Hello experts,
Have provision for both. Which one is better in terms of operation cost/safety/performance/etc? Looking Pros and cons.
thanks in advance
From Consumer reports:
Electric dryers are the big sellers. Decades of testing revealed that electric and gas dryers perform similarly. We now only test electric models, but their gas versions appear in our Clothes Dryer Ratings because we expect them to perform comparably. An electric dryer requires a 240-volt outlet. For a gas dryer you’ll need a 120-volt outlet and a gas hookup. Gas dryers cost about $50 to $150 more, but you’ll probably spend less on energy and more than make up the difference over time.
Gas is much cheaper to operate but the appliance will cost slightly more to purchase. PG&E says it is 50% cheaper to operate a gas dryer.
http://www.pge.com/myhome/edusafety/workshopstraining/pec/tour/washdry.shtml
Which one is more reliable and near hassle free maintenance. Gas is obviously more expensive to install.
I have owned a Kenmore (made by Whirlpool) washer and gas dryer since 1995. The washer has needed a few repairs over the years, but I have NEVER had to repair the dryer.
If you have, or intend to have, solar panels, buy an electric dryer. Otherwise gas dryer if it’s easy to route the gas.
Thanks for following ur replies.
There seems to be a requirement for gas dryers, to have a 18 inch platform to stand on. Else the technician will refuse to install it. How to overcome this? Is there a place where I can buy this platform ready made?
Thnx
Weird. We didn’t have a problem with that, but the laundryroom is in a raised room.
Many units come with drawers underneath. I didn’t particularly feel like paying for them, but it does raise the units to a more comfortable level and allow taller baskets to fit underneath (I went into Sears with my laundry baskets as that was a requirement–the door had to clear the basket when on the floor)
I’ve had both types. Current one is electric. Newer research indicates that the modern electric dryer is efficient and has minimal cost difference in usage.
With gas make sure to install it correctly to alleviate the risk of a gas leak.
With electric expect to buy a cord to match the outlet. 220 outlets can vary. We recently replaced our electric dryer and we took the cord off the dead one and pit it on the new one. Easy.
With either operate only when home. Too many fires start in laundry rooms. We had a gas dryer that stopped drying. When the technician opened the dryer it was packed full of lint and there was evidence that a fire started. Fortunately the fire trigger some thirty cent part to fail which kept it from igniting. Close call
The tech said to open the dryer yearly to vacuum it out. Might depend on the dryer.
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If you care about costs gas is a no-brainer. Sure, electricity (ignoring transmission line losses) is up to 100% efficient, but generating heat from electricity is still way more expensive than buying the equivalent heat content via natural gas.
Let us consider.
Most folks are on a residential E-1 schedule from PG&E. Depending upon how much electricity you use each month, the marginal cost of additional kWh’s is either $0.182, $.241, or $.40 per kWh. At 100% efficiency, 1 kWh will generate 3412 btu of heat. 1 therm is approximately (but not exactly) 100K btu.
So using the electricity to generate heat, the $ cost per therm of heat works out to be $5.33, $7.06, or $11.72.
Now let’s consider natural gas. The available heat content of natural gas varies depending upon the specifics of type and quality, but the generally accepted range is 950-1150 btu/ccf. For the sake of simplicity we will pick the lower end of the range and call it 1000 btu/ccf. Natural gas is typically billed in units of 100ccf which is same as 1Ccf.
Then conveniently 1Ccf will get you 1 therm of heat at 100% efficiency. PG&E residential natural gas schedule currently bills 1Ccf at $1.09 baseline or $1.58 per Ccf above baseline. Let’s assume our dryer is 80% efficient, so the cost per therm is then $1.36 or $1.98 respectively.
So, in CA at the most extreme case electricity works out to be 8.6 times as expensive as gas or best case electricity is “only” 2.7 times as expensive as using natural gas.
Thus in CA, using electricity for heat is generally not going to give a good result if you care about dollar value for energy.
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I want a sun dryer.
I want a hybrid dryer which uses a solar tube to pipe the summer sunlight into the dryer to heat up the air. Especially on a 90 degree day.
Yes, I could hang my clothes up, but it’s a pain, my laundry room is on the front of the house, and you have to bring them in to finish them in the dryer anyways other they’re stiff.
I’m in the market for a washer and gas dryer. What brand and model do you guys recommend? Maybe less than $1500 total if possible.
Do not get LG washer. Mine had a premature death.
Speed Queen.
Not only reliable and durable but very quiet compared to say Amana. Some new ones are so noisy you can’t hold a conversation a room away while they’re running and so poorly made technicians get cut up trying to service them because the non-customer contact parts aren’t even de-burred anymore (again Amana).
The modern front load washing machines are crap…Noisey and break down…the good old fashioned top loaders will last 20 years…I would rather have a 10 year old Maytag than a new front loader…In my apartments I use a service that supplies top loaders. They supply and service and give me half the revenue.
We have a Samsung and it’s lasted 8 years with no maintenance. But I’ve heard others have problems.
I recommend electric dryer and solar panels. If you can’t do solar, then not sure.