adjustible temperature on 1 setting dryers

[awooff]

I have 2 dryers, the maytage is electric and the kenmore is gas. Neither of the two dryers have a selection for low heat. Is there a thermostat that could be adjusted on either of these machines? If I had to pick one of the two, I'd rather adjust the kenmore simply because gas is so expensive now.

 

[coldspot66]

Fixed temperature dryer thermostats are not adjustable. You could put a lower temp thermo in, say 125 degrees, but would be too low for towels and heavy fabrics. Drying would take longer.

 

[spinout]

Exactly what Kenmore do you have?

 

[appnut]

How old is the Maytag? I believe they selected a temperature t-stat that aws kinda all-fabric for no temp setting dryers. A case in point, the electronic control dryers that didn't have specific temp buttons to the right were an all-fabric temp. The only difference between regular & wash'n'wear/perm press is a slightly dryer sensing of the fabrics and a longer cool-down with the bell dinging periodically. Gansk1 told me this. As for the Kenmore, how old is that dryer and what does it look like? It could be a softheat model which gradually reduced the temp as the timer counted down the minutes or just does have one temp.

 

[toggleswitch]

Gas is usually cheaper to run an appliance with in most parts of the country.

I takes three units of gas to produce one unit of electric heat.

So you can run three gas dryer loads for what it costs to run one electric dryer load.

 

[tomturbomatic]

One thing you could do to the gas dryer is turn back the input valve so that the flame is smaller and the dryer will not run as hot. Old Norge Timeline gas dryers had the BIG RED handle on the gas valve so that even though it only had one operating thermostat, you could lower the flame to where it would hardly cycle because the smaller amount of heat was keeping the operating thermostat from being satisfied. Most dryer loads in a regular air flow dryer do not dry at temperatures of much over 105-110 until they are mostly dry because the evaporation absorbs heat, so one way that you could dry regular size loads at lower temperatures is to set the dryer so that they do not overdry or take them out when slightly damp and hang them to finish drying.

 

[KurtDixon]

Gas vs electric

Well that depends on the price of the gas and electricity. Also, if i'm not mistaken, gas does have higher energy than an equivalent electrical unit, but all dryers uses similar heat output (so the burner is burning less gas than the element is running current).
It can get complicated, long and short of it, you are right, gas is usually cheaper to run

 

[toggleswitch]

22,000 BTU/hr @ 3.4 BTU/watt= 6,470+/- watts.
IIRC electric dryers here have a 5,200 watt heating element.
So I have to agree, the heat inputs are close.

This makes more sense when we factor in nearly 100% gas efficiency(on site) in that even the heat from the products of cumbustion is used to help dry clothing.

As with the burning of all fossil fuels, some water / moisture is created so that the flame would have to be a bit "bigger/stronger" than the exact electircal equivalent which does NOT produce moisture.

It can be argued, perhaps, that a gas dryer is less "harsh".

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[tomturbomatic]

But you can recover the heat of an electric dryer in the winter, when electric rates are lower than in the air conditioning months, to help add heat and humidity to your house. With the gas dryer you are forced to pump heated inside air outside which wastes both sources of heat when you need heat most.

 

[lightedcontrols]

Here's an idea

FSP has thermostats that can be adjusted. I changed all the thermostats out on my Maytag dryers to dry a little cooler and also to cool down longer at the end of the cycle. You might want to get some of these, and retrofit them to your application. Fiddle with the temperature until you get it where you want it. Mark

 

[awooff]

If it helps for an easy fix, here are the model numbers

maytag - DE8000

Kenmore - 97260100 (this is not a "soft heat")

thanks all for trying

 

[mavei511]

I had the same question and I may have answered it. Just how important are those fabric care label dryer temp recommendations?
We have a 1982 Kenmore Heavy Duty Plus 110.87170800 gas dryer(small door). Dryer only has 1 temp and air.
It has 2 automatic cycles, Cotton/Sturdy and Permanent Press.
The only difference between the 2 cycles is the cooldown time. It is 5 mins. on Cotton/Sturdy and 10 mins. on Permanent Press.
Also has Timed Cycle with 10 min. cooldown(includes Touch-Up cycle) plus 25 min.Air Cycle. In the instructions they recommend using the automatic cycles for most drying and the timed cycle for damp drying,knits and also if the dryer is located where the temp is below 45 degrees because the automatic cycle may not turn the dryer off.

Here are the suggested dry times:

Knits-Delicates 15-30 mins.
Permanent Press 30-45 mins.
Denims-Work Clothes 45-65 mins.
Towels 45-60 mins.
Mixed Cottons 35-50 mins.

I assume that the 15-30 min. timed setting recommendation for Knits-Delicates simulates low heat,(even though it really isn't) by limiting the heat time(as Tomturbomatic said).

Also from what I understand the adjustable replacement thermostats are intended for multiple applications and the markings (ABCDE)correspond to the particular OEM temp (this dryer is 150 degrees)and they are not intended to be set higher or lower then the recommended OEM temp. I will be replacing all thermostats as part of preventative maintenance soon.