Crazy idea.

[AngelofDarkness]

For you wood furnace guys. Take an old clothes dryer with a burnt out element, whatever and run a 4" duct off of the main supply duct right off your furnace. Wrap it in duct insulation and add a blast gate (similar to on a dust collector) at the dryer end. Run the duct inside the dryer cabinet and connect it to the air intake for the heater box or gas burner, it may require some modifying to make the final connection, and duct the dryer outside like normal. Now you have a wood-heated clothes dryer! To use it just open the blast gate, put in the clothes and set the timer with no heat.

I'm not sure how it would work from a wood boiler, it really needs the scorching hot, dry air from a wood furnace.

 

[wdchuck]

Have thought about this myself, just waiting for the right victim along the road.

Why vent it, that's a great humidity source, right to the cold air return, add some moisture to the house.

 

[AngelofDarkness]

Have thought about this myself, just waiting for the right victim along the road.

Why vent it, that's a great humidity source, right to the cold air return, add some moisture to the house.

You could dump it back into the cold return or set up a tee with another blast gate to divert it outside if it is milder out and you don't want the extra humidity.

As long as a dryer is complete and has a good drum, motor and controls it should work fine, thats why one with a bad element is a good candidate. Make sure it matches the colors of the other washer and dryer or you'll hear it from the boss!

A family that does a lot of laundry could really save some bucks, combine that with a hot water preheat coil and your wood does even more for you. Who thought trees could work so hard!

 

[Nuzzy]

Might you get some smokey smell (not that that should be a deterant)?

 

[reaperman]

Somebody couldn't sleep last night.

 

[techdave]

Wood Dryer, some concerns

Hi AOD, unless there is a heat exchanger in the wood furnace, i am pretty sure the wood fumes will seriously stain the clothes.

I am not sure you can control the heat to the dryer easily either.

The gate for your hot air needs to close as the clothes heat up, or fabrics may be schorched, and/or permanent press will lose its qualities.

PP must be tumbled correctly on a cooldown regime.
the fibers must go above the release temp of the PP material to release wrinkles, and then cool while tumbling until below the release so no wrinkles set on the cooling cycle.


If you could rig some form of valve control to the high and low thermostats and the safty thrermal fuse it could work. Relays to solenoids that actuate the valve.

Good for mans BVDs and work uniforms?? Not so much for high faluting go to town stuff

 

[AngelofDarkness]

It would only work with a forced air wood furnace that has ducts that tie into an existing ductwork system, there is no way you could use flue gases that are meant to go up the stack, so using a stove is almost completely out of the question.

It would take a bit of tweaking, using the timer or mixing the incoming air from the furnace with cool room air for a lower temp. I would stay away from automatic dampers and solenoids, I want this to be simple.

 

[reaperman]

With the wood furnace I have there is a option which can be purchased called a "domestic hot water coil" Which is a fancy name for a, U-shaped small diameter pipe which can be bolted into the firebox. From there I suppose a small circulating pump is used to circulate water from the water heater to the wood furnace, back to the water heater, and so on. Not sure how well something like this would work but it may have have a place.

 

[techdave]

Need to cycle the heat

hi AOD, you HAVE to cycle the heat to get Permanent Press fabrics to work.

It will take forever to dry clothes without getting the high heat close to the upper limit for the fabric being dried. This is seperate issue from the need for tumbling cool for PP and protecting .

If you do all the loads the same, you might be albe to figure out hwo to set the levers of the valves and then just come back in say 30 mins when the kitchen timer rings and close the ehat valve.

Good luck, good idea.

 

[AngelofDarkness]

Who really uses the perm. press setting anyway, I never have. How hard is it to dry clothes, good grief!

 

[STLfirewood]

Hi AOD, unless there is a heat exchanger in the wood furnace, i am pretty sure the wood fumes will seriously stain the clothes.

I am not sure you can control the heat to the dryer easily either.

The gate for your hot air needs to close as the clothes heat up, or fabrics may be schorched, and/or permanent press will lose its qualities.

PP must be tumbled correctly on a cooldown regime.
the fibers must go above the release temp of the PP material to release wrinkles, and then cool while tumbling until below the release so no wrinkles set on the cooling cycle.


If you could rig some form of valve control to the high and low thermostats and the safty thrermal fuse it could work. Relays to solenoids that actuate the valve.

Good for mans BVDs and work uniforms?? Not so much for high faluting go to town stuff

It kind of scares me that a man knows so much about drying clothes. Do you own a laundry mat or just read cosmo a lot. Just kidding with you.

Scott

 

[wdchuck]

I'd add in a tee, then a manual flap for the hot air supply, and have the exhaust go right to the cold air on my main ductwork.
This project dryer would be in the basement right next to the woodfurnace to keep the duct run as short as possible.

Another approach, that has worked for many, hang the clothes on lines in the house/basement, where its warm, and have either an open ended duct aimed at the clothes or just an oscillating fan on them, just hanging works too, but takes longer.
The benefit of the dryers tumbling action, is that it allows lint collection, and the towels come out softer, although the stiffer line dried ones are good at exfolliating the back.

Since I do the laundry, its kept simple, like using white vinegar as liquid fabric softener, works great.

 

[Sprig]

I think by the time you got the heat to near what a clothes dryer runs at you'd be opening every door and window and/or calling the fire dep't, either that or trying to dry on such a low heat it'd take yas forever.
I always like my mom's old system when she had her farmhouse in Cow. Lake, the big ceiling rack on pullys, lower 'er down, load it up, pull it up; nice hit of humidity, quiet, and cheap too

]

Serge

 

[ktm rider]

This would probably be easier with a wood boiler actually. I remember seeing a heat exchanger specifically made for a clothes dryer. ( I can't remember where though) All you did was add the heat exchanger to the dryer and plumb it up.

 

[curdy]

This would probably be easier with a wood boiler actually. I remember seeing a heat exchanger specifically made for a clothes dryer. ( I can't remember where though) All you did was add the heat exchanger to the dryer and plumb it up.

Funny, I was just reading that thread a couple of days ago.:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=37519&highlight=owb+dryer+hx

The link that you had found before was for this:

http://us.outdoorfurnaces.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=22

 

[Moddoo]

Interesting idea.
I'm not sure how hot a dryer normally runs.
But, my main trunk is usually between 120*-130* using my wood furnace.

If I tried it, I would want to exhaust it into the house.
a decent lit trap would be needed.
Maybe a sheetrock bag for a shop vac.

I have used the fabric from a 3M furnace filter (highest rating) made into a bag, and exhausting the dryer into the house. It works well.
However, I need to get the wife to stop using scented detergent fabric softener.

I am sure you could run a switch to your heating element on a working dryer if you wanted.

 

[AngelofDarkness]

I think by the time you got the heat to near what a clothes dryer runs at you'd be opening every door and window and/or calling the fire dep't

I don't think so, because if you open up a dryer when it is running on high for a while and feel the metal drum, it is warm, but never too hot to touch. "too hot to touch" is around 130 degrees. The clothes are nice and warm, but not hot to the point where they are about to burst into flames. I think getting 140-150 degree air out of a wood furnace is not unreasonable at all, if you take the duct right off the main takeoff of the heat exchanger you could get even warmer. The old-time gas furnaces wouldn't even turn on the fan until the plenum temp. was 150. You could play with mixing dampers and whatnot for lower heat settings. The other thing to remember is the air coming out of a wood furnace is going to be very very dry, literally "burnt" air, and it should dry clothes effectively as long as it is above 120 degrees.