Clothes Dryer Replacement Calculator

This calculator weighs keeping your clothes dryer against replacing it, including a switch between gas and electric or to a heat-pump dryer. Describe the old dryer by picking its model from the ENERGY STAR list, by the year it was made, or from its efficiency rating. Then pick the new model, say how many loads you run a week, and enter what you pay for electricity, natural gas or propane. It works out each dryer's yearly energy use and cost, the yearly saving, the net cost of the new dryer, the simple and discounted payback, and the cost over the years you choose of keeping the old dryer, replacing it now, or replacing it when it wears out.

Model figures come from federal sources only: the ENERGY STAR certified list published by the EPA, and the DOE test procedure and efficiency standards. Default utility prices come from the EIA. You set the price of the new dryer; the opening example carries an illustrative one.

Purpose and model boundary

This calculator compares two ways forward for a household clothes dryer: keep the one you have, or replace it with a new one, including a switch between gas and electric or to a heat-pump dryer. It reduces each dryer to the energy it uses per load from its DOE efficiency rating, scales that to the loads you run, prices it at your electricity, natural gas or propane rate, and sets the yearly saving against what the new dryer costs installed. Over the years you choose, it compares keeping the old dryer, replacing it now and, when you say how many years the old one has left, replacing it when it wears out.

Every figure on this page is computed by the spreadsheet; the page adds nothing to it. The model covers running cost and purchase cost only. It does not judge drying time, fabric care, noise, capacity or reliability, and it does not price financing, warranties, venting work or your own time.

Inputs and units

• The old dryer, described in one of three ways:
  • a model from the current ENERGY STAR list, for a dryer certified since 2015 that is still listed;
  • the year it was made, when the model is not listed: the calculator then uses the federal limit for that year;
  • manual entry: its CEF from the current DOE test, its EF from the older DOE test, or, for an electric dryer, its measured energy per load in kWh.
• Type: Electric standard, Electric compact or Gas standard, for each dryer. For a listed model, choose the type first, then pick the model from that type's list. Each entry reads "Brand | Model number", exactly as ENERGY STAR lists it, including wildcard characters (* for a letter, # for a digit). Venting, heat-pump technology and voltage are shown on the model card.
• Gas fuel: for a gas dryer, natural gas or propane. A gas dryer is rated once, and the calculator uses the same rating on either fuel.
• The new dryer: a model from the current ENERGY STAR list, or manual entry as for the old one, and its price, more than $0 and at most $20,000.
• Use: loads a week, 0 to 30; the default is 5.5, close to the DOE test's 283 loads a year.
• Utility prices, each optional: the state, which sets the default electricity price; your own electricity price in dollars per kWh; your own natural gas price in dollars per therm or propane price in dollars per gallon (shown when a dryer uses that fuel). A blank price uses the default described under "Data and vintage".
• Purchase and upkeep: installation, removal and disposal of the old dryer, sales tax on the price, verified rebates, the sale or scrap value of the old dryer, and yearly upkeep for each. Each is optional and counts as zero when left blank.
• The comparison: the years to compare (1 to 30), the yearly change in utility prices, the discount rate, and, optionally, the years the old dryer has left and the expected life of the new one.

Energy is in kWh, natural gas in therms, propane in US gallons and money in dollars. A dryer's rating, the combined energy factor (CEF), is in pounds of clothes dried per kWh: higher is better.

Governing relationships

The rating basis. Under the DOE test (Appendix D2), a dryer's yearly energy is 283 loads × the test load ÷ its CEF, with a test load of 8.45 pounds for a standard dryer and 3 pounds for a compact one. The calculator uses the same rule per load: the test load ÷ the rating, times your loads, loads a week times 52.

Older ratings. A dryer rated by EF, the older DOE test used for the 1994 to 2014 standards, is applied per pound on the same test load, which keeps the old and new dryers comparable; the tests differ, and the status says so. Standby energy is inside a CEF figure.

Gas dryers. A gas dryer's rating counts its gas and its electricity together, as kWh. The data give no split between the two, so the calculator prices all of a gas dryer's energy as natural gas or propane, converted at 3,412.14 Btu per kWh: the drum motor's electricity is then priced at the gas rate, a small error. That is a labelled assumption, and the status says so whenever it is used.

For example, a gas dryer with a CEF of 3.49 uses 8.45 ÷ 3.49 = 2.421 kWh-equivalent per load, or 685 a year at 283 loads.

A dryer described by the year it was made. No DOE figures for typical dryers by year were available, so the calculator uses the federal limit for that year, the least efficient rating a dryer made then was allowed: your dryer may use less, so the saving may be overstated, and the status says so.

• Dryers made from May 14, 1994 to December 31, 2014 are held to an EF limit (3.01 for a standard electric dryer, 2.67 for gas); from January 1, 2015 to a CEF limit (3.73 for a standard vented electric dryer, 3.30 for gas).
• There is no federal limit for a dryer made before May 14, 1994.

Yearly cost. For each dryer, the yearly utility cost is its kWh times the electricity price, plus its therms times the gas price or its propane gallons times the propane price. Adding yearly upkeep gives its yearly cost, and the yearly saving is the old dryer's yearly cost less the new one's.

Purchase cost. The capital cost is the price × (1 + sales tax rate) + installation − rebates. The net initial cost adds removal and disposal and takes off the old dryer's sale value.

Payback. Simple payback is the net initial cost ÷ the first year's saving, when the saving is positive; otherwise there is no payback. Discounted payback is the first year in which the cumulative discounted net benefit of replacing now reaches zero within the years compared.

The three paths over the years compared. Utility prices change each year by the rate you enter; upkeep stays flat; costs fall at the end of each year and are discounted at your rate.

• Keep: the old dryer's yearly cost every year.
• Replace now: the net initial cost today, then the new dryer's yearly cost, less the value left in it at the end.
• Replace at end of life (when you enter the years the old dryer has left and they are fewer than the years compared): the old dryer's yearly cost until it fails, then the capital cost and disposal in that year at today's price, then the new dryer's yearly cost, less the value left in it at the end.

The value left in the new dryer at the end is its capital cost × the share of its expected life still remaining, on a straight line. Enter its expected life, or leave it blank to use the DOE's typical lifetime for a dryer, 14 years. The net present value of replacing now is the present cost of keeping less the present cost of replacing now: positive means replacing now costs less.

Calculation sequence

The spreadsheet first finds each dryer's type, fuel and rating from the list, the year table or your entries, and checks the inputs. It then reduces each dryer to its energy per load in its own fuel, and from that computes the yearly quantities, the yearly costs and the saving. The purchase cost, the paybacks, the present values of the three paths and the year-by-year cash flow follow. The sensitivity table uses the same per-load figures, so it cannot disagree with the main result. A block of consistency checks, including that the discounted cash flow reaches the same net present value as the closed-form formula, runs before the status is returned.

Outputs and interpretation

The headline is the yearly saving from replacing the old dryer, with the simple payback and the net present value of replacing now. For each dryer the results give its yearly kWh, therms or propane gallons, and its yearly energy and total cost, with the prices actually used and a note on where each came from. The decision results give the net initial cost, the discounted payback year, the total and present cost of keeping, of replacing now and of replacing at end of life, and a plain verdict on each.

The cash-flow table shows each year from 0 to the years compared: the cost of each path, the net benefit of replacing now, and its cumulative, discounted and cumulative discounted values. The sensitivity table shows the yearly saving at 1 to 7, 10 and 14 loads a week, and at 0.50 to 1.50 times the price of the fuel that makes up most of the old dryer's running cost; its note names that fuel.

A model card beside each pick shows the model's type, fuel, venting, heat-pump technology, capacity, its rating and the year it became available.

The first chart, “Cumulative net benefit of replacing now, by year”, shows Undiscounted and Discounted by year. The second chart, “Cost over the years compared”, shows Total and Present value by option. The third chart, “Running cost in year 1”, shows Energy and Upkeep by unit, stacked.

Validation and status logic

The workbook returns one status, chosen in this order: NOT VALID, then CHECK, then OK.

• NOT VALID names the first problem: a source that is not one of its options; a listed model that is not in its list or whose type differs from the type chosen; no year made, or no federal limit for that type and year; a manual rating that is not one of its kinds, or a value missing or out of range (a CEF or EF of 1.0 to 15.0 pounds per kWh, or 0.1 to 10.0 kWh per load measured, for an electric dryer only); a gas dryer whose fuel is not natural gas or propane; an upkeep figure outside its range; loads a week outside 0 to 30; no electricity price, or your own price outside $0.01 to $2.00 per kWh; no price for a fuel in use, or your own gas price outside $0.10 to $10.00 per therm or propane price outside $0.50 to $10.00 per gallon; a price for the new dryer that is missing, not above $0 or above $20,000; another money or rate input outside its range; or years to compare, years left or expected life that are not whole numbers in range. NOT VALID is a refusal, not a numeric answer: every figure reads zero and is withheld.
• CHECK accompanies a computed result that needs the stated review: the federal limit used for a dryer described by its year made, so it may use less and the saving may be overstated; an older EF rating applied per pound on the current test load; a gas dryer whose energy per load is below its assumed electric share; a gas dryer, all of whose energy is priced as gas or propane under a labelled assumption; old and new dryers of different sizes (standard and compact); a fuel price that is a regional or US average, because EIA publishes none for your state; zero loads a week; a new dryer that does not cost less to run than the old one at your use and prices, so there is no payback; or an old dryer with fewer years left than the years compared, so the end-of-life path is the realistic one.
• OK otherwise.

Assumptions and limitations

• There is no historical dryer list. ENERGY STAR publishes no list of dryers certified in the past and since withdrawn, so an older dryer is described by the year it was made or from its own rating.
• The federal limit is a ceiling, not a measurement. A dryer described by its year made may use less, so the saving may be overstated.
• 283 loads a year is the rating's basis, not your use. Your use enters only through loads a week, and the energy per load is the test load's; a fuller or wetter load takes more.
• A gas dryer's split between gas and electricity is an assumption: all of its energy is priced as gas or propane. The status says so whenever it is used.
• Default utility prices are averages. The default electricity price is the EIA's annual average residential price for the state, not your tariff; the gas and propane prices are EIA residential averages for the state, or a regional or US average where EIA publishes none. Enter your own prices from your bills for a better answer.
• One price change rate applies to every utility price alike. The future purchase in the end-of-life path is priced at today's price. There is no loan, no depreciation other than the value left in the new dryer at the end, and no resale other than the old dryer's sale value when it is replaced now.

Data and vintage

The model list, the year table and the default prices are reviewed reference tables inside the workbook, refreshed from their federal publishers; their version is shown in the result details.

• Current models: the ENERGY STAR certified residential clothes dryers dataset (EPA), 693 rows including 70 heat-pump and 11 hybrid heat-pump dryers, downloaded 2026-10-28; the calculator keeps US-market dryers and leaves out the combination washer-dryers.
• Year made: the federal efficiency limits for clothes dryers by date of manufacture, 10 CFR 430.32(h), from the 1994 standard on.
• Default utility prices: EIA 2025 annual average residential electricity prices by state (Form EIA-861); EIA 2025 residential natural gas prices by state, converted to dollars per therm with each state's heat content (for the US, $15.34 per thousand cubic feet, or $1.4807 per therm); and EIA residential propane prices.

Worked examples and prices

Prices are not part of the reference data: the price of the new unit is an input you set. The opening example and the five worked examples each use an illustrative price for the new unit, so that the example computes, and each says so: “Illustrative price for this example, not a quote or a current price. Prices vary: check current prices online or enter your own.”

Restrictions and non-computing states

The calculator enforces its numeric and choice limits before it accepts a result. A model that is not in its list or does not match the type chosen, a manual dryer with no rating, a gas dryer with no fuel and a missing price for the new dryer are refused by the workbook.

Errors and warnings

A request rejected by the page's input limits is not a computed result. A transport or service failure, a timeout or a cancelled run cannot establish a fresh workbook answer, and the last result stays on the page marked as out of date. Check your unit's label or specification sheet and your own bills before relying on a result for a purchase.

Sources and further reading

The calculator reads its model lists, its year-made limits and its default utility prices from reviewed reference tables inside the workbook, by record, with their version shown in the result details. Every table comes from a US federal source. The sources below publish the data and the rules the model applies. They do not endorse this calculator.

• ENERGY STAR Certified Residential Clothes Dryers (EPA) lists currently certified dryers with their type, fuel, heat-pump technology, combined energy factor and yearly energy use, and states the 283-load basis of the yearly figure (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• DOE energy conservation standards, 10 CFR 430.32 (eCFR), paragraph (h), sets the federal efficiency limits for clothes dryers by date of manufacture; earlier editions on govinfo hold the older limits (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• EIA, Detailed state data (Form EIA-861) gives the average residential electricity price by state, used here for 2025 (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• EIA, Natural gas prices gives the residential price by state, used here for 2025, and EIA, Heat content of natural gas delivered to consumers the heat content used to convert it to dollars per therm (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• DOE, Clothes dryers energy conservation standards direct final rule provides the rule-document basis for the expected lifetime used when that input is blank.
• EIA, Units and calculators provides energy-unit conversion reference information.
• EIA, Heating oil and propane prices supplies residential propane price data collected during the heating season (retrieved 2026-10-28).

This is an educational estimate of running and purchase costs for the units and prices you enter, not a product recommendation or a quote. The ENERGY STAR lists show each model's rated use under the DOE test procedure, not your unit's measured use; check your own bills before acting on a result.