Save the world and a few dollars

With the current global warming trend and the recession any way we can find to save is a good thing. In this article I would like to impart a few tips about how to save a few bucks with your clothes dryer and at the same time conserve energy.

The optimal thing to do is to hang your clothes on a clothesline and let the sun take care of the job for you but urban dwellers often don’t have that option either due to space constraints, HOA rules or a whole assortment of other reasons. This means that millions of dryers must be used every single day and we need them to work better instead of harder.

Lets first look at how a dryer works. It’s a pretty simple process in that all it does is suck in surrounding air and heat it up. It then blows all this heated air through a spinning drum, which your clothes are in, and forces the warm damp air through a pipe to be vented outside. The process is actually really simple and while there are factors that you cannot control but there is a lot, which you can that will pay off in putting money back into your pocket.

The air that your dryer is sucking in should be as dry as possible and while you have no control over the humidity try not to use your dryer when the humidity spikes. Usually during or directly after a rainfall are the worst times. Another thing is often times the washer dryer combinations are in a small confined area. If you’re using the washer at the same time then it raises the humidity of your laundry area. So if your using your washer and dryer at the same time then keep it ventilated so that the damp air can escape which will help your dryer.

Next you’re going to want to look at the clothes that you’re drying. If you just pull them out of the washer and throw them into the dryer you are making the dryer work a lot harder because the final rinse cycle tends to make your clothes into little balls that the dryer has to get opened up to dry them. If you give each item a quick shake to open it up before you put it in the dryer it improves the airflow throughout the entire garment allowing it to dry faster. Another trick is to throw a clean dry towel in with each load to dry. This will pull the moisture out of the wet clothing and since the towel is already dry whatever moisture it does pick up will evaporate much more quickly.

You must clean your lint trap after every load. This will allow the damp air to escape so that fresh dry air can continue to pick up and remove more water from your clothing. Dryer lint is blamed for thousands of home fires every year because if it does come into contact with the heating element on your dryer is can burst into flames with relative ease. Also make sure that your dryer screen doesn’t become clogged and impede airflow. The lint screens can be easily cleaned with toothbrush and warm water.

Finally check your dryer hose that attaches to the outside vent. The first thing is to make sure that it is firmly attached to your dryer and the outside vent so your not blowing damp air into back into your laundry area. Another major mistake that is often made it the hose itself is way to long. You can tell if you look behind your dryer and the vent hose is snaking around back there. When you purchase the hoses they usually come in lengths about six feet long but the connection from the dryer to the vent is often less than a foot. You should cut the hose to make the connection as direct as possible but make sure that you leave a little extra so it won’t come off if your dryer shifts a little. This will increase the airflow out of your dryer and also eliminate a good place for lint to build up.