EU Adopts Repairability Index for Tumble Dryers

In a practical step toward promoting sustainable consumption, the European Commission has introduced a new repairability scale for household tumble dryers, which will be displayed in the new energy label that applies sine 1 July 2025. This new feature, rated from A to E, will help consumers assess how easy it is to repair a product compared to others on the market. A similar scale was already introduced on a new energy label for smartphones and tablets in June 2025.  

Why It Matters

Consumers increasingly value sustainability and repairability when choosing products. The new rules are expected to deliver environmental and economic benefits by encouraging manufacturers to design – and consumers to choose – products that are easier to repair.

What’s Next?

The rules were published in the Official Journal on 20 November 2025. The repairability scale will need to be included on the energy label of all household tumble dryers placed on the market as from 1 January 2027, although it will be possible to use the new label immediately after publication.

Delegated regulation - EU - 2025/1353 - EN - EUR-Lex

Background

Tumble dryers have seen a drop in average lifespan from 14 to 12 years, leading to increased production, energy use, and waste. Each unit consumes 4.6 GJ of energy and generates 14 kg of landfill waste over its lifetime. By 2040, this could result in 9,720 terajoules of extra energy use and 114 tons of additional waste across the EU.

Related Updates

The Commission also adopted amendments to Ecodesign rules for:

• for tumble dryers
• low power modes for electronic household and office equipment

These changes aim to clarify technical aspects and ensure smoother compliance for manufacturers. More specifically they address the following aspects:

• Provide clarity on the obligations of the supplier with respect to the information to be provided about the performance of the product in different operation modes.
• Ensure consistency between the list of spare parts to be provided to professional repairers with the parts used for the calculation of the repairability index for household tumble dryers.
• Remove the obligation to calculate and declare in the technical documentation a 0% average final moisture has been deleted, to avoid situations where laundry is dried up above its natural water content resulting in excessive use of energy and possible damage to the textiles.
• Improving the definition of motor-operated building elements, adding one for control units, specifying which grinder types fall under the regulatory requirements, and ensuring that the prescribed measurement conditions apply to all coffee machines.