Key takeaways
- At the October 2026 price cap of 26.32p a kWh, a full load in the heat pump dryers we priced costs 37p to 55p. The condenser and vented models cost £1.18 to £1.59 for a full load.
- Per kilo of laundry dried, the heat pumps come to 4.6p to 6.8p and every condenser and vented model to 15.0p to 16.9p. Figures are worked from each maker’s own EU product fiche, read on 6 October 2026.
- The Candy GDL 8N1-80 heat pump was £299 on Amazon on 6 October 2026, £10 more than a 10kg Hoover condenser. On our figures it earns that £10 back in about 15 full loads.
- From 19 January 2027 a new tumble dryer placed on the market in Great Britain must have an energy efficiency index of 85 or lower. The four heat pumps here score 56.5 to 81.2 on their A to G fiches. The condenser and vented models score 180.6 to 227.3.
Most tumble dryer guides tell you what a machine costs a year. That number is an average over 160 imaginary cycles, half of them part loads, and it is not how anyone thinks about the dryer in their kitchen. You think about this load, tonight. So this guide ranks nine of the best-selling tumble dryers on Amazon UK by what one load costs to dry at the price cap in force today.
Every figure comes from the energy data each maker has registered in the EU’s product database, EPREL, multiplied by the Ofgem cap rate. No figure comes from a listing, and none from a press release. Where a listing and the database disagree, the database wins, and we say so.
If you only want to know how to dry one load as cheaply as possible, with or without a dryer, our cheapest way to dry clothes page compares the dryer against airers, radiators and a dehumidifier. This page is for choosing the machine.
Prices and specs last checked 6 October 2026 · next check 1 December 2026 · how we picked
Pence per cycle, cheapest first
The full load column is the maker’s declared energy use for a complete drum of cotton, dried to cupboard dry. The half load column is the same programme with the drum half full. The per kilo column divides the full load cost by the drum size, which is the fair way to compare a 7kg machine with a 10kg one.
| Rank | Model | Type | Drum | Full load | Half load | Per kg | Programme time, full load | Price, 6 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hisense DH3S802BW3 | Heat pump | 8kg | 37.1p | 20.5p | 4.6p | 3h 8m | £468.98 |
| 2 | Hoover H-DRY 350 HRE H9A3TBE-80/N | Heat pump | 9kg | 41.8p | 22.9p | 4.6p | 3h 40m | £419.00 |
| 3 | Hisense DH1Q802BW2 | Heat pump | 8kg | 50.5p | 28.4p | 6.3p | 3h 28m | £345.00 |
| 4 | Candy GDL 8N1-80 | Heat pump | 8kg | 54.7p | 30.5p | 6.8p | 3h 40m | £299.00 |
| 5 | Statesman TVM07W | Vented | 7kg | £1.18 | 59.7p | 16.9p | 2h 22m | £225.00 |
| 6 | Hoover H-Dry 300 HLE C8DE-80 | Condenser | 8kg | £1.24 | 67.4p | 15.5p | 2h 45m | £279.00 |
| 7 | Candy CSE V9DF-80 | Vented | 9kg | £1.41 | 76.3p | 15.6p | 2h 50m | £249.00 |
| 8 | Hoover H-Dry 300 HLE C10DE-80 | Condenser | 10kg | £1.50 | 79.2p | 15.0p | 3h 17m | £289.00 |
| 9 | Hoover H-DRY 300 LITE HLE V10DG-80 | Vented | 10kg | £1.59 | 79.7p | 15.9p | 2h 58m | £279.00 |
The table splits cleanly in two. Every heat pump sits between 4.6p and 6.8p a kilo. Every condenser and every vented machine sits between 15.0p and 16.9p. There is no overlap and nothing in the middle, because a heat pump dryer reuses the warmth it pulls out of the wet air while the other two throw it away, out of a hose or down a drain.
Ranking by cost per load does flatter small drums. The Statesman ranks fifth because it holds 7kg, and per kilo it is the dearest machine in the table at 16.9p. Ranked per kilo, the order of the vented and condenser group changes, and the gap between the groups does not.
A year of drying, on the label’s own assumption of 160 cycles with part loads mixed in, comes to these figures at today’s rate:
| Model | Label kWh a year | Cost a year at the cap |
|---|---|---|
| Hisense DH3S802BW3 | 172 | £45.27 |
| Hoover HRE H9A3TBE-80/N | 194 | £51.06 |
| Hisense DH1Q802BW2 | 235 | £61.85 |
| Candy GDL 8N1-80 | 252 | £66.33 |
| Statesman TVM07W | 520 | £136.86 |
| Hoover HLE C8DE-80 | 561 | £147.66 |
| Candy CSE V9DF-80 | 636 | £167.40 |
| Hoover HLE C10DE-80 | 671 | £176.61 |
| Hoover HLE V10DG-80 | 697 | £183.45 |
The rule that ends new vented and condenser dryers in January
This is the part most buying guides have not caught up with. The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Household Tumble Dryers) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/318, set a hard floor for Great Britain. Schedule 2 says: “The EEI of a household tumble dryer must not be higher than 85.” EEI is the energy efficiency index on the new A to G fiche, where a lower number is better.
There is a transition. Regulation 15, as amended by SI 2026/750, treats a dryer as meeting the floor if it is placed on the market between 10 April 2026 and 18 January 2027 and complies with the old EU ecodesign rule, Regulation (EU) 932/2012. That window closes on 18 January. From 19 January 2027, a dryer placed on the GB market new has to clear 85 on its own.
We looked up the A to G fiche for every model in our table. Here is how they score against the floor:
| Model | Type | EEI on the A to G fiche | Clears the 85 floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoover HRE H9A3TBE-80/N | Heat pump | 56.5 | Yes |
| Hisense DH3S802BW3 | Heat pump | 60 | Yes |
| Hisense DH1Q802BW2 | Heat pump | 70 | Yes |
| Candy GDL 8N1-80 | Heat pump | 81.2 | Yes, with 3.8 to spare |
| Hoover HLE C8DE-80 | Condenser | 180.6 | No |
| Hoover HLE C10DE-80 | Condenser | 186.2 | No |
| Candy CSE V9DF-80 | Vented | 223.7 | No |
| Hoover HLE V10DG-80 | Vented | 227.3 | No |
| Statesman TVM07W | Vented | No A to G fiche found | Not shown |
The condenser and vented machines miss the floor by a long way, more than double it in every case. The government’s July 2025 consultation document said as much when it proposed the number: it expected every non-heat pump technology to fall below the threshold, naming condenser, air vented and gas-fired dryers. Retra, the trade body for electrical retailers, read the final rules the same way in August 2026, and added two points worth knowing. Nobody who already owns a vented or condenser dryer has to replace it, and second-hand sales stay legal.
There is one carve-out. The efficiency floor does not apply to a dryer rated at 3kg or less, so the smallest of the compact vented dryers that crowd Amazon’s Vented Dryers chart are outside it.
What this means if you are buying now is simple. A condenser or vented dryer bought this autumn is a machine on its way out, with a running cost to match. It will still dry your clothes, and it is legal to own and use for as long as it lasts. But the price gap that used to justify it has nearly gone, as the next section shows.
The label changed on 19 September, and the listings did not
The same regulations replaced the energy label. Since 19 September 2026, a tumble dryer supplied in Great Britain has to come with a label on the A to G scale, showing weighted energy use per 100 drying cycles in kWh. The old A+++ to D label is no longer the one a supplier has to provide.
Amazon’s listings have not moved. On 6 October 2026 we read the titles of the top 60 products in Amazon UK’s Heat Pump Dryers best seller chart. 41 of the 60 still quote a rating from the old scale in the title: A+, A++ or A+++.
That matters because the letters do not carry across. The Hisense DH3S802BW3 that tops our table is A+++ on the old fiche and C on the new one. The Candy GDL 8N1-80 goes from A+ to E. Every condenser and vented machine in our table that has a new fiche lands on G, the bottom of the scale. We first wrote about this, and named it the label letter swap, on our cheapest way to dry clothes page. If a listing says A+++ and the box in your hallway says C, nothing has gone wrong. They are the same machine measured on two different scales.
The number that does carry across is kWh. The new label gives weighted kWh per 100 cycles, so divide by 100 for a per cycle figure and multiply by your unit rate. The Candy’s new fiche gives 1.38 kWh per cycle, which is 36.3p at 26.32p. That weighted figure blends full and part loads, so it sits between the full and half load columns in our table.
When a dearer dryer pays for itself
A cheaper machine to run is only worth it if the saving covers the extra price. We call the number of loads it takes the pence-back point: the price gap divided by the saving per load. We work it per kilo of laundry so drum sizes compare fairly, then turn it back into full loads of the dearer machine. All prices are from 6 October 2026 and the rate is the October 2026 cap.
| Buy this | Over this | Price gap | Saving per kg | Pence-back point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | Hoover HLE C10DE-80, condenser | £10 | 8.2p | About 15 full loads |
| Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | Hoover HLE V10DG-80, vented | £20 | 9.0p | About 28 full loads |
| Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | Hoover HLE C8DE-80, condenser | £20 | 8.6p | About 29 full loads |
| Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | Candy CSE V9DF-80, vented | £50 | 8.8p | About 71 full loads |
| Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | Statesman TVM07W, vented | £74 | 10.0p | About 92 full loads |
| Hoover HRE H9A3TBE-80/N, heat pump | Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | £120 | 2.2p | About 608 full loads |
| Hisense DH3S802BW3, heat pump | Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | £169.98 | 2.2p | About 964 full loads |
| Hisense DH1Q802BW2, heat pump | Candy GDL 8N1-80, heat pump | £46 | 0.5p | About 1,092 full loads |
Two things fall out of that table. The first is that, at October 2026 prices, the £299 Candy heat pump pays for itself against every condenser and vented model here inside 92 full loads, and against the 10kg Hoover condenser inside 15. At three loads a week, 15 loads is five weeks.
The second is less obvious. Once you own a heat pump, paying more for a better one barely pays. The Hisense DH3S802BW3 is the cheapest machine in the table to run, and it still needs about 964 full loads to earn back its £169.98 premium over the Candy. At three loads a week that is just over six years. The best-selling Hisense DH1Q802BW2 saves so little over the Candy per kilo that it needs over a thousand loads. Buy the dearer heat pumps for their drum size or their programmes. Running cost alone does not justify the premium.
How we picked these
We started from Amazon UK’s best seller charts for Heat Pump Dryers, Condenser Dryers and Vented Dryers on 6 October 2026, and from Amazon search results for vented and condenser tumble dryers on the same day. For each machine we read the model number off the listing, then looked that exact model up in EPREL, the EU’s public product registry, under both the old fiche (Regulation (EU) 392/2012) and the new one (Regulation (EU) 2023/2534). A model only made our table if we found its old fiche, because that is where the full and half load kWh figures are published.
Several best sellers did not make it for that reason. We found no fiche under the listed model numbers for the AEG TXH508A2R, the Midea MF110W80D, the Samsung DV80CGC0B0AB or the Teknix TK3HP10XW, so we have left them out. That says nothing about how good they are. It means we could not price them from a source we trust. The Gorenje DG2P8E/UK has a new fiche only, showing 1.35 kWh per weighted cycle, which is 35.5p at today’s rate, but no full load figure, so it could not be ranked alongside the rest.
Each cost is arithmetic: declared kWh multiplied by the Ofgem cap unit rate for electricity, 26.32p a kWh for 1 October to 31 December 2026. The standing charge is left out, because you pay it whether the dryer runs or not. We have not run any of these machines on a meter, and we do not claim to have.
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The five we would actually buy
Candy GDL 8N1-80 Quick Pro heat pump, 8kg
The cheapest heat pump dryer we could price from a fiche, at £299 sold by Amazon on 6 October 2026. A full 8kg load costs 54.7p at the October cap and a half load 30.5p, which is 6.8p a kilo. That is the highest per kilo figure of the four heat pumps, and it is still less than half of the best condenser or vented machine. It is the reason this page exists. At £10 more than a 10kg Hoover condenser, it earns the difference back in about 15 full loads. Amazon had it at number two in Heat Pump Dryers.
The catch: a full load takes 3 hours 40 minutes on the fiche’s standard cotton programme, against 2 hours 50 minutes for the Candy vented model. On the new A to G scale it is an E, and its EEI of 81.2 clears the 2027 floor by only 3.8. The listing is new, with 17 ratings when we looked, so there is little owner history yet.
Hisense DH3S802BW3 heat pump, 8kg
The cheapest machine in the table to run. Its fiche declares 1.41 kWh for a full 8kg load and 0.78 kWh for a half load, which is 37.1p and 20.5p at the October cap, or 4.6p a kilo. It is also faster than the other heat pumps, at 3 hours 8 minutes for a full load. It is C on the new A to G scale and its EEI of 60 clears the 2027 floor comfortably. Sold by Amazon at £468.98 on 6 October 2026.
The catch: it costs £169.98 more than the Candy, and the running cost saving needs about 964 full loads to cover that. If you are buying on running cost alone, the Candy is the better deal. This is the one to buy if you want the shorter cycle and the Wi-Fi and steam programmes its listing names.
Hoover H-DRY 350 HRE H9A3TBE-80/N heat pump, 9kg
The extra kilo of drum costs nothing per kilo. The fiche declares 1.59 kWh for a full 9kg load and 0.87 kWh for a half load, so 41.8p and 22.9p at the October cap. Per kilo that is 4.65p, level with the Hisense DH3S. Its EEI of 56.5 is the best of any machine we looked up, and it is C on the new scale. Sold by Amazon at £419 on 6 October 2026.
The catch: a full load takes 3 hours 40 minutes. Against the Candy, its £120 premium takes about 608 full loads to recover on electricity, so buy it because you need 9kg, not to save money.
Hisense DH1Q802BW2 heat pump, 8kg
Number one in Amazon UK’s Heat Pump Dryers chart on 6 October 2026, sold by Amazon at £345. Its fiche declares 1.92 kWh for a full load and 1.08 kWh for a half load, which is 50.5p and 28.4p at the October cap, or 6.3p a kilo. It is A++ on the old scale and D on the new one, with an EEI of 70.
The catch: it is £46 dearer than the Candy and saves only about half a penny a kilo, so the running cost never really pays the difference back. It earns its place as the one most buyers have chosen. A full load takes 3 hours 28 minutes.
Candy CSE V9DF-80 vented, 9kg
The cheapest full-size dryer in our table to buy, at £249 from a third-party seller on Amazon on 6 October 2026. Its fiche declares 5.34 kWh for a full 9kg load and 2.9 kWh for a half load, so £1.41 and 76.3p at the October cap, or 15.6p a kilo. It is also quick, at 2 hours 50 minutes for a full load. If you dry a load a month, the heat pump’s 71 load pence-back point is six years away, and this is the cheaper way in.
The catch: it needs a hose out through a wall or a window, and at a load a week the Candy heat pump would have paid back its extra £50 in under a year and a half. It is a G on the new scale with an EEI of 223.7, so it is the kind of dryer that cannot be placed on the GB market new after 18 January 2027.
Common questions
How much does one tumble dryer load cost in the UK?
At the October 2026 price cap of 26.32p a kWh, a full load costs 37.1p to 54.7p in the four heat pump dryers we priced, and £1.18 to £1.59 in the condenser and vented models. A half load costs 20.5p to 30.5p in the heat pumps and 59.7p to 79.7p in the others. Each figure is the maker’s declared kWh from its EU product fiche multiplied by the cap rate.
Is a heat pump tumble dryer worth the extra money?
At October 2026 prices, yes, and quickly. The £299 Candy GDL 8N1-80 heat pump was £10 more than a 10kg Hoover condenser on 6 October 2026 and saves about 8.2p per kilo of laundry, so it earns the £10 back in about 15 full loads. Against a £249 Candy vented dryer it takes about 71 full loads.
Are vented and condenser tumble dryers being banned in the UK?
Not from use, and not from second-hand sale. In Great Britain, the Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Household Tumble Dryers) Regulations 2026 say a tumble dryer’s energy efficiency index must not be higher than 85. A transition lets dryers placed on the market up to 18 January 2027 meet the older EU rule instead. From 19 January 2027 that route closes, and the condenser and vented models we looked up score between 180.6 and 227.3, so they cannot be placed on the GB market new. Dryers of 3kg or less are exempt from the floor.
Why does my dryer say A+++ online and C on the box?
Because the label scale changed. Since 19 September 2026, tumble dryers supplied in Great Britain carry an A to G label showing kWh per 100 cycles, and the old A+++ to D label is no longer the one a supplier has to provide. The letters do not map across. The Hisense DH3S802BW3 is A+++ on the old scale and C on the new one. On 6 October 2026, 41 of the top 60 listings in Amazon UK’s Heat Pump Dryers chart still quoted an old-scale rating in the title.
Is it cheaper to dry a full load or two half loads?
One full load, and the gap is bigger in a heat pump. The Hisense DH3S802BW3 uses 0.78 kWh for a half load and 1.41 kWh for a full one, so two half loads cost about 11% more than one full load. In the vented Hoover HLE V10DG-80 the difference is under 1%. Fill the drum when you can, without packing it so tight the clothes cannot tumble.
Sources
- The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Household Tumble Dryers) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/318
- The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/750
- Gov.uk, Raising standards for household tumble dryers: new requirements
- Retra, Tumble dryer sales restrictions to come into force in 2027
- EPREL, Candy GDL 8N1-80, Regulation (EU) 392/2012 fiche
- EPREL, Candy GDL 8N1-80, Regulation (EU) 2023/2534 fiche
- EPREL, Hisense DH3S802BW3, Regulation (EU) 392/2012 fiche
- EPREL, Hoover HRE H9A3TBE-80/N, Regulation (EU) 392/2012 fiche
- EPREL, Hisense DH1Q802BW2, Regulation (EU) 392/2012 fiche
- EPREL, Candy CSE V9DF-80, Regulation (EU) 392/2012 fiche
- Ofgem, Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges
- Amazon.co.uk Best Sellers, Heat Pump Dryers
Prices and chart positions were read on amazon.co.uk on 6 October 2026 and change constantly. Energy figures are declared values from each maker’s EPREL fiche, read the same day. Look Into is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme and earns from qualifying purchases, which costs you nothing extra. We have not run these dryers on a meter and say so plainly above.