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With winter approaching and energy prices still eye-wateringly high, more of us will be relying on our tumble dryers to get our clothes dry, even if we pay a high price to do this.

Our reviews tell you how much energy each tumble dryer we’ve tested uses when drying a 70% full load. But we wanted to find out how energy use and the cost of drying is affected by what you’re drying, how full your dryer is and how you use your tumble dryer. 

Read on to find out what we discovered in our tests and the best way to use your tumble dryer effectively and keep costs low.

Go to our tumble dryer reviews to compare more than 100 tumble dryers we've tested

To find out the true cost of convenience when using a tumble dryer, we tested five heat-pump dryers, one vented and one condenser dryer with one pair of jeans, then cotton loads of 25%, 50%, 70% (our normal test load) and 100% of their drum capacities to see how the cost of drying changes based on the amount of clothes.

Our tests show it’ll take much more energy to dry one pair of jeans on their own than as part of a full load. The jeans used on average six times more energy to dry per kg than a full drum of clothes across the heat-pump dryers (capacities from 7kg to 11kg). 

Table notes: Type and drum capacity (kg) in brackets. Heat pump - HP, condenser C, vented V. All machines tested once for each load with cottons on the cupboard dry setting apart from the 70% full load where a minimum of three tests were carried out. The Bosch WQG233D8GB is still being tested, we will publish a full review later this month. 

The jeans we use in our tests weigh 400g and when dried on their own cost 29p to dry on average in the five heat-pump machines. 

Loads of between 7kg and 11kg were £1.01, on average, for the whole load. 

In the largest dryer tested, with an 11kg drum, you could dry 27 pairs of 400g jeans for just £1.67.

Find the best dryer for you with our best tumble dryers guide .

With convenience in mind, quickly drying the jeans was a challenge for the energy-saving heat-pump machines, taking them an hour and a quarter on average. 

Both the vented dryer (17 minutes) and the condenser dryer (30 minutes) were considerably quicker but used much more energy to get the job done.

It cost 36p to dry jeans in the vented dryer and 40p in the condenser, while full loads were £2.55 in the vented and £2.26 in the condenser.

Read up on the best tumble dryer brands to buy .

Which? tests reveal that on average condenser dryers will add £260 to your energy bill over a year, using data from the five vented dryers we've reviewed, costing between £212 and £309.

But energy-saving heat pump tumble dryers are much cheaper with the 83 we've tested costing £104 per year to run on average and the most energy-efficient heat-pump dryers costing even less.

With vented and condenser dryers costing much more to run, when your current dryer gives up the ghost, your next machine should be a heat-pump. 

They can be pricey to buy, but you can find Best Buy heat-pump tumble dryers that do a great job of drying clothes efficiently for less than £400. 

And with energy prices rising, across the board heat-pump dryers will pay for themselves in energy savings much more quickly than ever.

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Using a tumble dryer is always going to cost money, but there are things that you can do to use your machine in the most efficient way possible.

The most energy efficient way of using a tumble dryer is to fill it up if you’re drying cottons or to run it half-full if you’re drying synthetics. 

Separating fabrics isn’t convenient but if you can do it, it helps as cottons take longer to dry than lighter synthetics. 

Remember to keep the lint filter and heat exchanger clean, too. If air needs to force its way through weeks of built-up fluff and hair, dryers become less efficient and cost more to run. 

Cleaning the lint filter is an easy job, takes seconds and should be done every time you dry. 

For heat-pump and condenser dryers, you’ll also need to remove and clean the heat exchanger monthly. 

This is a shoe box-sized metal box at the bottom of the machine. Bigger fluff deposits can be removed by hand while the rest can be washed off under the tap. 

 For vented dryers, check the hose isn’t kinked and that it and the wall vent are free from fluff.

Read our full guide on how to maintain tumble dryers