No full size dryer carries a number
Not one 27 inch dryer from any maker comes with a decibel figure, so no brand can be shown to make the quietest full size model.
LG's spec sheets print "LoDecibel Quiet Operation" with no decibel beside it. Samsung's US spec PDFs, Whirlpool's specification sheet for its ventless heat pump model, GE Profile's combo documents, Maytag's pages and Miele's US fact sheets publish nothing. It is the pattern from our hair dryer and litter box guides, where the biggest names trademark quietness instead of measuring it in public.
Top load washers are not much better. Our top load washer guide found only Speed Queen and Midea publishing a figure, and LG's spec sheet for the WT7150CW lists LoDecibel Quiet Operation with no number attached, the same name it prints on its dryer sheets. All-in-one combos are thinner still: the quietest washer dryer combos found two brands printing a combo figure in the US, Equator for its Quiet program and KoolMore for no stated cycle.
Miele is a special case. It does declare sound power for its EU dryers, but the EU model numbers differ from the US ones, so no figure can be carried across the way we did for some projectors. Miele US publishes none.
How many decibels is a dryer?
Where the maker publishes a figure, a compact dryer prints 58 to 67 dB(A), each of them a bare dBA or dB(A).
ASKO alone names the cycle, labeling its figure "Noise level drying". Standard, distance and whether the number is sound power or sound pressure go unstated across the board. The Beko group, which owns Beko and Blomberg, declares sound power in dB(A) re 1 pW on its EU energy labels, so its US numbers are probably the same quantity. Sound power runs higher than a sound pressure reading of the same machine. That is one reason a 62 dBA dryer and a 40 dBA dishwasher are not the comparison they appear to be, and the mechanics are in our explainer on the two quantities.
Inside this guide the numbers are at least the same kind of disclosure from the same kind of platform, and the spread is real.
| Dryer | Figure as printed |
|---|
| ASKO current vented (T3VW; T5VXL and T7VXLW) | 58; 59 |
| ASKO current heat pumps | 61 |
| Bosch heat pumps | 62 on spec sheets, 63 on product pages |
| ASKO older Logic heat pump, best Blomberg | 65 |
| Beko heat pumps | 66 |
| Vented Beko, Bosch non heat pump condensation dryer | 67 |
Is the Bosch 800 Series dryer quieter than the 500 Series?
No. Both heat pump compacts carry "Silence level 62 dBA" on the spec sheet, and both product pages turn that into 63 dBA.
They share the 4.0 cubic foot drum. The 800 Series costs $600 more and was the one in stock when we checked. By Bosch's own numbers the premium buys features, not quiet, the same pattern as AC Infinity's fan controllers in our inline duct fan guide.
Vented ASKOs list lower than heat pump ASKOs
ASKO is the only maker that labels the cycle and rates both types, which makes its range the cleanest comparison in the category. Its vented dryers on sale now list 58 or 59 dB(A) for drying, its heat pumps 61, while its older Logic models list 65 for both kinds. Heat pump dryers run longer at lower temperatures, and ASKO's manuals describe a compressor buzz that vented dryers lack. Other makers label differently, so no wider rule follows.
Two makers publish vented figures, all on compacts. ASKO's T3VW sits at 58, its T5VXLW, T5VXLT, T5VXLG and T7VXLW at 59, and Beko's BDV7200X2 at 67. ASKO's older white T411VD.W listed 65, but its US page no longer shows the product.
Comparing a quiet vented full size machine against a heat pump one is impossible. There is no data.
Claims with no maker source
Equator's "under 60 dB" figures appear on Amazon and Walmart listings and on no dryer page of Equator's own site, which publishes no noise spec at all, so those numbers are excluded. Fisher and Paykel's US dryer pages returned server errors on every attempt, and Summit's site blocked retrieval.
Blomberg's figures are published on its product pages. Its documents are mid rename between DHP and BLH model prefixes, though, and the affected picks say so.
