I was always told that a dryer full of damp clothing actually dries faster and more evenly than just a few items dried at a time. In other words, a full dryer would finish the job sooner than a quarter-full dryer.
Seems counter-intuitive, I know. But perhaps it’s a parallel principle to the fact that a full fridge requires less energy to keep things cold than a sparsely stocked fridge.
Anybody have an dryer insight?
I expect whatever advantage the dryer gets from having more clothes in it is offset by the larger amount of water it much extract.
I can tell you it doesn’t work, at least with my dryer. Innumerable loads tell me that a dryer filled with a third to a half load (that is, an amount of clothes that filled the washing mashine a third to a half full when initially put in) dry in only one cycle, where a heavier load always needs two or, in rare cases, even two and a half cycles.
Remember, the fridge is trying to maintain temperature, for which a large mass of already cold foods is obviously useful. A dryer is trying to change the state of what’s inside it, by evaporating water. The more water, the harder this is to do, even before you get into whether the air can circulate properly.
What the original might mean is that it might take less energy to do the same amount of clothes. Even if your dryer takes two cycles to process a full load, this obviously requires less energy than doing three cycles of a third of a load each.
I have found that my dryer will dry clothing more quickly with less clothing in it.
From 30 years of dryer experience I can tell you this is not true. It is possible that an optimally full dryer is more efficient, but you will *never *get a load done faster by adding more wet clothes. Who is it that has “always told” you this?
BTW I would be interested in seeing a thread on the fridge issue because at first glance I can’t imagine why a fuller fridge would save energy. Once you hit steady state, the heat transfer into the fridge should depend only on the temperature difference between the surface of the fridge and the surrounding air, which should be the same regardless of whether the fridge is packed full of food, or has nothing but cold air. It might be more efficient in terms of (energy/food mass), but that’s not the same as reducing energy consumption.
“Less is better” goes only so far. I distinctly remember some years ago, at the laundramat, having a dryer load that was quite small - just some jockey shorts and maybe a couple of t-shirts. It took considerably longer than usual to dry.
Once, while drying an overcoat by itself, the attendant came up and kindly proffered me their stash of tennis balls to put in the dryer. She claimed the coat would dry faster. All I can figure is stuff dries a bit faster if there is other stuff bumping into it. 'Twould seem to be so.
One special case that might have lead to the myth about the dryer is attempting to dry only one item because you are in a hurry. I’ve had situations where the one item rolled up and dried slower. It seemed that you needed a few other items to make the tumbling more effective.
I would think the fuller fridge thing has to do with how much warm air can enter when the door is opened.
If you only have a few things especially, throwing in a dry towel really speeds things up.
Yes, this is precisely the correct answer. If I have only one (or a few) things to dry, I throw in a towel, too, and that keeps things moving around. If the towel is dry, the rest of the items will dry very quickly.
When I wake up and say OMG I forgot to put the wash in dryer last night, I take exactly what I need to wear that day and toss it in the dryer along with two or three dry towels (or whatever is nearby some sweatshirts would work also). The idea being two fold. The towels can grab some of the heat before it goes out the exhaust and two the dry towels will absorb some of the dampness on the wet clothes and provide more surface area for the dryer to work with. My clothes are always dry by the time I’m done with my shower. Then I toss the rest in and go to work.
The savings come in from the opening and closing of the fridge. When the door is open, less air is transferred. Therefore, when the door is shut, there is less air that needs to be chilled again. It’s also better in the case of a power outage, since ice, meats, etc. have a higher specific heat capacity than air does.