Stove as a dryer?

[ecocavalier02]

Anyone else use there stove as a clothes dryer. i go through so many work clothes during the winter, i work outside all winter so theres lots of layers to wash and i work with lots of crap at work so lots of washing during the week.. figured we might as well take advantage of it this year.

 

[oldspark]

One of my fond memories as a child was putting wet snowy gloves on the wood burner and having them sizzle.

 

[Shari]

Why not? Wood heat is a dry heat - drying clothes adds humidity.

Last year someone posted a photo with temporary clothes lines strung across their stove room - seemed to work out fine.

Shari

 

[branchburner]

Why not? Wood heat is a dry heat - drying clothes adds humidity.

And it does it without the airborne lint a dryer spits out!
Just hung a load yesterday - dried a lot faster than the load on the line.

 

[ecocavalier02]

yeah got the ideal at my brother inlaws house. i be ya ill knock 20 30 bucks off our electrcity bill anyway. i run the dryer probably 3 or 4 times a week sometimes with my stuff i get into a lot of insualtion at work sometimes and can be a real pain so i gotta wash em everyday

 

[ecocavalier02]

Why not? Wood heat is a dry heat - drying clothes adds humidity.

And it does it without the airborne lint a dryer spits out!
Just hung a load yesterday - dried a lot faster than the load on the line.

thats next years project im putting a clothes line in outside. im surrounded by neighbors all above 70 there isnt one of them that doesn't have a clothes line.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Do they still make those mast systems that let you raise and lower the line? The line we had growing up kept the clothes high enough that you could easily walk under them.

 

[ispinwool]

Do they still make those mast systems that let you raise and lower the line? The line we had growing up kept the clothes high enough that you could easily walk under them.

I'm not familiar with the "mast system" (it may be like the laundry lines on the Amish houses here
in PA.) but if you look through the 'pages' at www.lehmans.com they may have what you're looking for.

 

[SolarAndWood]

It was a probably 6 ft pole on the side of the house that had a carriage on it. In the lower position, it was the perfect working height just outside the door. When you were done, you run the carriage to the top of the mast and the clothes were out of the way.

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

I've been dryer free for 2 years, so I am looking forward to that additional benefit of the wood stove this winter. No more freezing cold finger, plus quicker drying. I need to get a better set up than just the drying rack though. I'll probably string line from my exposed beams during the week and take it down for visitors.

 

[ecocavalier02]

[quote author="SolarAndWood" date="1289153240"]It was a probably 6 ft pole on the side of the house that had a carriage on it. In the lower position, it was the perfect working height just outside the door. When you were done, you run the carriage to the top of the mast and the clothes were out of the way.[/quote My neighbor 3 houses down has one. a pole that they lower then the raise it up after then hang the clothes on it.

 

[ecocavalier02]

I've been dryer free for 2 years, so I am looking forward to that additional benefit of the wood stove this winter. No more freezing cold finger, plus quicker drying. I need to get a better set up than just the drying rack though. I'll probably string line from my exposed beams during the week and take it down for visitors.

My wife would kill me if i hung a line in our brand new finished basement. lol. im ok with our regular laundry on the weekend going in the dryer. any of you guys track what you have saved a month on the electrical bill?

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

It saves me $25-30 a month for 2 people, plus the added benefit of not burning coal to do what happens anyway. Here in the southeast we take off the tops of mountains and dump them in our rivers and streams so we can access coal. Lines in my living room are going to be pretty ugly, but I'll just picture dollar bills hanging off of them. Plus I'm the only grownup who has to look at them. Well, my neighbor when she lets my dogs out, but she's runs a stove and hangs laundry too, so she'll see dollar bills also.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

This is one more thing I forgot to post in another thread but my wife has always dried clothes inside during the winter months. If at all possible she still prefers the solar clothes dryer which is located in the back yard. So, how much money is saved? In our case, probably a lot because our dryer is LP. I don't really know why we have one because it maybe gets used once per year.

It just makes good sense to use the wood heat for drying cloths and putting humidity into the air.

 

[homebrewz]

It saves me $25-30 a month for 2 people, plus the added benefit of not burning coal to do what happens anyway. Here in the southeast we take off the tops of mountains and dump them in our rivers and streams so we can access coal. Lines in my living room are going to be pretty ugly, but I'll just picture dollar bills hanging off of them. Plus I'm the only grownup who has to look at them. Well, my neighbor when she lets my dogs out, but she's runs a stove and hangs laundry too, so she'll see dollar bills also.

Not sure if you mean you used to burn coal, or the burning of coal to produce electricity to run the dryer. Either way, good point because a little over half our electricity comes from burning coal and not running the dryer if you can help it makes good sense. Acid mine wash is still a serious problem (and speaking of laundry, -> insert joke about acid wash jeans here <- )

Love drying things in front of the stove, good for drying out winter boots too.

 

[Slow1]

We're lucky to have put our stove in a space that used to be a smallish room. Thus I have two walls well placed to hang hooks and string lines between them which is a project I finished up last year. The picture here shows far more mess than I like, but you can get the idea. I hang the lines we need and we can hang a whole load at a time. When the stove is running the clothes will dry overnight so we don't have anything hanging during the day. I rarely run the electric dryer anymore - only when it is too rainy outside and too cool inside for more than a week....

 

[BrotherBart]

We dry all of our stuff either on rolling racks in the room with the stove or outdoors any more. Started the dryer for the first time in a year the other day and thought it was going to fly apart. I think the bearing in the belt tensioner was seized from lack of use. Luckily it freed up when the dryer heated up.

 

[nayoung31]

Works great, smells great and saves money...does it get any better???

 

[Fake coal burner]

What's a clothes dryer??? :-S Hang them up they all dry.

 

[n3pro]

We do,

 

[North of 60]

Anyone else use there stove as a clothes dryer. i go through so many work clothes during the winter, i work outside all winter so theres lots of layers to wash and i work with lots of crap at work so lots of washing during the week.. figured we might as well take advantage of it this year.

Hey, I didnt mean to look but you are drying with your bypass OPEN? %-P

 

[ecocavalier02]

lol i was wondering if someone would catch that. just loaded the stove and figured i take a pic while i was sittin there waiting to shut it.

 

[heatwise]

we have a line that spans the basement from one end to the other and a folding rack for snow covered clothes . we dont dry everything on the line but we have a washer that spins the clothes dryer than our last machine. our dryer is set on low and we hang some things like jeans that didnt dry well. when i lived in australia most everyone had a hills hoist clothes line outside and when i bought my house over theyre it was listed as a selling point that came with the home. the house also came with a small gas heater that knocked off the chill and always made me sleepy. pete

 

[dloveroflife]

Awesome! I remember putting boots and all of our winter gear on the floor near the stove to get them dry...fond, fond memories!

 

[joshlaugh]

RIght now I am sitting in front of one of my wood stoves with my youngest daughter's cloth diapers drying next to the stove. We have always line dried out clothes in s/s/f but until this year have not tried in winter. So far so good.