What size tumble dryer do I need?

Capacity by household size

Tumble dryer capacity is measured in kilograms of dry laundry, and the main thing it should follow is the number of people in your home and how much you wash. As a starting point:

• 7 kg suits one or two people, a couple or a small flat, paired with a 6 to 7 kg washing machine. It handles everyday loads of clothes comfortably but is on the small side for bedding. A good example is the Beko DTLCE70051W.
• 8 kg is the family sweet spot for three or four people, paired with a 7 to 8 kg washer. It swallows a full wash with room to spare, which is why our best overall pick, the Bosch Series 6, and the Samsung Series 5 are both 8 kg.
• 9 kg and up suits a large household, or anyone who regularly dries duvets and big towel loads, paired with a 9 kg washer. The Hoover H-DRY 300 and Hisense DHGE901 are both 9 kg.

These are guides, not rules. A couple who dry a lot of bedding might prefer 8 kg; a careful single person might be fine with 7 kg. The point is to start from your real laundry habits rather than from the size of the gap in your utility room.

Match the dryer to your washing machine

The simplest rule for getting capacity right is to match, or slightly exceed, your washing machine's capacity. Here is why it works. Wet clothes take up considerably more space than dry ones, and they need to tumble freely in the drum to dry evenly. If your washer is 8 kg and you fill it, those 8 kg of wet washing need a dryer drum big enough to let them move. A dryer that is the same size as your washer, or a touch larger, handles a full wash load in one go.

Go too small and you end up either splitting each wash into two drying cycles, which wastes time and energy, or cramming the drum, which dries unevenly and creases clothes. So before you look at brands, note your washing machine's capacity and use it as the floor for your dryer. If you are buying both together, sizing them to match makes everyday laundry far smoother.

Is a bigger tumble dryer always better?

No, and this is the most common sizing mistake. It is tempting to buy the biggest drum you can afford as future-proofing, but an oversized dryer has real downsides. It costs a little more to run per cycle, because a larger drum uses more energy even when it is not full. It takes up more space. And you will rarely use the extra capacity, so you are effectively paying to heat empty air.

The aim is a dryer that is large enough to dry your normal full wash in one go, but not so large that it dwarfs your usual loads. If you genuinely fill a 9 kg washing machine and dry bedding weekly, 9 kg is the right call. If your household washes 7 to 8 kg loads, an 8 kg dryer is the smart, efficient choice and a 9 kg machine is money and energy wasted. Size to your real life, not to a hypothetical future.

Bedding, towels and bulky items

One factor that pushes capacity up is how often you dry bulky items. Duvets, mattress protectors, bath sheets and thick towels take up a lot of drum space, and they need room to tumble to dry properly. If drying bedding is a regular part of your routine, it is worth sizing up to 9 kg so a duvet has the space it needs, rather than wrestling it into an overstuffed 7 kg drum. The Hoover H-DRY 300 is our pick for exactly this. If you only dry bedding occasionally and mostly do clothes, an 8 kg machine copes fine, and a one-off large item can be dried on its own.