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It almost certainly is a gas line.
Also, if your dryer were electric, the vast majority of full size residential dryers in the US are 240 volt machines and require a dedicated 240 volt, 30 amp NEMA 10-30 or 14-30 outlet on its own circuit, which has a socket face on it about the size of a baseball and is pretty tough to miss. If you don't have one of those in your laundry area, you ain't installing an electric dryer regardless.
Unless of course they join the rest of the (non American) world and get a heat pump dryer. They use 1/4 the amount of electricity in operate off of a standard 120 volt socket. I absolutely love mine, the only thing that takes longer is really thick towels and even then it's only like maybe an extra 15-20 minutes.
I went with the miele option but I believe that LG also has an all-in-one washer and heat pump dryer combo that is supposedly getting decent reviews
Holy fuck, I want one of these. Do they sell them in the US, or do you have to import?
There are a few options for a heat pump dryer in the US, either as a dedicated dryer or as an all-in-one unit that does both the wash and dry in a single drum. Most of the dedicated dryers sold here are 240 volt units as I suspect the manufacturers are expecting you to use them as a direct replacement for a traditional resistive heater electric dryer. The combo machines tend to be 120 volt, though.
The ones I can think of off the top of my head are:
- LG DLHC5502B/V/W - Dedicated dryer, full size, same size as LG's normal front loaders and can be stacked with the WM5500* if you so desire. 240 volt.
- Whirlpool WHD862CHC - Dedicated dryer, full size, can be stacked with the WFW862CHC. 240 volt.
- Whirlpool WHD560CHW - Dedicated dryer, full size, can be stacked with the WFW560CHW and is also the least expensive full size heat pump dryer on the US market as far as I know. 240 volt.
- GE (Profile) PFQ97HSPVDS - All in one, physically larger than a typical US sized machine, seems to get decent customer feedback. 120 volt.
- LG WM6998HVA - All in one, same size as LG's normal front load machines (27x39x33.25"-ish), probably what I'd go for if it were me and I wanted an all-in-one. 120 volt.
- Whirlpool WFC682CLW - All in one, similar in size to a normal 27" front load machine also. Consumers seem to hate the "intuitive" Whirlpool control panel that does not feature a cycle knob. 120 volt.
- Samsung WD53DBA900HZ - All in one, taller than a typical machine but still 27" wide, looks extremely doofy, and Samsung's quality is crap. I would not buy this. 120 volt.
There are also compact variants at a "Euro" sized 24" Wide.
- LG DLHC1455W - Dedicated dryer, 240 volt
- Summit LD2444 - Dedicated dryer, 240 volt
- Samsung DV25B6900HW - Dedicated dryer, 120 volt
- GE GFQ14ESSNWW - All in One, 120 volt
- LG WM3555HVA/HWA - All In One, 120 volt
- LG Signature LUWM101HWA - All In One, 120 volt
- Summit SPWD2203P/W - All In One, 120 volt, I have received poor feedback about this model re: reliability
And of course the European brands pretty much exclusively make 24" compact heat pump dryers, most of which are also ventless: Bosch, Miele, Asko, etc. The Miele machines are 120 volts, the Bosch and Asko are 240.
Thank you so much! Saving this for later :)
They're fucking expensive. Like 50% more than buying a separate washer and dryer. Samsung and LG have NA models.
Miele is indeed quite expensive, between both my washer and my heat pump dryer I think I spent somewhere right around 3,100. But I talked to a lot of Appliance technicians some I know and some I just randomly called up and the general consensus I got was yes they are expensive but they are going to last they don't use cheap parts and even if it does break down 10 years from now it's guaranteed I can still get the parts I need if I don't want to replace it because they are still making parts for products they discontinued 10 years ago
Whereas personally I wouldn't trust a Samsung device to stay working anything past 3 years and once it does break down I know for a fact it's going to cost more to fix it than it would to replace it if I even can get the parts from them
I ended up buying one of their vacuum cleaners as well because they seem to be one of the few people still making good canister vacuums and while that was about 1,200 it's easily the best vacuum I've ever had. It's shockingly quiet and yet has stronger suction than any other vacuum I've ever owned. I'm pretty mean to it, I'm currently living in an RV so it gets quite dirty, I use it to clean out my car regularly, and I own a husky so it sees plenty of Pet fur and it has yet to give a shit a year and a half in still practically looks like it's new
I'm with you on Samsung, I wouldn't buy them. Just saying that they're about the only combo with heatpump units in NA that I've seen.
I just read a review on them and they sound horrible. Yeah, they cost 1.5x as much and they’re more expensive to operate than gas but at least they take twice as long. No joke: they had a table of how long various things took to dry and bedding was 4:30:00
That review was a load of shit then, I regularly wash my bedding for my California king size bed. And I have the compact units that blanket barely fucking fits in there. It's dry in a standard full 2 hour cycle.
Whether or not it's more expensive to operate depends entirely on what your gas versus what your electric costs are so I won't speak to that. I have solar so electricity is literally free for me and because it's a heat pump and uses only about 700 Watts when running you don't even need all that much solar power to make it free. But if you're somewhere where electricity is very expensive and gas is very cheap I have no doubt it works out that way.
But whether it's very thick beach towels from costco, Full California king size blankets, or even occasionally pillows because my dog has some pillows that get pretty nasty sometimes and I need to wash and dry them. I've never had it take more than maybe an extra 30 minutes over my old standard dryer at most
I have solar so electricity is literally free for me
Yeah, that’s my long term plan, assuming I continue to live in my current house. I live in a place where electric is expensive, and gas appliances are cheapest to buy, to install, and to operate. There’s not much individual incentive to switch.
My plan is like
- Replaced gas stove with induction - health is more important than operating cost
- Replaced ICE car with EV, because the technology is here, even if it needs scaling out. Government incentives counteract the high purchase price and I’m saving money on fuel, while polluting less
—- I am here
- My HVAC is past its expected life, when I replace it in the next few years, heat pumps are the way to go. Government incentives counteract the high cost, and operating cost is similar to gas while polluting less
- Solar! After converting car and HVAC, the two biggest energy users, I have a better idea how big a solar install to get
- Water heaters don’t last very long. Heat pump is more expensive to buy and operate than gas, but once I have solar, the power is free
- My clothes dryer is like 5 years old. When I need to replace it, if I have solar and the power is free, there’s more reason to go with heat pump
Solar is 100% worth doing DIY, just don't do grid tie it's not worth it, just do self consumption. It'll be exponentially cheaper, you don't need anywhere near as much inspection and all the other bullshit that comes with grid tie the equipment will be much cheaper and you'll be able to get significantly more solar for significantly less
Unfortunately I live in an urban area with tiny lots, lots of neighbors, and militant home inspectors. DIY is not likelY feasible
Depends on your particular County rules so that's worth looking into but like I said if you do not get a grid tied system a lot of the rules that people worry about generally don't apply.
An off grid inverter is basically like a computer backup UPS but on steroids. It accepts the grid as an input that it can pass through when there's no solar or you don't want it using the batteries but it is not capable of putting energy back into the grid under any circumstances which means the regulations on it go way way way way down.
As soon as you try to grid tie there is a mountain of litigation both at the federal and county/state level, it generally has to be done by a professional and there's a million inspections along that path even with professionals. But with off grid inverters depending on your location there may be very little rules at all. In my area I don't even need to report it to the power company that I'm doing it