Purpose -
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of commercial clothes dryers based on energy-efficiency and environmental impact analyses.

Design/methodology/approach -
The study consisted of reviewing and examining the energy consumption of clothes dryers. It adopted the US Department of Energy's uniform test method for measuring the energy consumption of electric and gas-fired commercial clothes dryers. Time efficiency, the cost of drying clothes and the environmental impact caused by the operation of commercial clothes dryers were studied.

Findings -
Electric commercial clothes dryers were found to be the most efficiency one in terms of energy per kilogram loadings. However, gas-fired commercial clothes dryers were found to produce less environmental impact in global terms. Liquefied petroleum gas-fired commercial clothes dryer was the most cost effective and time efficient.

Research limitations/implications -
All tests were conducted using three types of testing loads, namely towels, jeans and thermal clothing. They exhibited homogeneity in the tests but did not reflect the real-life situations.

Practical implications -
The implications of this study include assessing the efficiency of commercial clothes dryers based on standard testing loads for product comparison and increasing the awareness of environmental performance in the laundry industry as well as the clothing industry.

Originality/value -
Energy-efficiency and environmental performance become critical factors in determining competitiveness in all industries. This paper presents a detailed investigation on these aspects and provides insights for the laundry industry and appliance manufacturers.