Go Greener Tips

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.

Lets look at how a clothes dryer works. It sucks in surrounding air and heats it up. It blows the heated air through a spinning drum, which your clothes are in, and forces air through a pipe to be vented. The process is really simple and there are factors that you cannot control but there is a lot which you can.

The air that your dryer is sucking in should be as dry as possible and while you have no control over the humidity don’t use your dryer when the humidity spikes. Usually during or directly after a rainfall. Often times the washer dryer combination’s are in a small area. If you’re using the washer at the same time then it raises the humidity of your laundry. Try to keep it ventilated so that the damp air can escape from you clothing.

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

Clean your lint trap after every load. This will allow the damp air to escape improving overall efficiency. Dryer lint is blamed for thousands of home fires yearly. If lint comes into contact with the heating element it can easily ignite. Also make sure that your screen doesn’t become clogged. 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 optimize the airflow out of your dryer and also eliminate a good place for lint to build up.