If you’re considering a ventless dryer, you might be wondering how it’s different from the vented dryers you’ve always had.
You might also be skeptical if it’s going to get your clothes dry.
You may live in an apartment or condo and be tired of taking your laundry out, or you may want to put laundry on the second floor of your house or in a small closet.
All are great reasons to consider a ventless dryer.
But if you haven’t had one before, it’s hard to know if it’s going to meet your expectations and be worth the money.
Let me help make your decision easier.
When I was planning my second-floor laundry closet, I knew I wanted to go with a ventless dryer. I didn’t have a ton of space, and I didn’t want to add an ugly vent onto the front of my house.
I had had a Bosch ventless dryer in my old Brooklyn rental apartment and loved it. To be fair, I would have loved anything—I was thrilled to quit going to the Laundromat.
But when I started shopping earlier this year, I knew all about the quirks.
In this article, I’m going to share that experience with you.
We’ll walk through the pros of ventless dryers, and I’ll share the top model we recommend. Stick around, and I’ll tell you about a few potential cons too.
Unless you’ve lived in a tiny city apartment like I have, you probably haven’t used a ventless dryer before.
Only 2 percent of American homes have one. They’re not exactly new, though. Most Europeans use ventless dryers because they’re compact and energy efficient.
I totally get it if you feel unsure about whether they work and how they measure up to the vented kind you’re used to.
So let’s start with the pros.
Table of Contents
Pros
#1: You can put one pretty much anywhere. Like I mentioned, and like the name says, you don’t have to vent these dryers to the outside of your house the way you do a traditional dryer.
All you need to get one going is an electrical outlet and about two square feet of space—a plumbing connection can be optional.
I decided to put my washer and dryer on the opposite side of the wall from a bathroom to tap into the existing pipes.
One note: Some ventless dryers can plug into a standard 120 volt outlet, while others need 240 volts. The latter might mean buying an adapter or calling in an electrician, so check the specs before you buy.
Also, if you get a steam dryer, make sure your installer hooks it up to water, too.
For maintenance, you don’t have to worry about clogs in the vent that runs outside, either. Those can be a fire hazard, so you need to do a yearly check. With a ventless dryer, there isn’t one! You just have to clean out the regular lint trap after each load.
#2: Your clothes, sheets, and towels will last longer. Here’s something you should know upfront: towels and clothes don’t come out hot from a ventless dryer.
It doesn’t heat up as much as a vented dryer, which means it’s gentler on your clothes. You’ll notice that fabric and elastic don’t wear out as fast.
#3: Your electric bill may go down. Traditional vented dryers take in air from inside your house, heat it up to dry your clothes, and then release the resulting hot, moist air outside.
That takes a lot of energy. It can also make your HVAC system work a little harder.
Ventless dryers are a closed loop—they reuse the same air to dry your clothes, remove the moisture from it, and send the water out through your plumbing or into a container you empty. They use less energy all around.
How do Ventless Dryers Work
Now that you know all the pros, let’s get into a few details.
As I said earlier, ventless dryers have a closed loop system that recycles the air. They can do that in two different ways, so there are two different kinds of ventless dryers: condenser and heat pump.
With both kinds, air goes into the drum and gets heated up. As it mixes with your clothes, it extracts the water from them.
The difference is in how they process that water.
A condenser dryer gets hotter and drains the water away. A heat pump dryer cools the moist air then drains away the water.
It’s a subtle difference, but the net result is that a condenser dryer gets warmer and thus can dry more clothes more quickly, while a heat pump dryer is more energy efficient.
Best Ventless Dryer
You’re probably also curious which models we recommend, so let’s not waste any time.
The Miele TXi680WP is our top overall choice. It’s actually the one I picked for my home.
It’s a heat pump dryer, and it has two features that sold me on it.
One is PerfectDry, which ensures your clothes get dry even if you cram a ton of towels in there. Two is the SteamFinish setting, which helps iron out wrinkles and refreshes delicate fabrics like silk without a wash.
I also loved that the matching washer has an automatic detergent dispenser, steam, and an industry-leading leak protection system.
Cons
Finally, I want to leave you with a few downsides for any ventless dryer.
Truth be told, if you have the room and the ability to vent out easily, we tend to recommend that most people go with a vented dryer. It’s just what Americans are used to and what most people will be happier with.
Here’s why.
Ventless dryers take longer to dry. Like more eco dishwashers, the cycle time is just longer. If you care more about time efficiency than energy efficiency, go vented.
Most also can’t dry as much at one time as a vented dryer. They have less capacity because the cooler temperatures just can’t dry as much.
The biggest ventless dryer available, Whirlpool’s WHD862CHC, is a heat pump dryer that can hold 7.2 cu. ft. of laundry—close to the capacity of an average vented dryer.
But you may find that it doesn’t dry your clothes quite as well or quickly.
An average ventless dryer, just over 4 cu. ft., can dry a king-size comforter, but don’t expect to throw any sheets in there with it.
Finally, ventless dryers cost more. Over time, this’ll balance out with lower bills, but it’s still a bigger upfront investment that you might not want to make.
For me, the flexibility to install my dryer where I wanted without too much hassle and the easier maintenance outweighed any of these cons.