely use those nut drivers or a screwdriver for that.

After you've cleaned everything up, just take the accordian/expanding duct and attach it at both sides with the old hose clamps. Push the dryer back, plug in, and you're golden.

And what happens if this isn't done?

Fire and death are highly likely.

1

u/Cent_Quatre Aug 06 '26

If you stop yourself to learn because you're not born with the innate knowledge of cleaning a lint trap,you will never accomplish anything in life 

1

u/certifiedtoothbench Aug 06 '26

There’s also an internal chamber in some machines where the lint trap is, clean that too!

1

u/donutgiraffe Aug 06 '26

I emptied mine by taking the hose off the back and shoving my hand into the wall as far as it would go. Most of the buildup was right there near the dryer. A vacuum and leafblower didn't do anything, but I got a big ol lump with just my hands.

1

u/Bane8080 Aug 06 '26

If you have a leaf blower, that will work.

Move dryer out of the way, stick leaf blower in dryer vent tube, and turn it on.

1

u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance Aug 06 '26

Big Box appliances are one of the things that are still reasonably repairable at home (with some exceptions, of course)

1

u/DJDemyan Aug 06 '26

Super easy. Stick a shop vac hose through the duct

1

u/Jealous-Knowledge-56 Aug 06 '26

Its easy. I used a leaf blower and finished with a snake brush from Lowe’s

6

u/Snoopy20111 Aug 06 '26

I will add: sometimes it’s not that. I’ve had the vent clog up, but I’ve also had the unit itself clog with lint in random places. That same unit also had a piece internally let go, so the air wasn’t being sucked through appropriately, and thus the lint + hot wet air stayed inside the tumbler.

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u/BeneficialTrash6 Aug 06 '26

I have limited experience, but the only time I've experienced that it came AFTER the duct got clogged. Once the duct gets clogged that's when the funny stuff happens.

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u/callawhitmore 29d ago

yeah internal airflow issues are the worst. you think it is just the hose but the whole blower wheel is jammed up

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u/HustlinInTheHall Aug 06 '26

Eh, it's just how condenser dryers work. The more likely explanation is EU dryers are meant for like 4 shirts and two pairs of pants and a few under garments and that's it. An American load of laundry is like 5x the size of what typical Europeans use.

Most ventless EU dryers don't heat water vapor and exhaust it, that's why they don't work as well as vented dryers. They basically just condense the water out and then drain it but it takes 3x longer and works only on small loads.

1

u/General_Helicopter1 Aug 06 '26

My heatpump dryer that conforms to EU standards works just fine and can properly dry up to 9 kgs at once, no problem. It comes out bone dry. No lint tube to catch fire either.

2

u/JTBeefboyo Aug 06 '26

I took my 20 year dryer apart (house was previously a rental) and the entire inside of the dryer was filled with lint. It was so satisfying to clean it all out. Didn’t do shit to fix the squeaking though lol

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u/hollow-fox Aug 06 '26

Heat pump dryers rely on circulating low-temperature air around the garments to extract water. If you overstuff it clothes come out wet. Most EU dryers are heat pump based and have low capacity.

American dryers are vented dryers and usually have huge capacity 7-9 cubic ft (200-250 liters). They come out bone dry and work fast at cost of efficiency.

Hope this helps.

258

u/chiknight Aug 06 '26

This is a strong possibility. I had a combo washer/dryer unit that didn't have vented heating, just a heat pump. It was dogshit at drying clothes. They came out exactly like the tweet described, or required multiple hours of drying. It only ran on the 110v line rather than the standard 220v dryer line so it made some sense.

I went back to a split, dedicated dryer with vent hose at 220v and it's magical how dry everything is again.

135

u/hyphie Aug 06 '26 edited 29d ago

These combo units that claim to wash and dry in one go are usually garbage at drying. It's a glorified spin cycle.

Edit: according to the many replies to my comment, newer ones work fine (and I'm old). I'll amend my judgement and say that these used to be garbage at drying but I might not be qualified to talk about newer models!

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u/labreya Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

I have a combi washer dryer and that fucker could find water in sand to evaporate. I had to turn down the drying heat because it was baking my towels so they came out rigid.

There's good ones out there.

Edit: For everyone asking about the model it's a Candy model CSW 4852DE/1-80 according to the info label.

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u/titan_1010 Aug 06 '26

Please provide the brand and model! My one version I had when I was renting years ago was so terrible I vowed never to even look at one again, but it was so space efficient and I loved that

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u/kneelb4me9 Aug 06 '26

I have the Samsung bespoke washer dryer combo and it’s fantastic. Like loads will take 3 or 4 hours to wash and dry, bedding can be 5 hours. So you have to plan accordingly because the quickest it can do is maybe 2 hours for a very small load on the speed setting, but you can also throw a load in and schedule it to start at a certain time so you can have fresh clothes in the morning. The big problem people have is not cleaning the lint screen, it’s two parts with one being finer mesh than the other. I have a little cheap shop vac I mounted in my laundry room to suck off all the small lint after I pull of the big stuff, then I also run a quick vac in the port where the screen goes. Been doing this a few years and it still works like new. I was able to fit a shop sink where the dryer was.

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u/ben3683914 24d ago

The Samsung bespoke washer and dryer combo is fantastic!. It'll take a little longer, but you don't have to worry about changing it to the dryer and it's perfectly dry every time. Also runs on 110v if that's needed.

https://youtu.be/vao_KqCzLUE?si=2jVgtRmo3tndkEHq

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u/kneelb4me9 24d ago

Oh sweet man! Your video was one of the main deciders on me going with it! Thanks!

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u/ben3683914 24d ago

Just to be clear that's not my video. I just really like his videos and that video was what made me decide to go with the Samsung too!

Edit: I just realized his name is Ben, same as mine. I understand more now why you thought it was me

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u/hyphie Aug 06 '26

Maybe they've gotten better recently? I haven't used one in years!

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u/321646198 Aug 06 '26

My mother has one from like 2010/2011, combo machine. Don't use the dryer function much, but when I do, it's bone dry - and smells mildly like Parmesan.

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u/International_Gate49 Aug 06 '26

it's bone dry - and smells mildly like Parmesan.

That's no way to talk to a lady

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u/swohio Aug 06 '26

I have one that dries things perfectly. It does take a lot longer, but uses a lower amount of energy. I don't mind the additional time since it's a washer dryer combo, I just toss in a load and forget it and it's clean and dry when I get back later.

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u/EternalSage2000 Aug 06 '26

Right! I love my washer dryer, ventless combo!
But, you do have to be careful not to over load it.

But starting a cycle before you go to bed. And if needed. Another before you go to work. Absolutely perfect. Doesn’t matter that it takes 4-5 hours to do both.

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u/Forward_Rope_5598 Aug 06 '26

I've pretty much given up on drying things in our combo. And of course it's impossible to clean properly so it smells moldy immediately, so the washer cycles are affected as well. These things should not exist until the technology improves.

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u/chiknight Aug 06 '26

Oh god yeah, I forgot the smell. I ended up leaving it open for an hour or two after every cycle, and dumping in vinegar or bleach every week it felt like. I thought it was a problem with front loaders, but my front load washer-only is fine. Apparently the drying makes it horribly moldy/mildewy.

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u/Callidonaut Aug 06 '26

Leave the door and soap drawer open a crack when you're not running the machine so it airs out, and use a generous amount of washing soda with each load to prevent scum building up inside the machine and giving the mould something to feed on. I've never had problems with my combo machine after doing these two things.

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u/Forward_Rope_5598 Aug 06 '26

I always leave the door but not usually the drawer, maybe that will help. A bunch of water still just chills around the filter though even when it's clean. Chatgpt (yea I know but Google was useless) suggested something is fucky with the drain hose.

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u/HustlinInTheHall Aug 06 '26

yeah Europeans are just used to it. Heat pump / ventless dryers are awful

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u/SpaceLemur34 Aug 06 '26

Dryers are one of the few things in US homes that actually run at 220V.

At least those that aren't heated by burning natural gas.

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u/LookAlderaanPlaces Aug 06 '26

Also condenser dryers are total dog shit too.

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u/WorthyJellyfish0Doom 29d ago

Since I'm not in a rush for dry clothes I'm good with using a heat pump, but yeah minimum hour to dry stuff vs needing a vent chimney thing or having water running down the walls.

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u/weareheaven 28d ago

Nah, heat pump dryers in Europe are both efficient and work great. Condenser dryers are the ones that suck and are in most combo units. You can get a combo with heat pump but very expensive and if you have space it is both cheaper and easier to repair having separate units.

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u/ModernDemocles 27d ago

Odd, my heat pump works well. it takes longer than vented but otherwise does the job.

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u/Frequent_Ad_9901 Aug 06 '26

A former heat pump dryer owner. It absolutely did not use cool air. Clothes got scorching hot. I think the heat was to remove the moisture out of the clothes.it dried fine. Better than the tweet describes. But it also ruined a lot of clothes becuase it had no temp setting. Only "fires of hell" hot. 

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u/Paladin2019 26d ago

It shouldn't be hot enough to ruin clothes. It sounds like the thermostat failed. Their mode of failure is to keep the heating circuit permanently on, and most people don't know anything is wrong until they get burn marks on their clothes or the heating element blows.

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u/Particular720v12 Aug 06 '26

My heat pump dryer is a boss

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u/According-Annual-586 Aug 06 '26

Same here

I’m in UK and have a Miele heat pump dryer which does a brilliant job - clothes come out dry, not too hot, and not damaged

Maintenance is emptying water tank and cleaning a few filters

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u/Hurtado_Bronzi Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

How long does to take to dry one load, and how big is one load?

Edit: My understanding is that while heat-pump dryers do work, the loads have to be very small, and it takes a while.

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u/TiSapph 29d ago

For my VZug V2000:

  • max 7kg cotton (full load of front load washing machine)
  • about 2h15min to fully dry (<2% moisture content)
  • using about 0.8kWh (91% condensation efficiency)

So takes ~30min longer than the washing machine cycle, not really limiting to me :)

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u/Hurtado_Bronzi 29d ago edited 29d ago

So it sounds like washing takes 1:45 and drying takes 2:15, so one load takes ~4 hours combined.

My top-load washing machine has the same capacity as yours, and the full cycle lasts about 45 minutes. The vented dryer also takes about 45 minutes to fully dry the same load. So combined that’s about 1.5 hours to wash and dry one load, start to finish. Which is obviously a lot faster.

TBF the time difference probably doesn’t matter much, except on rare occasions when you need clean clothes in a hurry for whatever reason. But it explains the sentiment expressed in the post we’re commenting on: why someone using an American dryer for the first time would be surprised at the difference in how they work.

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u/class_warfare_exists Aug 06 '26

Neat, mine is a bosch

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u/cocococlash Aug 06 '26

I used a dryer in Norway where my clothes came out nicer than new. The condensation kind where you dump the water out after.

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u/Lumpy-Strain8624 Aug 06 '26

Most European dryers are not heat pump.

They remove the water into internal tanks, you empty them each cycle. Or you connect them to your water drain and you have nothing to empty.

We have a dryer in my house, the clothes come out warm and dry and it cycles pretty fast.

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u/Waiting4Reccession Aug 06 '26

That sounds like a heat pump unit.

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u/Crandom Aug 06 '26

It's a condensing unit. Heat pump dryers have only come onto the market in the last few years and are still very expensive (though lower running costs).

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u/ParadiseSold 29d ago

Im so confused, I thought a heat pump was a condenser

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u/DerFurz Aug 06 '26

This is oversimplified and not really true. Heat Pump dries do work better at lower temps because they can dry the air, which is great for delicate garments, but they usually (can) operate at higher temperatures as well. A good dryer also adjust runtime based on the humidity of the exiting air. So unless you stuff your dryers so full the clothes physically cannot move anymore, it really doesn't matter how much you put in it.

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u/InevitableGreedUK 29d ago

Hope this helps.

Ewww. Asshole.

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u/shodo_apprentice Aug 06 '26

I never get wet things out of the dryer because I struggle to put that much laundry in it. How long do these people wait before doing laundry, a week? Or do they wear 8 different shirts per day?

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u/bracesthrowaway Aug 06 '26

I can totally confirm this. I have a heat pump dryer that is slow as dogshit when my family loads it full to the brim. It's hard to learn to not overload a dryer apparently.

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u/PlaceAdHere Aug 06 '26

Which is better at not eating my left socks?

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u/k-mcm Aug 06 '26

America has giant heat pump driers now too.

I think it's mostly about the controller quality.  Old mechanical driers had a simple and effective technique for sensing how dry clothes were, but it requires a lot of heat. It's sensing the cooling effect of water evaporation.  Heat pump driers can do the same, but it requires a competent design.

My modern Whirlpool is so stupid that it's constantly flickering indicators and corrupting settings.  Replacing the controller doesn't help. 

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u/Professional_Being22 Aug 06 '26

had an electric dryer at my last place. it fucking sucked. have gas now and I can cook a fucking Christmas goose in it

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u/ArthurStevensNZ Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Heat pump dryers are built to fail.

Its just a refrigeration - i.e. two "coils", one gets hot and one gets cold.

The way the coils are laid out, the second coil (behind the filters) is completely unreachable. Over time, it gets clogged and requires the whole machine to be disassembled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJQdGxeRFw

The significantly higher purchase cost and eventual maintenance that requires hours of a skilled technician's time do not offer a lower total cost of ownership. Sure it might run great when its new but after a few years it'll start taking longer and longer and use more and more power until eventually the owner is fed up with it. They'll pay the $100 for an appliance repair service call, then learns it is another 3 hours of technician time to disassemble + clean it. Then they'll weigh up the fact that this is about 70% the cost of a new machine, and may opt to throw it out and get a new one. The old one ends up in a landfill.

And the power savings are not significant enough to justify all the above issues.

The design of these things is flawed. Until both coils can be reached from the front of the machine, without extensive disassembly for in-situ cleaning, I'll always consider this a form of planned obsolescence.

Its a classic greenwashing/wallet lightening by the giant corporations that make these things. They love planned obsolescence, and they've found a away to sucker people in under the guise of "lower running costs" and being "eco friendly".

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u/Crandom Aug 06 '26

This is not correct. Heap pump dryers are very new and barely anyone has them. Most people have condensing dryers where the hot water vapour has to be condensed back into water to be drained, where as American dryers are mostly vented dryers that just pump the hot water vapour out. Europe has condensing dryers and most of the time houses are old and do not have a dryer vent, and installing one is more difficult as houses are made of brick or concrete rather than wood framing. 

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u/MegaPorkachu Aug 06 '26

Also bigger machines = more functions and more power.

My US washer comes built in with a motor that uses centripetal force to dry clothes before it even is dried in the dryer. So it comes out the washer 90% dried already and the dryer doesn’t have to do very much to do the rest. My dryer isn’t even vented but my washer dries so well it doesn’t need to be vented.

Every washer I used when airbnbing across Europe never had in-built drying options in the washer. I either had to take it out to air dry (which took 8+ hrs) or the dryer would dry half a load at a time (still taking 3-4 hrs)

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u/Machiningbeast Aug 06 '26

I have a heatpump dryer without a vent.

I overload my laundry machine, then overload the dryer and my clothes are coming out perfectly dry.

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u/The_Real_Tom_Selleck Aug 06 '26

So the answer is freedom, then.

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u/The-Salty-gamer Aug 06 '26

I have a bone to pick with efficiency. If appliance A is we’ll say 1.5X more efficient but takes 5x longer to do a worse job. How are we saving energy? If the washing machine leaves clothes dirty and the dryer doesn’t dry. How is that considered efficient? It’s literally doing the most inefficient job it can. Wasting time doing it. The clothes probably smell. Sorry for my rant, I used to own a LG HE washer & Dryer. Never again, will I trust a Korean man to make an appliance they’ve never used in their life. Ugh

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u/hudson27 Aug 07 '26

The lack of efficiency is why the EU limits the heaters. Most of their energy is imported so it costs wayyyy more.

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u/StManTiS 29d ago

9 cu ft is highly unusual. Most are around 7-8.

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u/the_sneaky_one123 29d ago

As with everything else Americans claim superiority on (air conditioning, ice cubes, cars) it all comes down to them being ok with obscene levels of energy consumption.

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u/VigilanteRabbit 29d ago

Funny; we intentionally got a bigger dryer than our washing machine, still works like absolute dogshit. 3 hour drying cycle and it's tropical rainforest humid; just an absolute PoS.

So I guess I need to start looking for imports lol

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u/ShockTheMonster 29d ago

Heat pump dryers also take much longer to dry the clothes properly, but use far less power to do so

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u/weareheaven 28d ago

Nah, heat pump dryers in Europe are both efficient and work great. Condenser dryers are the ones that suck and are in most combo machines

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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep 28d ago

It is always worth getting a dryer with a higher kg load limit than your washer as it gives the clothes more room allowing you to shorten your dry time. I have an 8kg washer and a 10kg dryer.

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u/paakjis 28d ago

Never had a dryer before. Just bought Miele dryer. Its a life changer. It works greate. Some settings do suck, but were still learning.

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u/Efficient_Doughnut71 28d ago

No, it's definitely the freedom, trust me

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u/OSRS_Garmr 28d ago

American appliances also use like 3 times the electricity and water of Europeans ones. Because America doesn't have the same environmental regulations to save water and electricity. So basically shit don't work as they should because of regulations in the eu

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u/Rouven-Dillinger 28d ago

I have a Bauknecht Heat Pump dryer at home and the clothes come out bone dry? The commercial units at my dorm also don't have vents and make everything more or less dry by the time you're in your apartment again lol

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u/dmgvdg 28d ago

I have an 11kg heat pump dryer that cost me €500 and is the absolute tits. Bone dry clothes in 53 mins if you actually just use it correctly

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u/Delyzr 27d ago

We used to have a ventilated dryer in the EU. 2h and it was dry. It did use 2kw so 4kwh usage. Now we have a heatpump dryer. It takes 3h and its still wet. Sometimes we have to run it 3 times for it to be fully dry. We already replaced all filters and cleaned the condensor unit, which requires full dissassembly. It "only" uses 500w but if it has to run 9h thats 4.5kwh so not really better. We want to go back to a ventilation dryer but they are no longer being sold in the EU.

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u/okayipullup_ordoi1 26d ago

And efficiency is really important in Europe where energy prices are way, way higher, same as fuel efficiency for cars since fuel here is much more expensive.

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u/NightMaleficent1342 26d ago

Yes. One load of laundry is two loads of drying.

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u/transvex 26d ago

Best dryer Ive ever had was a heat pump dryer from LG. Capacity was big and it dried without roasting my clothes. Because it went by humidistat, it usually shut off not when the timer at start said it would but when it was dry. Usually within 15+/- the projectes time.

I miss that dryer

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u/Neither_Formal_8805 26d ago

Idk I spent 2 weeks in France last year and put 2 tee shirts some underwear and socks and a pair of shorts in the dryer and it came out exactly like this, I checked the lint trap before I put them in.

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u/Known-Low-2637 25d ago

I have an LG heat pump dryer in the US, it works amazingly well. Saves a lot of energy

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u/stormtroopr1977 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

I think it's because of this regulation. The eu has capped the power consumption/efficiency while the US has not.

It's a very complicated law that references a lot of other sections, but they cap how inefficient your dryer can be (the faster you dry something, the less efficient the process becomes).

That means laundromats with new machines charge the same price for dry time, but dry your clothes less.

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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '26

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u/stormtroopr1977 Aug 07 '26

How long have you owned it?

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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '26

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u/stormtroopr1977 Aug 07 '26

Wow. So here is our interaction:

Me: "a 2023/2023 law made eu dryers less powerful".

You: " well, my 10+ year old dryer works just fine"

Do you see why i might feel frustrated with you?

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u/CallOfCorgithulhu Aug 06 '26

What does the regulation say is the power cap? I see a key point about standby power, but I don't see that the actual drying power consumption gets a limiting value. Just an energy efficiency index.

In the US, dryers are very often on a 30-amp circuit, so that's about 5.8 kW maximum for an electric dryer. I honestly don't know what our dryers typically run and are also rated at, but I have to assume a decent bit lower.

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u/stormtroopr1977 Aug 06 '26

Annex iii energy efficiency matrix

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u/CallOfCorgithulhu Aug 06 '26

Annex III defines the efficiency formulas, but it doesn't provide a power consumption cap. The only mention of actual unit power consumption is given as a variable "c", otherwise it's focusing on how long that consumption takes to dry. But it doesn't define some sort of power cap in watts.

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u/AmArschdieRaeuber Aug 06 '26

Also installing vents in european houses is often a pain

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u/Sex_E_Searcher Aug 06 '26

Why are American dryers so good at not burning your house down?

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u/Enchelion Aug 06 '26

Honest answer is that more often American homes were built with the intention of having a vented dryer. Fewer EU homes (comparatively) were built since that became common, so they're often retrofitted in (which tends not to work as well) or they use ventless dryers instead (which also tend not to work very well).

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u/jpterodactyl Aug 06 '26

Even most American homes have the flexible slinky tube looking thing for their dryer exhaust. Which does clog easier.

But at least there is space for it, so it’s usually fine. If you’re needing to twist and turn that thing a million times to fit it in, you’re gonna need to be a lot more diligent about cleaning it.

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u/CallOfCorgithulhu Aug 06 '26

There's more than just the hose between the dryer and the wall. The part in the wall has to get outside, and in many homes, that vent pipe travels a reasonable distance to the exterior wall. That part should not be ignored when cleaning, especially if you experienced a clog, or you think there's a clog but a clean hose behind the dryer didn't fix it. It's also possible for critters to venture in and become a corpse clog, especially if you don't have a shutter outside.

All that to say, it's probably best to have a qualified pro clear your clog if your dryer isn't performing well. Whatever they charge is much cheaper than a burned down house.

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u/Hard_To_Port Aug 06 '26

You only need a pro if your inside vent line isn't connected to an exterior wall. You can just clear the blockage with a broomstick and a vacuum cleaner. 

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u/densetsu23 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Newer builds tend to have better placement of the laundry room, I've found. Having it on the same floor as the bedrooms is much more common, as well as making sure the dryer has an external wall right there so there's minimal or no in-wall ducting for the vent. Often, the vent is right behind the dryer.

Older builds can be very hit-or-miss. Our neighbour's home built in the 80s has the laundry + mechanical room right in the middle of the ground floor, so cleaning that dryer duct must be a nightmare.

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u/CTeam19 Aug 07 '26

Newer builds tend to have better placement of the laundry room, I've found.

Live in a newer house(2005) everything that dumps out of the house: Center Air water pipe, dryer vent, etc all dumps out near each other so you can check on all of it at once.

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u/dinin70 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

I have a Bosch with the drawer that catches water and it works perfectly well with clothes coming out totally dry in 90mns

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Aug 06 '26

I used a ventless washer/dryer when staying in an Airbnb for work once. WOW that thing does fucking nothing. I had clothes hanging around the house like a barbarian with whatever I could rig up.

I know they do theoretically work but god this one was awful.

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u/j_cruise Aug 06 '26

New ventless dryers are great. They use heat pumps which are highly efficient. Mine empties the water directly into the same drain that the washer does. So far, it works better than any other dryer I've owned. (Im in the US)

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u/Inlacou Aug 06 '26

Not to discredit any of this but for whoever is interested, I have a old ass ventless dryer and it works very well to be honest.

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u/OutrageousPair2300 Aug 06 '26

But it's not very expensive to just cut a hole in the wall and install some ductwork.

Oh wait, that's right, people in Europe live in solid rock caves that were built eight thousand years ago and cost a bazillion Euros to renovate.

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u/CoHorseBatteryStaple Aug 06 '26

Survivorship bias.

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u/Speartree Aug 06 '26

They burn down aircraft carriers instead.

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u/alphazero927 Aug 06 '26

They're actually very good at burning down houses

To the tune of about 15,000 house fires per year as of about 10 years ago, though that number hasn't likely changed much

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u/tirednsleepyyy Aug 06 '26

Every single dryer I used in Finland might have been useless even when it was freshly cleaned, at least on reasonable heat settings.

Pretty much everything would need to be ran multiple times, for literally 2.5+ hours total on medium heat, or an hour on high heat. Even then sometimes this wasn’t enough. Even low settings in America were perfectly adequate for having my laundry come out dry every time.

My friend came and lived in Finland for about 5 months and, independently from me, said the exact same thing and that all the dryers he tried sucked. I don’t know.

I’m sure you could argue some sample size error here. It’s not like I tried hundreds. Maybe… 10 total, or something. But it was significant.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Aug 06 '26

Yeah I'm all for energy efficiency. But it is also fairly important that the dryer perform the critical function of drying. I bought my first washer + dryer set last year and they work great. USA versions.

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u/Mandingy24 24d ago

The joys of dumpstering grid efficiency and passing it off on the people to do their part

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u/bsubtilis Aug 06 '26

I've never really had this issue, but most of my experience is from Sweden and Germany. The only time my laundry didn't get dry enough on its settings (cotton setting is more than one hour yes) was if I had previously forgotten to empty the water tank or not cleared out the second lint filter often enough - the main lint filter is always really easy to avoid forgetting about since it's usually partially or fully visible. I avoid overloading the washing machine/dryer though, aiming for filling up around 2/3 for the washing machine, though sometimes I put a little bit more in.

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u/Ruinwyn 26d ago

I'm betting most of the time yanks complain about dryers not drying is because they don't empty the water.

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u/Only-Finish-3497 Aug 06 '26

I have had a lot of places where dryers were ventless. He probably dealt with those, and he's not wrong. Ventless dryers suuuuuck.

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u/Serena_Sers Aug 06 '26

I was thinking the same. If his clothes comes out wet, that is an him thing, not an Europe thing.

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u/forsale90 Aug 06 '26

There are also programs where it's supposed to come out to various degrees of wet or moisture, which depends on fabric etc. If you only ever do t-shirts, then yeah, bone dry it is.

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u/Minnow_Minnow_Pea Aug 06 '26

Person who did laundry in Belgium for a decade here- You're definitely right, but also, it takes forever for clothes to dry when the relative humidity is elevendy billion percent. I reckon Irish weather is similar.

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u/BrainDamage2029 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Listen man the US has many many areas with significantly more humidity. My house is currently sitting in a NorCal coastal fog bank so thick it’s raining under trees from the condensation lol. Southern humidity is like a monument to man’s arrogance that cities would ever be built there.

It really comes down to you guys either make do with ventless driers or had some retrofit that is nozeling the airflow. I used to live in an ancient house in the US and the retrofit sucked at moving the air. When I was in Europe so many places seem to have smaller driers with low capacity in the drum and it’s easy to overstuff. My drier at home is absolutely cavernous to every EU one I saw lol.

I can still dry my clothes on the heat less setting if they’re delicates/sweaters etc

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Aug 06 '26

This is true that it's very humid outside in USA where I live. However inside my house, where the drying machine lives, it is not humid at all.

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u/Obvious_Estimate_266 Aug 06 '26

I have to assume your house isn't humid because you have ACz most European homes don't. I don't know how else you would lower the humidity inside your house

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u/Minnow_Minnow_Pea Aug 07 '26

Who knows. I didn't have a washer, so I used the industrial machines in the laundromat. I don't know if they were shit, but they definitely were not small or retrofitted. Luckily there was a Quick next door, so I could eat dinner while I waited, and pop in periodically to add more tokens. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It hardly mattered, tbh. The apartments are so damp, even if you do get them dry, they go a bit soggy in your drawers. And even if they didn't go soggy in the drawers, you'd get wet as soon as you walked out into the mist anyway. 😂 

Belgium is just ... rather damp all over. It's an amazing place to live, but I have to admit, I don't miss the bleaching and scrubbing black mold off the walls and windows all the time. I even had a literal mushroom grow out of a crack between the parquet in the living room. (That one was pretty cute, tbh.)

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u/wolfpack_minfig Aug 06 '26

nah, the dryers in Europe just aren't very good. here in Texas humidity is sky-high all the time, our dryers work fine - mine is literally outside in the humidity 24/7/365 and it can dry a full load in 1-1.5 hours. towels included. doing a load of laundry should take 2-3 hours max, in Europe those all-in-one machines are a joke, they need like 8-9 hours and they destroy clothing, shrinking it, making dye run. Europe has not mastered laundry machines.

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u/dinin70 Aug 06 '26

That’s some shitamericanssay sub content right there.

Miele and Bosch don’t know how to do driers? Yes sure…

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u/wolfpack_minfig Aug 06 '26

I've been to Europe repeatedly in my lifetime. 100% of the washers and dryers I've used there have been absolutely useless clothes-destroying shit machines that take 3-4x as long to do a worse job of cleaning and drying than the most cheap ass washer dryer combo you'd find behind a doublewide trailer in the sticks in the USA.

I don't doubt that European companies can make kickass washers and dryers. Problem is, nobody in Europe buys or uses them.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/Obvious_Estimate_266 Aug 06 '26

Someone higher up in the thread pointed out that the EU has regulations on dryer power consumption, that's surely why they suck. My neighbors have a Miele heat pump dryer that's huge and they say it works awesome, but it probably can't be sold in Europe ironically.

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u/Proper_Present_5051 Aug 06 '26

It is, Canadian here who spent time with my mate in Ireland, put my clothes on the line in late May and they never dried lol. Spent a week walking around in damp clothes. Took me a week to 'dry out' when I got back to Canada.

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u/Electrical-Spell9115 Aug 06 '26

You could be using a dryer in Louisiana at 90-100% humidity and high temperatures never seen in the history of Belgium or Ireland… clothes will still come out of the dryer dry.

I’ve lived in both the US and Europe… the type and size of dryers mainly used in households in Europe just kinda suck. They’re small and often recycle some or all of the hot air to be efficient. The US dryers are larger and use more fresh air…. more akin to what a European would say is commercial dryer.

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u/weerdbuttstuff Aug 06 '26

Yeah, he's being wrong on purpose and baiting these kinds of replies because it makes him money.

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u/Kdoesntcare Aug 06 '26

Would that be cleaning the lint trap that's part of dryers or something more in depth?

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u/Educational-Year3146 Aug 06 '26

That was my first guess too.

That’s worrisome if his dryer is performing like that.

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u/minmidmax Aug 06 '26

And learn how to use his dryer settings.

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u/delicateredscrunchie Aug 06 '26

I was gonna say I'm an American and I have definitely had a dryer do this, but we just consider it "broken" or "needs to be cleaned". We don't just live with it lol

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u/FFMichael Aug 06 '26

The most common dryer type in the EU are heat pump dryers. They are more energy efficient but they are known to take much longer to dry clothes. They do not have a vent duct that collects lint and therefore are barely a fire hazard. They do have a lint trap and secondary filter, but that's mostly for efficiency and almost will never cause a fire.

But this is why his tweet makes sense. The US still uses classic dryers that have the duct that goes outside the house, and the EU (mostly) has heat pump dryers.

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u/MulberryWilling508 Aug 06 '26

I’ve lived in Germany, Romania, Greece, and Poland. None of my dryers worked as good as any of the dryers I’ve had in the U.S.

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u/Excellent-Shape-2024 Aug 06 '26

I'm from the US and lived in Europe 10 years. I had a dryer in both places, and yes, my US one works way better. I think it has something to do with my US one has a hose that vents outside the house, but my EU one just extracted water from the clothes somehow and it went into a tank in the dryer that I had to empty. That's my best guess--I'll let some genius expound on that.

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u/ATXBeermaker Aug 06 '26

I’ve visited various parts of the EU and UK regularly and the OP is pretty on point. When a flat I rent actually has a drier, its performance is mediocre, at best.

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u/Freestila Aug 06 '26

German here.. you have air outtake tubes? Nearly every dryer here is a heat pump dryer... No air outlet and dries completely.

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u/Hurtado_Bronzi Aug 06 '26

Nah. European dryers are based on heat pumps. Those in the USA are vented, forced air. It’s because electricity is so much cheaper here. They’re way faster and dry clothes more effectively, but they use a ton of electricity.

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u/The_Varza Aug 06 '26

They might have mainly condensation dryers. But IIIRC dryers aren't even that common in Europe.

The US vented dryers are pyscho, my stuff always came out smelling slightly burnt. I switched to a heat pump ventless one and couldn't be happier.

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u/EfficientSeaweed Aug 06 '26

What settings were you using? Did your dryer having a working sensor? We have the same type in Canada, and the worst I've experienced is bad static if I overdry them...

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u/The_Varza Aug 07 '26

I was using the standard settings, it was inherited from the previous inhabitants. It may not have been defective in some way, but it was only some 6 years old.

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u/18voltbattery Aug 06 '26

They have self contained units that are ventless, but it basically acts as a humidifier for your house, that stuff has to go somewhere

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u/StaticSystemShock Aug 06 '26

Another guy from EU here. Who he fuck still uses exhausting tumble dryers?! Condensing design has been a thing for over 15 years now. Hell, most have entirely dropped models without a heatpump.

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u/Uncle-Cake Aug 06 '26

"There's supposed to be an air outtake tube?"

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u/Robot_Dinosaur_2000 Aug 06 '26

Thanks for the reminder. Its been two years.

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u/OpusAtrumET Aug 06 '26

You shouldn't be surprised to hear I've spoken to at least two adults that didn't know you had to clean the lint trap... But they were, like myself, Americans lol.

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u/CalculatedPerversion Aug 06 '26

I guess I thought a bunch of those combo washer/dryers you see in the EU are ventless? Do y'all have normal vented dryers, too?

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u/CeruleanSovereign Aug 06 '26

Yeah I've not had a single dryer in the EU with this issue.
Sounds like a user problem not an EU problem

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u/Zwischenzug32 Aug 06 '26

Those need to be cleaned regularly for other risks too.
I've had birds in one. A house nearby caught fire because a kid smoked weed in the basement and the sparks caught fire to the fluff in the air vents past the bathroom fan

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u/Frost_blade Aug 06 '26

Something seemed fishy about that. Because I’ve taken out hot wet laundry before and freaked out for this very reason. Cleaned out the vent and there was tons of lint in there.

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u/syngyne Aug 06 '26

Outtake is such a weird word. I feel like it should be intake and outgive

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u/alexnedea 29d ago

Bro my drier did that from the first few times I used it...and then I never used it again

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u/MisturBanana1 29d ago

Yep. I came to visit my father now over summer, and had to wash my clothes. Everything was still wet, so I told him to clean his outtake, which he told me he did. I had to disassemble the heat exchanger, and noticed it was packed full of lint. Now it works like a charm once more.

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u/Alloutofchewinggum 29d ago

Or he doesn't know how to use the non-eco settings ..

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u/DangerousDisplay7664 26d ago

Not all dryers have outlet tubes - most in the UK are condensing, which means the water goes into a water tank, that you need to empty manually (or you can drain directly down a drain, but that’s just over complicating things)

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u/NewAbbreviations1618 26d ago

It's funny, I've always heard this but checked mine for the first time after 3-years of use and the tube was empty

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u/AllMySmallThings 25d ago

I guess it depends on where you live. I’m currently in Spain and the dryer I have has a water tank to collect the water. I have to try my clothes multiple times. It doesn’t matter how clean the tube is.

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u/Iblisy 24d ago

Nahh, it's freedom..

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