Drying Clothes

Chrysalis

wittynamegoeshere said:

Chrysalis said:

MrsBSaver said:

Hi All,
Looking at alternative options to dry my clothes in this weather. What do people think of plug in heaters (such as the JML) and then using a regular clothes airer? I’ve heard that the heated clothes airer only dry where the clothes touch the bars.

Why use power at all? I just put mine on a drying rack and give it some days.

Which, if you're heating your home, will cost you more as the heating will be working harder to evaporate all that water.  Plus that water vapour ends up trapped in your home and usually condenses somewhere, potentially causing all sorts of issues including mould.

It still costs, but the cost isn't obvious.

I dont heat my home the vast majority of the time.

Spoonie_Turtle

There are also materials that if they don't dry quickly enough, can csmell really bad.  Not just musty, they can smell reminiscent of poop - then they need rewashing and made to dry quicker next time, very inefficient!
(Thankfully we dry outside when the weather allows it, but over winter it can be a bit of a pain to find space for everything, especially if doing a load only to find that yesterday's washing is still damp so it can't be taken down to make space.)

Chrysalis

Yeah that can happen, I now always dry my clothes near a open window.

Luckily I dont need to do a wash anywhere near every day though.

RelievedSheff

wittynamegoeshere said:

Chrysalis said:

MrsBSaver said:

Hi All,
Looking at alternative options to dry my clothes in this weather. What do people think of plug in heaters (such as the JML) and then using a regular clothes airer? I’ve heard that the heated clothes airer only dry where the clothes touch the bars.

Why use power at all? I just put mine on a drying rack and give it some days.

Which, if you're heating your home, will cost you more as the heating will be working harder to evaporate all that water.  Plus that water vapour ends up trapped in your home and usually condenses somewhere, potentially causing all sorts of issues including mould.

It still costs, but the cost isn't obvious.

We dry our clothing in the spare bathroom since the dryer part of our washer dryer broke earlier in the year.

Ideal room for it. We leave the extractor fan on for a few hours while the washing is at it's wettest and the window open all the time. It's the warmest room in the house anyway due to it having the least external walls.

No problems with mould or condensation and no effects on the heating bill. The thermostat that heating circuit is linked too is on the downstairs hallway.

The washing is usually dry within 24 hours.

HumberFlyer

[Deleted User] said:

Why does everyone feel the need to force-dry their clothes? Genuine question - my clothes come from the spin cycle onto a boring old clothes horse to dry, and have done for years.

It can’t be to do with damp, because drying clothes on a radiator or other heated thing puts the same moisture into the air. Why is it then?

OP - heaters are either expensive or tiny. I don’t know what “the JML” one is, but it can’t break the laws of physics.

But surely forced dried or not, isn't the same ammount of moisture going into the room, just slower on a clothes horse

badger09

BooJewels said:

I use one of the pulley operated airers that are suspended under the ceiling, if you have ceiling height and space.  I have high ceilings and a utility room, so this is ideal for me - but I appreciate not everyone has the option to accommodate one.

Air movement is more important than heat to dry things - warm static air won't take the moisture away, so ventilation is a more significant factor.  I decided the other day, having discussed this in another thread, that me walking under my rack regularly must stir the air around enough, along with opening the back door, as the only heat source in there is my boiler - which moderns ones don't actually get very warm.  Things are dry in 24 hours.  Unless I happen to need them, I tend to leave laundry on the rack until my next load needs it.

I’m considering one of those for our small utility room. If I put 2 clothes horse type things up, there’s barely room for a slim person to get in there. 

The image of you walking to & fro to dry your clothes made me lol. Great way to build up the step count. 

[Deleted User] said:

Why does everyone feel the need to force-dry their clothes? Genuine question - my clothes come from the spin cycle onto a boring old clothes horse to dry, and have done for years.

It can’t be to do with damp, because drying clothes on a radiator or other heated thing puts the same moisture into the air. Why is it then?

OP - heaters are either expensive or tiny. I don’t know what “the JML” one is, but it can’t break the laws of physics.

That’s easier to do if you live alone or there are just 2 of you who don’t change all their clothes every day. It’s what we used to do but it’s much more difficult with 3 adults. For a family with young children it’s often not possible. 

We have enough clothes & bedding that I can usually postpone washing until a dry day & line dry. Again, that’s not an option for everyone. 

[Deleted User]

HumberFlyer said:

[Deleted User] said:

Why does everyone feel the need to force-dry their clothes? Genuine question - my clothes come from the spin cycle onto a boring old clothes horse to dry, and have done for years.

It can’t be to do with damp, because drying clothes on a radiator or other heated thing puts the same moisture into the air. Why is it then?

OP - heaters are either expensive or tiny. I don’t know what “the JML” one is, but it can’t break the laws of physics.

But surely forced dried or not, isn't the same ammount of moisture going into the room, just slower on a clothes horse

Well yes, that's what I said.

BooJewels

badger09 said:

BooJewels said:

I use one of the pulley operated airers that are suspended under the ceiling, if you have ceiling height and space.  I have high ceilings and a utility room, so this is ideal for me - but I appreciate not everyone has the option to accommodate one.

Air movement is more important than heat to dry things - warm static air won't take the moisture away, so ventilation is a more significant factor.  I decided the other day, having discussed this in another thread, that me walking under my rack regularly must stir the air around enough, along with opening the back door, as the only heat source in there is my boiler - which moderns ones don't actually get very warm.  Things are dry in 24 hours.  Unless I happen to need them, I tend to leave laundry on the rack until my next load needs it.

I’m considering one of those for our small utility room. If I put 2 clothes horse type things up, there’s barely room for a slim person to get in there. 

The image of you walking to & fro to dry your clothes made me lol. Great way to build up the step count. 

Ha!  I absolutely love my pulley airer - I've had one for over 40 years, my Mum had one all my life and both grandmas had them too.  If I do ever move house, not having space for one would be a total deal breaker - I really would need to have space for one. You could offer to swap it today for a top of the range tumble dryer and I would not take it.  

I don't actually walk underneath to waft my washing dry, it's just a happy bi product (at least, I think it might help a wee bit) of me needing to get to the other side, which I do many, many times a day.  You see, that's us girls, always multi-tasking!  That's why I choose an automatic watch to wear on laundry days - I can flick out my washing (fluffing up towels by vigorous shaking, the poor man's tumble dryer) and wind my watch simultaneously - which also burns calories in an aerobic exercise and warms me up.  Then you get a further stretch and workout, dragging wet laundry over something at chest height Win win!

Raxiel

We'll air dry a few items that aren't suitable for the drier, but as the weather has got wetter most of it is going in the heat pump drier.

We have a couple of racks that can sit in the kitchen but even without the humidity concerns, they're annoying to move around.

One thing that can help quite a bit though is just giving stuff an extra spin. Some materials don't need it (synthetics in particular) so we separate those out and put the machine back on. Leaves a lot less moisture for the 'heating' methods to remove and uses a lot less energy. Stuff like towels in particular benefit.

Someone in another thread expressed concern about the health of the washer bearings when running two spin cycles back to back, if that's a concern you could leave it 10 minutes or so for them to cool.

Freebird53

I've mentioned this in another post, but I line dry weather-permitting. If not (or i can't be bothered to string up washing line) i'll put clothes on clothes horse in bedroom facing sun with window open.

If it's consistently wet weather, I put the clothes horse next to the radiator, and enclose in a 'tent' in which i place a de-humidifier. This means the de-humidifier is only drying the air inside the tent, not the whole room (its a big room), the tent also traps the heat in a smaller space, making the process more efficient (its a compressor-type unit).

Usually fully dry after 5 hours. Cottons sometimes take a bit longer.

For comaprison, my tumble dryer takes around 1 hour to get mostly dry @1.2kwH

The De-humidifier takes 5 hours @ 0.57kwH.

The tumble dryer isn't kind to bamboo/synthetics.

Obviously if you have a small spare room that would be ideal. Just bear in mind that compressor type De-Humidifiers work better at >18C (or thereabouts) wheareas Dessicant types work at much lower temps.