Used dryer versus new enegy efficient dryer?

[Erma]

As we will move to a single family home in September, no dryer will be available, so I will have to buy one.
At the moment I share one with the other 6 apartments, so I did not have to think about it.
I usually dry about one or two loads per month of terry towels and sometimes bed sheets. Everything else I will hang dry. The terry towels are the only thing I feel a need to tumble dry them because of the very hard water and my sensitive skin. If I don't do this, my skin wil bleed.
I have now seen the option to buy a used dryer for 6 CHF. Recommended energy efficient dryers start around a 1000 CHF and go up to 5000 CHF.

I believe that my energy costs (we will get cheaper electricity due to the nuclear power plant near us) will be less even if I buy a used dryer. Does anyone have calculations or experience with this problem?

[Reynolds531]

New dryers aren't more efficient. They create heat through resistance just like old ones. Can you get a natural gas dryer? That might be worth it depending on your fuel costs.

[Erma]

I never heard of natural gas dryers. Would you fill them with gas like a car? But after I created my post, I found the kwh declaration and the price per kwh. If I use the dryer twice per month after 8 pm, it costs me 2.90 CHF per year in energy. So I will try to get this dryer.

[robartsd]

New dryers aren't more efficient. They create heat through resistance just like old ones. Can you get a natural gas dryer? That might be worth it depending on your fuel costs.

You are correct that there is no potential energy efficeincy gains from one resistive heater to annother, there are many areas where one electric dryer might be more efficent than annother. Directing the heat, airflow, turning the drum. However, generating the heat is where most of the energy goes, so there aren't any big efficiency gains to be had. For nearly everyone, the efficiency gains are unlikely to be worth the cost of new vs. used; especially with the low usage pattern of the OP.

Gas dryers hook up to gas pipes in your house and use a flame to create heat. They still use electricity for the blower and to turn the drum (but don't require a dedicated circuit).

[Erma]

We do not have gas pipes in the house, so that won't work. Only power and water is available.
I will definitively buy a used one. Even if I have to replace it every year it will be cheaper than a new one.

[TheOldestYoungMan]

I hang dry everything.  I used to dry the towels and underthings, as hang drying would leave them stiff, but then I discovered that I can beat the hanging things on the line and it takes the stiffness out.  For towels/sheets I give them an extra shake and crumple.

I vaguely recall this being a thing poked fun at in children's cartoons as a kid, but I imagine it was actually the practice for good laundry back in the day.

Wash 'em.
Hang 'em.
Beat 'em.

[dycker1978]

New dryers aren't more efficient. They create heat through resistance just like old ones. Can you get a natural gas dryer? That might be worth it depending on your fuel costs.

You are correct that there is no potential energy efficeincy gains from one resistive heater to annother, there are many areas where one electric dryer might be more efficent than annother. Directing the heat, airflow, turning the drum. However, generating the heat is where most of the energy goes, so there aren't any big efficiency gains to be had. For nearly everyone, the efficiency gains are unlikely to be worth the cost of new vs. used; especially with the low usage pattern of the OP.

Gas dryers hook up to gas pipes in your house and use a flame to create heat. They still use electricity for the blower and to turn the drum (but don't require a dedicated circuit).

I would venture that the older resistive dryers are more efficient.  The new dryers have a 5500-7500 watt element.  They need to heat faster and hotter so they can dry as fast as the new front load machines can dry.

[GuitarStv]

As we will move to a single family home in September, no dryer will be available, so I will have to buy one.
At the moment I share one with the other 6 apartments, so I did not have to think about it.
I usually dry about one or two loads per month of terry towels and sometimes bed sheets. Everything else I will hang dry. The terry towels are the only thing I feel a need to tumble dry them because of the very hard water and my sensitive skin. If I don't do this, my skin wil bleed.
I have now seen the option to buy a used dryer for 6 CHF. Recommended energy efficient dryers start around a 1000 CHF and go up to 5000 CHF.

I believe that my energy costs (we will get cheaper electricity due to the nuclear power plant near us) will be less even if I buy a used dryer. Does anyone have calculations or experience with this problem?

We have a dryer and use it only a couple times a year.  It seems very wasteful to dry stuff, doubly so if you're buying a new dryer.  Have you tried flicking out the towels/beating on them after hang drying them to make them softer?  Even modifying the way that you use the towel (don't scrape the towel up and down your skin, just dab it against your body gently) might help.

[With This Herring]

For 6 CHF for a used dryer (really? that's so cheap! It looks like around $6.15 USD per Google!) and using the dryer so infrequently, I would say go for the used one!  That seems like a small price to pay so that your towels don't abrade your skin.  (If this becomes an issue with your other clothes, you might look into a water softener for your new home in a while).

I have found that other cloth can be beaten into softness easily, but as terrycloth has all the individual twisted strands to soften, the only way to soften them is to rub them vigorously against each other. It doesn't seem worth the trouble at the prices you mention.

[alsoknownasDean]

I've seen new dryers for a few hundred dollars, so I'm surprised that they start from 1000CHF where you are.

But in this case, I'd probably just go for the used one provided it's clean.

Although if it's infrequent, could you take the towels to the laundromat? Where I live I don't have space for a dryer, so whenever I need to use a dryer (such as when it's winter and raining outside), I just take everything to the laundromat and use their dryers for a few dollars.

[Erma]

I think I have never seen a laundromat in Switzerland. Usually apartments share a washing machine and a dryer in the basement and newer apartments have them built in. And as almost everybody rents and has these things provided, it's probably not worthwile to run a laundromat business.