Clothes Dryers – 2014 Ratings

What are New Zealanders looking for in a new clothes dryer?

Investing in white goods is a significant financial outlay for the average shopper, but many New Zealanders are being smart about what they look for in a new clothes dryer – according to the most recent Canstar Blue survey.

For example, we found that 39% of shoppers use their new clothes dryer to remove wrinkles from their clothes, stating explicitly that they use this method instead of an iron – saving themselves money by utilising a single purchase for multiple uses.

More than half of shoppers admit their dryer is too expensive to run frequently, which is probably why close to three quarters of dryer owners do not use their appliance when they could easily hang clothes on the line outside instead.

That said, we found that customers did not rate value for money as the main driver of satisfaction when it came to buying a dryer – instead, top priority is the time taken to dry clothes*. Utility, it would seem, trumps value when it comes to drying clothes.

Some customers simply trust in the brands they’re already familiar with, with close to half of Kiwis picking up the same brand of dryer as their washing machine. But while many simply “go with what works”, it’s worth noting that many shoppers consider their dryer a long-term purchase, with 29% securing an extended warranty.

Given that you’re probably planning to keep your dryer for some time, you should make sure you give the buying decision the weight it deserves! To help, we’ve rated many of the market-leading clothes dryer brands in our latest survey, based on the reviews of New Zealand appliance owners.

LG has spun itself an award win in this category for 2014, achieving Most Satisfied Customers ahead of Whirlpool, Fisher & Paykel, Bosch, Simpson, and Haier.

Our award-winner was a real knockout brand, achieving five stars in every single ratings criteria! Whirlpool also secured a five-star rating in these results – for performance and reliability – while many of the other rated brands secured admirable four stars. See our results tables for more.

* Only by a margin of 3%, however (23% for value for money, versus 20% for time taken to dry clothes).

LG

As mentioned, LG finished with five stars in all ratings criteria.

Whirlpool

Whirlpool received a five-star rating for its clothes dryer performance and reliability, while snatching four stars for overall satisfaction, value for money, time taken to dry, warranty, feel of clothes post-cycle and energy efficiency.

Bosch

Bosch achieved four stars for performance/reliability, clothes drying time, noise while operating, feel of clothes afterwards and energy efficiency; and three stars for overall satisfaction, value for money and warranty.

Fisher & Paykel

Home-grown brand Fisher & Paykel received four stars for value for money, performance and reliability, time taken to dry clothes, and the feel of clothes after a cycle. The company also secured three stars for overall satisfaction, noise during operation, warranty and energy efficiency.

Haier

Following these top-rated brands was Haier, with four stars for value for money, warranty and the feel of clothes post-drying. Additionally, it received three stars for overall satisfaction, performance/reliability, time taken to dry clothes, noise while operating and energy efficiency.

Simpson

Simpson finished with four stars for value for money and three stars for overall customer satisfaction, performance and reliability, time taken to dry clothes, noise while operating, warranty, feel of clothes after drying and energy efficiency.

Canstar Blue commissions Colmar Brunton using the SSI panel to regularly survey 2,500 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who have purchased and used a clothes dryer in the last three years – in this case, 866 survey respondents.

Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market were compared in this survey.