Finally convinced her...

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MichaelManley

New Member
Aug 9, 2012
13
New Hampshire
...to use the wood stove as a clothes dryer!

The chrome dryer was purchased at Home Depot a few months back and typically keep it in the laundry room. The clothes would still dry pretty quickly despite not drying in the room where the stove is located. Also, I noticed that any recently washed dishes, that weren't dried by hand, quickly dry as well.

Stove is an Osburn 2000 (free standing, obviously).
 

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Just don't hang them too close.;) You know that CTC (clearance to combustibles) stuff they always talk about on this site.

KaptJaq
 
At least her delicates weren't in the picture ;)

How close is that nice speaker to the woodstove?

I really like your hearth pad, is that a custom order? If so, good choice on the stone.
 
I have a register in the living room leading to the bedroom and I hang my clothes over it and they dry in no time and they are putting moisture in the air at the same time. Another good use for wood heat:)
 
Thats the only we dried clothes when I was growing up. I loved it and am trying to talk my wife into doing that.
 
At least her delicates weren't in the picture ;)

How close is that nice speaker to the woodstove?

I really like your hearth pad, is that a custom order? If so, good choice on the stone.

I like the stone too. Wish it were bigger though. Nice wood floors.
 
How often do you have to re-load that stove? I have the insert.
 
At least her delicates weren't in the picture ;)

How close is that nice speaker to the woodstove?

I really like your hearth pad, is that a custom order? If so, good choice on the stone.

I think I have the same one, they come in a lot of sizes and configurations. I bought it from a local dealer but am sure you can find it on line. They are made by American Panel, it's the natural cleft collection, this style is called Idaho Diamond as it has little flecks of mica that shimmer, when there isn't ash on it anyway ;)
 
...to use the wood stove as a clothes dryer!

The chrome dryer was purchased at Home Depot a few months back and typically keep it in the laundry room. The clothes would still dry pretty quickly despite not drying in the room where the stove is located. Also, I noticed that any recently washed dishes, that weren't dried by hand, quickly dry as well.

Stove is an Osburn 2000 (free standing, obviously).

So is the purpose to save electricity? Just wondering?
 
Nice. My wife sets up a rack near the hearth to dry towels and sweatshirts. Helps to provide some humidity in the air as well which helps stave off some of the dryness in the sinuses.
 
Nothing like that wood smoke smell in your clothes, you just feel like a lumberjack all day long ==c
 
Nothing like that wood smoke smell in your clothes, you just feel like a lumberjack all day long ==c
I resemble that remark. :mad:
Actually my wife often drys sheets and blankets (and sometimes clothes) in the stove room. I have a couple hooks across the room from each other (14 ft apart), and we have a length of line she stretches across the hooks. Instant indoor clothes line!

BTW, the clothes never smell smokey,,, if you are getting smoke in your house, you might want to check your chimney. ;)
 
Nice! The wife has been doing that same thing since the bronze age. She insists it's also a way to add moisture to the indoor air too.
 
We keep a large drying rack near (but not to near) our basement stove. We usually run a small fan on the damp clothes to speed up the drying process. The clothes dry fast and we add humidity to the room. I don't like running the dryer since it is older and uses a lot of electricity. During the snowy weather, you can't beat warm, boots, gloves, hats and warm snow pants for the kids all thanks to a wood stove.
 
We dry virtually all our clothes near the stove - and with 6 in the family that is a lot of clothes :)

I had to run some lines across the room - put hooks on both walls and then lines to connect. I had expected to only use on occasion so the lines could be taken down in between but now we leave them up unless we have 'special' visitors who can't deal with a working household.

Clothes dry within 12 hours during the winter (even jeans) most of the time and we get that moisture into the air. Summer drying times may be 24+ hrs, in those cases we take the damp/almost dry clothes and finish them off in the electric dryer at the 24hr mark just to be sure they get fully dried.

Never had any smoke smell in our clothes - I really wouldn't do well with the stove if I had to put up with smoke stench at all.

Sorry the picture is sideways... I can't seem to get it to rotate before uploading... just too late in the day to figure it out.

IMG_0236.JPG
 
We dry virtually all our clothes near the stove - and with 6 in the family that is a lot of clothes :)

Slow1. do you have a dehumidifier in your house?

Although my wife hangs certain stuff to dry in the stove room I discourage hanging general laundry because we already get an awful lot of condensation on the windows, especially around a couple skylights in my kid's rooms. One of the skylights has even started to show slight signs of mold. I've been trying to teach my boys to wipe off the excess moisture when they see it, but that's harder then trying to get them to make their beds ( a loosing battle). <>
 
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Slow1. do you have a dehumidifier in your house?

Although my wife hangs certain stuff to dry in the stove room I discourage hanging general laundry because we already get an awful lot of condensation on the windows, especially around a couple skylights in my kid's rooms. One of the skylights has even started to show slight signs of mold. I've been trying to teach my boys to wipe off the excess moisture when they see it, but that's harder then trying to get them to make their beds ( a loosing battle). <>

Our winter moisture problems are of the "too dry" sort. As an example, we have been running about 30%rh in the house for the last week or so (up a bit today as it was warmer and foggy/raining yesterday and today). Thus the moisture from the laundry is a blessing for us.

Prior to woodstove days we had a very nice humidifier installed on our heating system (another of those things that my wife likes to remind me that we no longer use) that would inject steam into the air ducts. It would pump several gallons a day into the air to keep the RH in the house above 40% but at a cost of a lot of electricity.
 
Are you getting much water condensation on the windows in your house?

Our winter air is dry here too, but we still get a fair amount of condensation on some of the windows when we create excess humidity in the house. Our windows are all modern, double pane, low-E windows. only 5 years old.
 
Are you getting much water condensation on the windows in your house?

Our winter air is dry here too, but we still get a fair amount of condensation on some of the windows when we create excess humidity in the house. Our windows are all modern, double pane, low-E windows. only 5 years old.

Only time I have seen condensation on windows (other than bathroom after showers) is when lifting blinds in mornings of very cold days which I attribute to the extra cooling that happens behind the blinds (limited airflow etc). This dries up fairly quickly once the blinds are up.
 
We have double pane and a storm widow on. No condensation on those windows, on a couple that only have the double pane, we get a small layer of ice at the bottom when it is in the teens or lower outside. . It is on plastic and doesn't seem to do any harm.
 
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