New clothes dryer--gas or electric?

annr

annr

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Nov 15, 2006
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As of last night, I am in the market for a new clothes dryer. We have a gas dryer now, but we can't seem to agree if we should replace it with another gas unit or switch to electric. Any suggestions to help us comparison shop? or break the tie?:) The issue here seems to be the notion that electric is safer than gas.
 
Gas is MUCH cheaper to run than electric. Safety is not really an issue unless you install it wrong, it has no more danger than your stove!
I actually just bought a new washer and dryer a couple of months ago. I did a lot of research on reliability and prices, and determined that the LG was the best blend. We are very pleased with the pair, I would recommended them:thumbup:
A side note: the washer and dryer play a tune to let you know they are finished, an interesting switch from the obnoxious buzz.
 
Gas clothes driers use 20% of the energy of an electric tumble drier. But here in the UK they're 4 times more expensive. They are equally as safe (or not) as each other.
I also get the impression from friends who have gas driers is that they are much quicker to dry the clothes as well.
 
Ditto on the gas dryer. Generally more expensive to buy but cheaper to operate and does a quicker job in my experience.
 
Gas like everyone else has said. Also if you do go electric you will need 220 wired to the dryer. If you currently have gas you probably don't have a 220 plug.
 
There are valves you can get that shut off the gas if there is a break (I believe they are required in California). Not sure how it works for a gas leak compared to a full break, but you can smell a break or buy an alarm that tells when you have a gas build up.
 
Our electric one died. We replaced it with a gas one that a friend gave to us. Works great, no problems. The thing I noticed about it is that our clothes don't smell like burnt lint.

Ric
 
Good call. I've had gas for 11 years and would never go back to electric, given the choice.
 
Good to know all of this. I agree the gas is a better way to go with a dryer. I think that some of the indecisiveness was due to a faulty installation and gas leak we experienced with our most recent dryer. Had to close all doors and windows, not operate any switches, etc., and the gas company guy had to find and fix the problem. There was a certain level of concern to be sure. The fortunate thing was that I noticed the odor only a couple of hours after the installation. Had I gone out all day and then discovered the problem, it may have been a different story....
 
When I worked with appliances I had a lot of customers complain about their gas dryer units albeit a lot of most of those units were very old... customers would purchase gas over electric based purely on what receptacle they had in their home not preference. However, I have seen a lot of customers go out of their way to switch to electric over gas, but rarely the other way around, and I never saw a new home being built with a gas line behind the dryer. Either way I believe its splitting hairs, all you are doing to heating up an element either way. If it was me and I had the choice I am going for electric. Just my 2 cents.
 
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