Model
Whirlpool WED7990FW*
Rank #107 means 106 of the 615 clothes dryer models we track cost less to run each year; the 86th efficiency percentile means it uses less energy for its size than 86% of those models.
What does the Whirlpool WED7990FW* cost to run per year?
The Whirlpool WED7990FW* holds rank #107 of 615 on running cost, at about $99 a year, a genuinely cheap result for the class. Few clothes dryer models we track beat it on size-adjusted efficiency; it edges out 86% of the class once capacity is normalized. At a CEF of 4.5, its combined energy factor is the single figure that best explains how it earns its running-cost number.
Immediately around it on the leaderboard, the Whirlpool YWHD560CH** at $85/yr runs a little cheaper and the Whirlpool WED9290FC* at $99/yr runs a little more, a sense of how tightly models are packed at this point in the ranking. A clothes dryer typically stays in service for somewhere around 13 years; over that span, the Whirlpool WED7990FW*'s $99/yr adds up to roughly $1287 in electricity alone, before purchase price or repairs.
Also sold as: Whirlpool WED9290FC*, Whirlpool WED9290FW*, Whirlpool YWED7990FW*, Whirlpool YWED9290FC*, Whirlpool YWED9290FW*.
By the numbers
The Whirlpool WED7990FW* normalized against its whole class, so each figure means something.
What it costs you over time
Running cost is an every-year number, so it compounds. At $99/yr, here is what the Whirlpool WED7990FW* adds up to before purchase price, water, or repairs enter the math.
Left running for a decade at today's US average rate, the Whirlpool WED7990FW* costs about $990. That is roughly $140 less than the class median, which would run closer to $1130 over the same ten years.
How the Whirlpool WED7990FW* compares
The clothes dryer class we track runs from $23 to $128 a year. At $99/yr, it runs about $14 a year cheaper than the class median of $113, and it is about $76 a year more than the cheapest clothes dryer to run at $23.
What drives its running cost
At 7.4 cu ft, the Whirlpool WED7990FW* is a small clothes dryer for its class, which spans 3.8 to 9.2 cu ft with a median of 7.4 cu ft, at the small end of the class, capacity itself is doing a lot of the work to keep that figure down, separate from how efficient the unit actually is. Its CEF of 4.5, above the class median of 3.93, reflects combined energy factor: a higher figure means it wrings more useful work out of every kilowatt-hour, so it is the efficiency lever to weigh against raw size.
- Heat source and Combined Energy Factor (CEF). Heat-pump dryers recycle heat instead of generating it fresh with a resistance coil, and typically use meaningfully less electricity per load than a conventional resistance dryer, at the cost of a longer cycle; CEF is the federal figure that captures this.
- Drum capacity. A larger drum can dry a bigger load per cycle, but it also usually needs more energy per cycle to heat the extra air volume.
Common questions
Is the Whirlpool WED7990FW* cheap to run?
Yes. Its $99/yr running cost puts it at rank #107 of 615, below what most clothes dryer models we track cost to run.
How much does the Whirlpool WED7990FW* cost per month?
About $8.21 a month, which is the $99 annual estimate spread across twelve months at the US average rate of $0.1856/kWh. Your own bill scales with your local electricity rate and how heavily you use it.
How is this running-cost figure calculated?
The formula is annual kWh times price per kWh: 531 kWh from ENERGY STAR times the US average of $0.1856/kWh comes to about $99 a year. It covers electricity only, not the purchase price, water, or installation.
How efficient is the Whirlpool WED7990FW* for its size?
86th percentile once size is factored in. That means its size-adjusted efficiency is a real factor in the running-cost figure above; its capacity plays a large role too.
Cheaper to run in the same class
| Rank | Model | Cost/yr |
|---|---|---|
| 106 | Whirlpool YWHD560CH**7.4 cu ft | $85 |
| 105 | Whirlpool WHD862CH**7.4 cu ft | $85 |
| 104 | Whirlpool WHD560CH**7.4 cu ft | $85 |
| 103 | Hisense DH5S452BT4.5 cu ft | $81 |
| 102 | Hisense DH5S452BW4.5 cu ft | $81 |
Source
ES_22856_WED7990FW*_05032016210548_9548975View certified clothes dryer listingsENERGY STAR data as of July 2026Whirlpool and WED7990FW* are used here for identification only and are not endorsements. Figures are computed by WattWise Labs from public ENERGY STAR data, not measured in our own lab.