Our old tumble dryer recently gave up the ghost, and hence, we were in the market for a new one. Now the market for tumble dryers is vast, with a large array of models with numerous features and a range of prices, and that is before you even start thinking about condenser or vented. But a friend of ours had recently bought this Indesit IDC85 model and told how brilliant it was, and we sort of backed up that 'glowing' recommendation with a search for a few reviews of this model on the web (including this very site) and it did seem to be well received by quite a few people. Hence, we eventually purchased it from John Lewis for £199, partly because it also came with a 2-year guarantee included.

If we start with the basic specs of this model, it is a standard sized white box arrangement that is common amongst most domestic appliances, being 85cm high by 59.5cm wide by 58.4cm deep. So it will fit into a standard size space for your washing machine etc under a counter. Looking at the front of the machine, rather than the more traditional round glass door, it has a flat panel white door instead to put your items into the machine. Hence, in my perception, this looks quite stylish. Additionally the door and opening are quite wide, meaning that it is easy to get your items (and larger items like duvets) in and out of the dryer, where it has a capacity of up to 8kg.

The manual twist dial control on the top right is unfussy, to give you a 160 minute timer, with a push button to the side to give you the 2 heat settings - high and low. You also have an additional push button to start the drying cycle. The machine also incorporates a reverse tumble option and a freshen up cycle, when you just want to give your items a quick tumble. So the general controls are simple and straight forward for this basic tumble dryer. In the front just below the opening, you also have a gauze fluff filter which catches all of the loose fibres and dust. Of note, it always pays to keep this as clean as possible because the warm air goes through it. Leavening it blocked up with fluff means that the air can't flow, and hence it takes longer for your clothes to dry, ultimately costing you more money in electric. Personally, we just have just got into the routine of checking that it is clean each time we go to use the tumble dryer, to ensure that the machine is always running at best efficiency.

Speaking of electric, it brings me on to the energy consumption. Now a tumble dryer is not the most energy efficient of household items because it is using electrical power to generate heat. This particular dryer has an energy efficiency rating of C, more specifically an energy consumption of 5.12kWh per cycle based on a dry cotton cycle. You can get more efficient dryers with an energy efficiency rating up to B, but then you start to pay significantly more for the machine - in my experience, upwards of £550 or more. Beware that there are some unscrupulous sellers on eBay who claim that they are selling dryers with an A efficiency rating. But if you do your research on the model that they are selling, the chances are that it will be a C efficiency rating, which seems to be the standard for many tumble dryers in the same price range as this Indesit IDC85 model.

The other good point which drew us towards this dryer was the fact that it was a condenser model, where you have a container in the top of the machine that catches and condenses the water vapour from the dryer. Tumble dryers are either vented (with a large pipe out of the back of the machine to go outside) or condenser (where the water dried out from the clothes is retained in a container within the machine). With this latter version, you can pretty much locate the dryer anywhere within your home, meaning that you are not tied to being near a window, or have the need to smash a hole through an outside wall for the vent pipe to pass through from a vented model.

In use, the dryer seems to work very well. The large opening is a blessing, making it very easy to fill and empty the machine. Drying times are quick. Obviously heavy items like jeans and large towels will take more time, but comparing it with our old Hotpoint model, this Indesit model does seem to be slightly quicker. Light weight items such as sheets, shirts, blouses etc dry very easily, and we have equally tried the dryer at various fullness levels, where each time it has performed very well, drying evenly throughout, where a full load of these more light weight items will be dried within the hour. Of note, we tend to use the high heat option more than anything else when we do use the dryer. The inbuilt reverse tumble action also seems to work well in that it is meant to stop your clothes getting too tangled or creased, and the results on the clothes coming out of the dryer seem to prove that this action is very effective. The machine also has a refresh cycle for clothes that are only slightly damp, but this is an option that we rarely use.

In terms of noise, well you do notice that it is running, but I wouldn't say excessively so, more of a low hum than anything else. You could easily hold a conversation next to this machine without any problems. So it shouldn't really make an annoying racket in your kitchen or utility room.

Another interesting design feature that we didn't really appreciate at first is the fact that with the water container at the top of the machine, pulling it out of the front to empty it is really easy, avoiding spills etc. No fuss, and no fiddling around with clips or fasteners - it just pulls out, empty the water away and slot it back in ready to use the machine again. You do have an option to plumb the machine in so that the water can just drain away down a drain, but we have never set this up and simply just empty the container as required. But it does hold quite a lot of water before it needs emptying.

Any negative points? In my opinion, not really. This is a basic no frills tumble dryer with basic controls. I've seen some reviews for this model where people have complained about the lack of sensors that are supposed to switch the machine off when the clothes are dry. But those sort of features are normally only available on the more expensive machines, and hopefully people would have been aware of the lack of those features on this machine before they bought it. To me, it is not really an issue because we know that a full load will be dry in about an hour anyway.

In summary, at £199 the price puts this machine in the middle of the budget range of tumble dryers, giving you a large capacity, excellent performing tumble dryer with basic controls. If you want more controls, bells and whistles (that you probably won't use) then you will pay more. But this machine does exactly what I want it to do - dry clothes etc in an efficient manner. Throw in the condenser option, meaning that you can site the machine anywhere, and then consider the 2 year guarantee for the price, and you can't go wrong. Hence, a 5 star recommendation from me.

Review also on Ciao under Randal1.