Advantages and Disadvantages of using a Clothes Dryer

Last Updated on May 11, 2020

We all know how useful a washing machine is – rinsing away dirt in no time. The only issue is that the clothes that get out of the washing machine are dripping wet! You can’t wear them straight out of the machine. You will have to wait for hours for your clothes to completely dry out. For every typical 4kg load, at least two full litre water bottles have to dissipate so that there is no hint of soaked water in your clothes! To solve this problem, the latest appliance that households are investing in is the dryer. It completely absorbs the wetness and moisture from your clothes, leaving them ready-to-wear. It is still not a very popular choice, but it’s worth considering. Let’s explore further and understand what the advantages and disadvantages of a dryer are.

Advantages of a Clothes Dryer

Use it any time of the day

The best thing about a dryer is that you can use it anytime. It doesn’t matter what the weather conditions are. On the contrary, if you hang your clothes outdoors, you will have to wait for the sun to shine bright. Bright coloured clothes might even fade in the sun.

Ready-to-wear clothes

A dryer’s main purpose is drying. The fact is that using a washing machine’s drying cycles won’t dry your clothes the way a dryer does. A dryer functions in a much more faster and efficient way. If you are planning to air-dry garments and if you live in humid places, your clothes will take even longer to dry.

Wash bulky items with ease

Forget hanging heavy items on a clothesline, even running a heat cycle in your washing machine to dry them will definitely not work. Using a dryer is the fastest drying method you can resort to. Heavy items can easily fit inside dryer racks.

Save laundry time

If you use a washing machine and a dryer, it can save you a lot of time, especially if you have multiple loads to wash. All you have to do is while you are washing the current load in your washing machine, you can put your previous load in the dryer. You will have your set of clothes ready sooner than you can imagine.

Prevent build-up of mold

If you air-dry clothes, the moisture seeps into the air inside your household, making it damp. This can cause the growth of mold, which is hazardous for health. On the other hand, a dryer vents out the moisture or condenses it and drains it off.

Great for winters

Wet clothes inside your home during winters means the temperature is going to drop further. This leads to an increase in energy required to keep your home warm. Instead, if you use a dryer, you can get completely dry clothes with a lesser amount of energy spent. Also, there will be no hint of water which can make you prone to getting the chills.

Required in dusty places

A clothes dryer is also useful in areas that are dusty and polluted, and where it is not possible to dry your clothes out on a line else, they might get dirty again.



Stackable

A clothesline often needs to cover a large area. If you use both a washing machine and a dryer, don’t worry about space constraints. You just need to stack the two appliances. You can get more done in lesser time.

High capacity

The drum of a dryer is larger than that of a washing machine. It can also accommodate more clothes than your clothesline at a single time.

Aesthetics

A clothesline spoils the look of your otherwise well-furnished house. Consider investing in a dryer if you don’t want your house to look shabby.

Removes lint

The dryer is useful in removing lint. In case a fabric gets washed with a tissue in a pocket, the tissue disintegrates and is found all over the washed clothes. The clothes dryer can trap all of the destroyed tissue, freeing the clothes of lint and tissue. This is not all. Washing your towels in a dryer makes them fluffier and your clothes need less ironing once a cycle has been run on them.

Disadvantages of a Clothes Dryer:

Adds to cost

Anyone would agree that hanging your clothes on a clothesline is a much cheaper option. A dryer is an expensive investment that takes time to pay off.

Not all dryers are the same

It is recommended that you buy a dryer that has the same capacity as that of your washing machine. If you buy one with lesser capacity, you will have to separate the loads into smaller loads and the entire purpose of a dryer drying clothes fast gets defeated.

Energy usage

Clothes dryers are powered by electricity and consume a lot of power. Therefore using a dryer adds significantly to the utility cost, as opposed to the clothesline that dries your clothes free of cost and doesn’t use up energy.

Humidity level

Some clothes dryers, even though there are very few, can increase the humidity level inside your home. You will have to choose a dryer with a vent pipe or instead leave the windows open when the dryer is working.

Not suitable for all clothes

Synthetic fabrics after drying in a dryer are full of static electricity. The clothes become too fluffy. Knitwear and woolen clothes do not get completely dry in the dryer. Clothes with elastic wear out early. Edges of fabric fray. Delicate clothes shrink on repeated exposure to heat from the dryer.

Costly repair

Dryers are not very commonly available. Understandably, not many offer repair services for dryers. Hence, when broken down, repairing the machine can be a costly affair.

Installation

When it comes to installation, dryers are not as convenient to install as a clothesline.

Noise

They also cause a lot of noise during the drying cycle.

Maintenance

Lint filter needs frequent cleaning, which adds to the machine’s maintenance.



Final Verdict:

Clothes dryers have their own advantages and disadvantages. With a little care and maintenance, your investment in a dryer can save you a lot of time and effort. Overall, having dry, crisp clothes, especially during the monsoon, makes buying the dryer worthwhile.