Gas dryer or electric?

September 30, 2005 12:26 PM

Time for a new clothes dryer. It'll be a front-loader, if that makes a difference. Should I go with gas or stay with electric? And why?
posted by spilon to home & garden (15 comments total)

Electric. Reason: If you ever move, you may not have gas.
posted by letterneversent at 12:36 PM on September 30, 2005

Normally I'd go for gas, but the rumor is that gas prices are going to double this winter.
posted by mecran01 at 12:38 PM on September 30, 2005

According to my reader's digest fixit guide, they can be converted from one to the other.
posted by mecran01 at 12:39 PM on September 30, 2005

Gas will be very expensive this winter due to hurricane weather and will continue to be expensive afterwards. I would recommend electric.
posted by Rothko at 12:42 PM on September 30, 2005

My parents' gas drier was forever going wrong, I think they got rid of if after a few months.
posted by TheDonF at 12:43 PM on September 30, 2005

The long end of the NG curve has a nice downward slope, indicating that Rothko's opinion of the future direction of NG prices may not represent the prevailing wisdom.

Gas and electric dryers are quite similar. There's really no reason that one should be substantially more relaible than the other. Parts unique to gas (flame sensors, thermocouples, etc.) are mostly easy and inexpensive to repair and troubleshoot.

And, of course, on an actual-energy-consumed basis, gas is friendlier than electric, and thus (arguably) more environmentally friendly.

Myself, I love gas dryers. YMMV.
posted by Kwantsar at 1:01 PM on September 30, 2005

When shopping around, look for the dryer designs that have the lint filter screen that pulls out of the top, not the one that's inside the door. A service man told me that the top-filter design typically has less problems with lint build-up & fewer required cleanings = lives longer.
posted by Pressed Rat at 1:09 PM on September 30, 2005

I believe many models are convertible. Given current gas pricing, I'd have it installed to use the electric heating element.
posted by alms at 1:11 PM on September 30, 2005

Re what Pressed Rat said: we have a top-filter design and I hate it. It makes a huge mess every time I empty it. I much perfer the inside-the-door kind. I would rather have to pay to have it cleaned out a few times, but obviously, that's a personal thang.
posted by dpx.mfx at 1:44 PM on September 30, 2005

One KWh can be converted to 3413 Btu of heat, therefore one million Btu (MBtu) is about 293 KWh.
1 MBtu = 293 Kwh

One million Btu is about 10 Therms of gas
1 MBtu = 10 Therms

Then, for an electric dryer to be cheaper to run than the gas version of the same model, one therm of gas would have to be 29.3 times more expensive than one KWh of electricity.

My electricity costs me $0.216 a KWh, or $63.29 for 1 Mbtu
My gas is $1.68 per therm, or $16.80 for 1 Mbtu

Even if gas prices double for me, gas is still a *much* cheaper source of heat.

enery conversion table
posted by darkness at 1:57 PM on September 30, 2005

Also, in my state (california), 41.9% of electricity was generated from natural gas in 2004. If natural gas prices go up, the cost of electricity will also rise.
source

In your state, (georgia) it appears that the majority comes from coal, and 6.8% from gas, so you shouldn't have the same issue.
source
posted by darkness at 2:16 PM on September 30, 2005

Former major appliance technician here, gas is better.

1) Quicker, a gas dryer will often put out more heat than an electric thereby drying your clothes faster because the electric is limited by the size of the service.
2) cheaper, if gas doubles in price most places electricity will follow because of the large number of gas fired electric plants.
3) better for the environment, minimal transmission losses.
4) simpler, the safety controls for a gas burner are less complex than those for an electric element and the actual burner itself will practically never wear out. An electric element has a service life. The price to repair is about the same but an electric element and it's controls have about four times as many things to go wrong compared to the gas unit.
5) and better for your clothes because of the slightly moist heat of a gas fired unit tends to prevent singeing.

Plus you can use that big 30A 240V service to power your hot tub/sauna/cabinet saw. The only draw back is the slightly higher initial purchase price. And obviously you need to have a gas supply.

Take a look around commercial laundries and laundromats; it isn't whim that the vast majority are using gas fired dryers (and water heaters).
posted by Mitheral at 2:18 PM on September 30, 2005

Do you have natural gas? Do you have a gas line plumbed to your laundry room? If not, is it worth the effort / cost?
posted by vaportrail at 4:16 PM on September 30, 2005

In either case, look for a dryer that can measure dryness via a humidostat or other such similar device. This means that it can dry clothes until they're dry. Most "auto dry" mechanism measure the temperature of the output and that's not so reliable.
posted by plinth at 6:33 PM on September 30, 2005

Wow -- thanks for all the great info! To clarify: yes, we have natural gas, but it does not currently run in the laundry area. But that area is being reconfigured as the result of a new bathroom project, so we'll be moving the electric and water supplies anyway. Our water heater (gas) is directly below in the crawl space, so running a new gas line up from there should be a breeze.
posted by spilon at 9:13 PM on September 30, 2005