How much does it cost to run a tumble dryer?

A tumble dryer cycle costs about 34p for a heat pump model and 89p for a condenser or vented model at the UK price cap. Calculator per cycle, month and year, with measured data.

By the Wisiko editorial team · Published 8 October 2026 · 2 min read

Pick your dryer type: the calculator fills in a default energy use per cycle, which you can replace with your model’s figure from its product information sheet. Then set how many loads you dry per week and your price per kWh.

Where the defaults come from

Which? measures the energy use of every tumble dryer it tests and publishes the average annual running cost per type, based on three cotton loads a week (drum 70% full) at 26.32p per kWh. Dividing those costs by the price and by 156 cycles a year gives the average energy per cycle:

Which? also found a wide spread within each type: from £33.49 to £93.73 a year for heat pump models, and £113.80 to £181.45 for condensers.

Cost per cycle and per year

At three loads a week:

US full-size electric dryers are usually vented and larger than European models, so energy per load can be higher; gas dryers are common too and are not covered by this calculator.

Real-world use is often lower

ADEME, the French environment agency, metered appliances individually in French homes for a year (July 2023 to July 2024). For condenser dryers (17 units measured), the median was 131 kWh a year, and half the units used between 48 and 239 kWh. That is far less than the 530 kWh of a three-loads-a-week scenario, a reminder that the calculator is only as good as the number of cycles you enter. See our measured appliance energy table for other appliances.

Is a heat pump dryer worth it?

A heat pump dryer costs more to buy but uses roughly 2.5 times less energy. At three loads a week under the UK cap, it saves about £86 a year: a £300 price difference pays back in about three and a half years. Which?’s own example shows a heat pump model becoming cheaper overall than a condenser model by year two. If you only dry one load a week, the saving drops to about £29 a year.

Six ways to cut the cost

1. Spin at a high speed in the washing machine: less water in, shorter drying.
2. Fill the drum without overfilling: two half loads cost more than one full load.
3. Clean the lint filter after every cycle, and the condenser or heat exchanger as the manual says.
4. Use sensor drying rather than timed programmes.
5. Sort by fabric: heavy towels take much longer than synthetics.
6. Air-dry whenever you can: it’s free.