No Longer Just Dump and Dry: Check It Out
QUESTION: My old clothes dryer has few features. The clothes take a real beating and come out wrinkled and tangled. How effective and efficient are the no-outdoor-vent designs and what features should I consider?
ANSWER: No-outdoor-vent clothes dryer designs (common in Europe) can reduce many indirect costs of using a typical outdoor-vented dryer. Most models use many surgical stainless steel parts and they can literally last a lifetime. A no-vent dryer can be located anywhere in your house, even in a closet.
A clothes dryer is a major household energy consumer. Not only does it use energy to heat the drying air, it also draws already-heated or cooled air out of your house for a double energy expense. Most outdoor vent covers are leaky and may be a source of bugs and allergens inside your home.
A no-vent dryer uses a simple condensing process to dry the tumbling clothes. Heated dryer air flows through the wet clothes, absorbing moisture from them.
This warm damp air then circulates to a small heat exchanger in the base of the dryer cabinet. A small fan draws room air in through separate passages in the exchanger. The two air flows do not mix and no conditioned indoor air is lost outdoors.
This room air cools the warm damp dryer air causing, the moisture to condense into a tray. The dryer air is reheated and circulated through the tumbling clothes again to absorb more moisture. When the clothes are dry, empty the water tray or a just run a small tube from the tray to a drain.
Combination clothes washer-dryers, all in one space-saving cabinet, always use the condensing drying process. These are very convenient to use. You put in dirty clothes and take out clean dry clothes an hour or two later.
The key to energy-efficient and wrinkle-free clothes drying is to not over-dry the clothes. Using an automatic moisture-sensing cycle instead of a timed cycle is generally best. Select a model with a “true” electronic moisture sensor to provide the most accurate drying.
In some designs, the moisture sensor is mounted in the drum or very near it. Some sensors actually touch the damp clothes for excellent accuracy. An optional super-large (100 load) lint basket can reduce air resistance if you forget to empty it regularly.
A reversing-rotation drum (typically reversing direction every several minutes) is another feature that reduces wrinkling and provides fast uniform drying. After the clothes are dry, a “wrinkle-out” option tumbles them briefly every several minutes until you have time to remove them.
Write for or instant download (www.dulley.com) Update Bulletin No. 823, a buyer’s guide of the most efficient no-vent, standard-vent dryers and combination washer-dryers, moisture sensor types, capacities, drum rotation, cycles, features, prices and efficiency tips. Please include $2 and a business-size self-addressed stamped envelope and mail to James Dulley, Los Angeles Times, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45244.
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Letters and questions to Dulley, a Cincinnati-based engineering consultant, may be sent to James Dulley, Los Angeles Times, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45244; or download: https://www.dulley.com
