Posted by Dy on 20:21 Jun 25
In Reply to: Propane or electric dryer? Need advice from people who actually do laundry .. posted by Cheller
There was a time when it was consistently less expensive, and easier to do a cost comparison. Now, though, it seems to rise and fall w/ gas prices. That makes it difficult. Depending on your supplier (and whether you buy or rent a tank), you can often get a locked in price - usually sometime in the summer for the coming year - no guarantee that it'll be the best price, and often companies want you to jump through quite a few hoops to get that locked-in price. They do love their contracts!
Don't get me wrong. I do love propane! Not quite Hank Hill, here, but I've sold it, serviced it, and worked around it for years. It's a good, solid choice. But if you're looking at trying to budget with it, I wanted to give you a heads up on that end.
If it helps, I do a lot of wash (six of us - regular clothes and work clothes), and even though we installed a propane line and service here at the house, we went w/ an elec. dryer. We did this for a few reasons: it is easier on the clothes; it's easier to troubleshoot if there's a problem (with propane, you've got to get a pressure check done on the line when you fiddle with it - so that's a service call right there, even if you can fix the machine yourself); it's easier to reconfigure should you ever need to do so; the cost of electricity is more stable so it's easier for us to keep track of performance and energy use.
HTH,
Dy