Model
Whirlpool WGD7120H**
Rank #540 means 539 of the 615 clothes dryer models we track cost less to run each year; the 14th efficiency percentile means it uses less energy for its size than 14% of those models.
What does the Whirlpool WGD7120H** cost to run per year?
The Whirlpool WGD7120H** costs about $128 a year to run, well up the cost table for its class at rank #540 of 615. Efficiency-wise, once size is accounted for, it lags most of the class, ahead of only 14% of the models we track. Its CEF of 3.48 reflects combined energy factor, one of the class's core efficiency levers.
Immediately around it on the leaderboard, the Whirlpool WGD8120H** at $128/yr runs a little cheaper and the Ge GFD65GS*N*** at $128/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 WGD7120H**'s $128/yr adds up to roughly $1664 in electricity alone, before purchase price or repairs.
Also sold as: Amana NGD5800H**.
By the numbers
The Whirlpool WGD7120H** 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 $128/yr, here is what the Whirlpool WGD7120H** 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 WGD7120H** costs about $1280. That is roughly $150 more than the class median, which would run closer to $1130 over the same ten years.
How the Whirlpool WGD7120H** compares
The clothes dryer class we track runs from $23 to $128 a year. At $128/yr, it runs about $15 a year above the class median of $113, and it is about $105 a year more than the cheapest clothes dryer to run at $23.
What drives its running cost
At 7.4 cu ft, the Whirlpool WGD7120H** 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, and smaller clothes dryer models generally cost less to run for the same job, all else being equal. The CEF of 3.48 on this model, below the class median of 3.93, measures combined energy factor; it is the number to compare directly against another model's CEF if capacity is similar.
- 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 WGD7120H** cheap to run?
Its $128/yr running cost, rank #540 of 615, is above what most clothes dryer models we track cost to run, so this is not one of the cheaper picks on electricity alone.
How much does the Whirlpool WGD7120H** cost per month?
About $10.63 a month, which is the $128 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: 687 kWh from ENERGY STAR times the US average of $0.1856/kWh comes to about $128 a year. It covers electricity only, not the purchase price, water, or installation.
How efficient is the Whirlpool WGD7120H** for its size?
14th percentile once size is factored in. That means its size-adjusted efficiency is not the main reason for the running-cost figure above; its capacity plays a large role too.
Cheaper to run in the same class
| Rank | Model | Cost/yr |
|---|---|---|
| 544 | Whirlpool WGD8120H**8.8 cu ft | $128 |
| 543 | Maytag MGD7230H**7.4 cu ft | $128 |
| 542 | Maytag MGD8230H**8.8 cu ft | $128 |
| 541 | Ge GTD84GC*N***7.4 cu ft | $128 |
| 540 | Amana NGD5800H**7.4 cu ft | $128 |
Source
ES_22856_WGD7120H**_09242019185746_1466099View certified clothes dryer listingsENERGY STAR data as of July 2026Whirlpool and WGD7120H** 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.