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There was a great custom order screen printing website blog where they documented their shrinkage testing. They made a pressure sensitive shirt form and then ran 30+ brands of shirts through a battery of tests, measuring fit after each washing.

I've heard reports that the newer heat pump clothes dryers are less prone to cause shrinking. In their default mode they act more like a dehumidifier than a heater. In theory you can wash more delicate dry-clean only garments as well.

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I have a heat pump dryer, and I can confirm no shrinkage.

It's very gentle on clothes, but it does take a bit longer to dry.

Do you like it? I've toyed with the idea of getting one for energy efficiency, but my current washer and dryer (electric) are still chugging along and it feels wasteful

We have had our LG for a few years now and it uses a third of the electricity of our craigslist Kenmore. With the rebates at the time it has paid for itself already.

The big difference in day to day use for us actually comes by way of the lint trap. Not only do you have to clean the lint trap every time (as normal) you also have to clean the heat exchanger every few loads. This process is a pain in the butt, you have to lie on the ground and gently brush away wet lint off the fins while avoiding bending them. The more lint that is left on the fins the less efficient the dryer is and the longer it takes to dry a load.

This will ultimately end up causing an issue long term (know idea how long) as more and more lint makes its way past the accessible portions of the exchanger and the dryer will take longer and longer. You can in theory take these apart and power wash them but it is not user friendly in the least and probably not worth the effort of a technician.

All together we like the dryer though.

I absolutely shrunk my ex's marino wool in a heat pump dryer once. But I haven't had any issues with cotton.

Do you have pointers to good sources you've found about that? I've been wondering about exactly this from an optimization-of-the-laundry perspective.

(I've been tempted to just yolo buy one to try it out but installing it in my house is a pain in the rear because of the location.)

As I understand it, many people prefer the heat pump dryers because they are easier to install. Most are 110v and don't exhaust moisture, so you can just shove one in a closet if it has sufficient electricity. You do need to remove the water reservoir and pour it down a drain after every few loads of laundry.

Oh, that part of the installation is easy, it's literally just physically getting a large, heavy rectangular cuboid navigated through my basement to the laundry room. The last time I brought one in I put a hole in the door (by accident).

Many have an optional hose to pump to a drain if available.