Electric Dryers

• All dryers use a circular drum that rotates to tumble the clothes inside. All dryers also dry the clothes by directing heated air with an electric fan onto the clothes in order to evaporate the moisture in the clothes. But dryers differ in the methods by which they heat the air. Electric clothes dryers use electric heating elements, much like you would find in an electric stove cook top. The electricity required to heat the element, combined with that needed to power the other electrical components of the dryer, mandates the use of a 240-volt outlet connection as opposed to most home appliances, which use a 120-volt connection.
  
  

Gas Dryers

• Gas dryers use natural gas to heat the air that is distributed inside the clothes drum, not dissimilar to a gas stove cook top. In addition to a natural gas connection, gas dryers also need an electrical connection to power the various electronic components of the dryer, like the motor that spins the clothes drum and the electrical controls on the control panel of the dryer. If you plan to use a gas dryer in your home, you will need a natural gas connection and an electrical outlet in your laundry room.
  
  

Other Important Differences

• The California Energy Commission's Consumer Energy Center estimates that using a gas dryer costs around 15 to 20 cents per load of laundry whereas the same size load would cost around 30 to 40 cents in an electric dryer. Another way of estimating dryer energy efficiency is by a metric called energy factor, which approximates the size, in weight, of a load of laundry that a dryer can dry using one kilowatt/hour of energy. The energy factor of gas dryers, according to the same source, is 2.67 versus 3.01 for electric dryers; though keep in mind the energy factor is an imperfect measure since natural gas is not measured in kilowatt/hours.
  
  

Other Considerations

• Just as with any other home appliance, there are two considerations to the cost of a dryer: the up-front costs of actually purchasing the appliance and the estimated long-term costs of maintenance, repair and energy costs. You should weigh both equally if you are interested in buying the type of dryer that will be the least costly to maintain. Use the "EnergyStar" and similar energy efficiency ratings that, by law, have to be listed on every appliance to allow consumers to compare the long-term costs of each type of dryer.