Not My Laundry Fairy (Creda Advance Condenser Tumble Dryer)

Member Name: jillmurphy

Product:	Creda Advance Condenser Tumble Dryer
Date:	26/06/04 (5051 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Efficient, Good price

Disadvantages: Noisy, Hot, Pain in the neck

Ok, I admit it. When talking laundry, my green credentials fall flat on their face. My intentions are good, but my results suck monkey rude things. It is true. I do not like laundry. I do not like sorting smelly socks, retrieving sticky sweets from pockets, or pens, or five-pound notes, or precious trading cards. I wash them all, to deleterious effect. I do not like pegging out washing. I do not like ironing. The whole laundry shebang is far too effortful for a lazy person like Murphy. Sod the energy consumption ? I tumble dry far too much. This is why, when my old tumble dryer was deemed too geriatric to be moved from London to Devon, I bought a new one as soon as my little lazy feet hit Devon soil.

I bought a Creda advance T622 Condenser Dryer, and I was hoping that I would be able to rename it Murphy's Laundry Fairy. However, things did not work out quite as I had hoped?

I bought this model for a number of reasons ? some of them good, some not so good. Firstly, I chose a condensing model, not a vented model, because initially I needed to place the dryer in my kitchen. The dryer was not going to sit anywhere it would be possible to site a vent hose and I did not want a hot, steamy kitchen, full of expelled moisture from a tumble dryer. This had been the case with my previous dryer and I was fed up with the heat, the steam and the resulting sticky surfaces. Condenser models have a reservoir to collect the moisture from dried clothes. Secondly, I needed a full 6kg load capacity because I do nowhere near enough pegging out and far too much tumble-drying. Thirdly, I needed many things for the new house and I had a budget. The Miele dryer that had caught my beady eye was twice the price of the Creda ? I paid £209 at Comet a year ago ? so that
one was scrubbed from the list. Fourthly, I was in a hurry and had suitcases of laundry to do and the Creda was available on a two-day delivery.

I told you I was lazy!

I have had the dryer for a year now. It is a good dryer. It dries very efficiently. It is easy to use. Twist the timer, press a button and go. There are two heat settings and so it is possible to dry delicate items without damaging or shrinking them. My sofas have removable covers that should only be dry-cleaned but I can wash them on a delicate 30-degree cycle in my machine and dry them successfully on the cool heat setting on the Creda with no problems at all. It seems to work more quickly than the drying guide on the front would tell you ? a full load of general washing should take around 90 minutes according to the guide, but I find 70 minutes is sufficient. I can dry a full load of jeans in only a little more time than that, despite the guide recommending almost an hour and a half. I have used the Creda at least every other day (oh, the shame for a wannabe environmentalist!) for the past year and it has had no problems at all. Because the drum rotates two ways, clothes emerge barely creased. If you are quick to remove and fold laundry when the programme has finished, you will need to iron hardly a thing. It is a sturdy, dependable, efficient drying machine.

So far, so good. It is not Murphy's Laundry Fairy though.

It is NOISY. It is really, really noisy. Whirr, whirr, thump, thump: this is a noisy machine. Thankfully, it is no longer in my kitchen but now in my conservatory ? two rooms away from where I am watching TV or listening to music. This is a blessed relief. Nobody wants to have to turn up their television to drown out the sound of the appliance in the next room. Far noisier than my
washing machine, I was dreadfully disappointed by the Creda. My husband works nights, and I could not do any drying during the day while the dryer was in the kitchen because the darn thing woke him up, it really is that loud.

It is HOT. My goodness, perhaps it is because the condenser is so busy turning steam back into water, but this dryer gives off a lot of heat. Again, this does not matter much to me now the dryer is out of the way in my conservatory, but when it was in my kitchen it was a real pain. I could not bear to use the dryer while I was cooking for fear I would expire. Perhaps, this winter, I will be glad of the odd burst of heat in an otherwise unheated conservatory, but last winter, in my kitchen, I found it a real drag.

It is a PAIN. I fear that my daydreams of a Laundry Fairy led me to expect too much from the Creda. I thought the condensing action would be As If By Magic. I really did not realise there would be so much to it. Not only do you need to clean the fluff filter after every load ? I did that with my old tumble dryer anyway ? but you also need to empty the water bottle. If you do not do these two things religiously, the one will prevent your washing from drying at all and the other will flood your kitchen floor. You also need to clean out the condenser unit once every half dozen or so loads. This is a real pain in the neck. The unit needs to have water run through it to remove the fluff and detritus. However, the unit is large and you need a decent pressure of water to clean it successfully. I cannot fit the unit into my kitchen sink and under the tap ? it is just too big. I cannot pour jugs of water through it because that will not remove the fluff properly. Therefore, I have to take it out, walk it dripping through my dining room, into the hall and to the
downstairs bathroom and run it under that tap. Then I have to clean out the bath. I know how lazy I am, but you all think that would be a real pain too, right?

Ack. I dunno. Was I expecting too much? Probably, yes. Does it serve me right for being so lazy and not pegging out more washing? Probably, yes. Should I stop with the mental bargains ? "If I tumble dry I won't have to iron, so it's not as wasteful of energy as all that, is it?" "I buy renewable source power, so it's ok, honest it is, isn't it?" ? and just be honest and use the tumble dryer less? Probably, yes. I am disappointed in this purchase though ? the Creda is noisy, gives off far too much heat and is a pain to look after. It does, however, do a very good, very reliable job of drying clothes and for an appliance at the cheapest end of its type, it was not a bad buy. Not now it is out of the way in the conservatory, anyway!

I really wish it were a Laundry Fairy though. Ho hum.


Boring bits:

Energy rating: C
Kilowatts per hour: 3.4
Size: 60cm wide standard appliance
Cost on my tariff to dry a full, standard load: 40p
Purchase price: around £209

Summary: