• Please make sure you follow these instructions fully. If you have any problems with carrying out this maintenance, please contact us.

    The dryer must be installed in an area so that when it is in use there is adequate ventilation. You must avoid the back flow of gases into the room where the dryer is from appliances burning other fuels, including open fires. Always check the instructions in the user manual for details of this for your specific dryer, but the steps below will give you some general guidance.
  • 1. If you are going to install the tumble dryer under a worktop, or in a ‘built-in’ location, make sure you leave sufficient space between the top and sides of the appliance and any surface above or beside it to allow proper air circulation all around the dryer. Please make sure that you follow any user manual instructions, guidelines or recommendations for positioning your dryer. The tumble dryer must never be installed behind a lockable or sliding door (or a door with a hinge on the opposite side to that of the washer dryer door hinge).
  • 2. Vented Tumble Dryer
    With a vented dryer, the warm, damp air is pumped out of the appliance altogether. This kind of dryer will have a vent tube which you can either hang through an open window or fix more permanently (through the wall or a window fitting) in order to pump the warm air outside. The connection for the vent tube will normally be on the back of the dryer, but check the user manual for details of your specific appliance.

    Try to have any hole in a wall or window as low down as possible and keep the vent pipe as short as possible (any ducting in a wall should slope slightly downwards to allow condensation to run out).

    If you hang the vent tube through an open window, the end of the tube should be positioned pointing downwards to allow condensation to run out and prevent warm moist air from condensing in the room or back in the dryer.

    Always make sure that the vent pipe is not crushed or squashed.

    Also see details in the “Connecting the ventilation pipe” topic.

    You should check the vent tube and its open end occasionally to remove any lint or fluff debris which has collected.
  • 3. Condenser Tumble Dryer
    The same general process is involved for condenser tumble dryers as for vented ones; the drum tumbles the clothes and the hot air is blown through to dry the clothes. The difference is that the warm, damp air remains within the appliance and moisture is condensed. Using a large plastic container inside the appliance, the dryer collects the condensed moisture and drains it off to the container.

    This does give the appliance independence from needing a vent pipe, but you will have to either manually empty the container by removing it and pouring the collected water away or have the appliance plumbed in to a waste water pipe (if your appliance has this feature) so that drainage is automatic.
  • 4. Condenser Tumble Dryer — Connected to a waste water pipe
    Some appliances are plumbed into the waste water system under the sink (one example is shown). This avoids having to empty the water-collecting container manually.