Dryers Use Dirty Air From Inside the Cabinet and Floor Around the Machine

[stricklybojack]

.
Right?
Thinking back to the Maytag i just disassembled/reassembled...I realize the air flow starts at the bottom of th machine, circulates through the drum, then is pulled back down into the nether regions below and out the back...like most vented dryers.
What up with that?
No pre-filtration of any kind for air pulled from the (likely) dustiest place in your house.
Imagine drawing air down through a (cheap and universally available) furnace filter, then into the drum...makes more sense to me.[this post was last edited: 3/19/2017-17:18]

http://https//m.youtube.com/watch?v=UC5I5fmruCc

 

[whatsername]

Asking consumers to clean two filters would be too much! Most can't even handle the lint filter.

 

[henene4]

One thing europeans (mostly) don't have to worry about.

We were (mostly) raised with condensing dryers, so we are used to much more maintanace then 2 filters...

 

[yogitunes]

all the more reason to keep the area around the dryer clean.....not only dust and such, but things that would block the flow of air intake as well....

I keep waiting to see a sort of sealed combustion for a dryer, pulling air from outside, and returning it outside.....as not to take away inside conditioned air...

that would require two vent lines.....

 

[suburbanmd]

The very fact that it's the dustiest place in the house argues that the dust isn't being sucked into the dryer, I think

 

[stricklybojack]

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Lol, can't tell if you're serious but...i have been allergic to dust most of my life and I can tell that is NOT how it works.

 

[suburbanmd]

Here's how I figure it: It's the dustiest place in the house because the dryer sucks dust-laden air through it. But the dust that's sitting there wasn't sucked into the dryer, rather it's sitting there. It'll stay there forever, i.e. it's in equilibrium, because the dryer-induced airflow doesn't change in direction or velocity. If you disturb it, that's a different story. I'm allergic to dust also. I really have to avoid the stuff, and if it gets on my hands and then I touch my face, I'm miserable.

 

[kb0nes]

I'd look at it this way, if this really was a serious problem, wouldn't someone have addressed it already? The air doesn't really go through the clothing, most exhausts out of the dryer. It would be comparatively easy to add a filter, but nobody ever has. Perhaps it really isn't a problem. Perhaps if you had the dryer in your wood shop

The problem I'd like to see addressed with a dryer is to pull the intake air from outdoors. When it is crazy cold or hot/humid outdoors, it bugs me to have to exhaust all that conditioned indoor air outside through the dryer vent. As with all the high efficiency furnaces, I'd love to see an outdoor air intake added.

 

[stricklybojack]

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I like the idea of pulling in fresh air from outside, great idea Martin! You would have to be careful of not picking up the moist air exiting the exhaust vent.

There's dust you can see and dust you can't. What people are typically allergic to is the later type...which is an ever present fellow traveler of the first. Such dust is so small it is essentially an aerosolized irritant to folks like me.
Quality bagged Hepa vacuums (not the leaky typically bag-less junk) are a massive improvement for allergy sufferers because of the microscopic nature of dust mites...the 'active ingredient' to household dust.

 

[DADoES]

 
Am I remembering correctly that Maytag touted an incoming air filter on an early model (maybe a condensor?) dryer?

 

[lowefficiency]

>> No pre-filtration of any kind for air pulled from the (likely) dustiest place in your house.  


>> Imagine drawing air down through a (cheap and universally available) furnace filter, then into the drum...makes more sense to me. 

 

No idea if it was "factory" or not, but at least one dryer had followed your idea.   Here's the back panel of a Maytag 641C that maytag63 restored, that had a mesh filter over the air inlet vents. I saved the link because I thought it was a good idea.



http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?49163

 

[rapunzel]

I open up the guts of my dryer at least once a year and it's always clean. There is almost no lint or dust build-up on the inside and I am not overly concerned about the quality of the air that is drawn through the machine. My laundry room is well aired and dry. Regular dryers have worked without the need for a filter for decades and without it being an issue. A vacuum cleaner and a damp mop make quick work of dusty floors.

Line drying clothes outside exposes them to dust, bugs, moisture and anything else that travels on a breeze. Yet, people still swear by line drying in fresh air. In Europe, where many people live in apartment buildings, it is not unusual to find a communal indoor drying space that is often located in the basement. These rooms are heated in winter and they have a few small windows that are kept open for fresh air. However, these spaces can also be dusty and smelly depending on how frequently they are used. Yet, clothes dry and remain clean in these spaces.

 

[askolover]

Having 4 cats in the house I'm always finding a 5th cat behind the dryer and water heater...but since I stuck the dryer on a pedestal it's not so bad because I can vacuum underneath.

 

[johnb300m]

I'm not worried.
I figure the flames burn up whatever little dust gets pulled into there, and then it goes right into the lint filter.

Strong fumes around your dryer?
Now that's another story.
Those smells could get on your clothes. Like painting, etc.

 

[iheartmaytag]

This is why if you have a muysty basement your clothes sometimes smell muysty from. The dryer pulling in the musty air to dry the clothes.

We was an alcoholic, heavy smoking neighbor once, when their dryer was running the exhaust smelled like a tavern.

 

[twintubdexter]

Clothing always smells fine to me...

I never really considered the quality of the air the dryer was using. One thing I often think about is the extra-expense of using the dryer in the summer. With my inside laundry room the dryer is sucking air-conditioned air out of the house which means 110+ outside air is being used  to replace it sneaking in from various places like windows, doors and even the range hood. A  garage laundry area would eliminate that problem but it does get uncomfortable out there. At times, I'm sure it would be possible to dry clothes just using the "air" setting. Another thing I've considered is closing the laundry room door to the house and cracking the door that goes into the garage. I guess it's just a matter of how cheap you want to be.

 

[earthling177]

Joe (twintubdexter) said:

"At times, I'm sure it would be possible to dry clothes just using the "air" setting."

No kidding, particularly if you get 110F in summer -- some of the newer dryers use about that temperature on the lower temperature settings.

 

[duke]

The ideal clothes dryer would be a sealed unit that pulls make up air from the attic, Especially in the south.Running a dryer while trying to cool a home down here is ridiculous in summer..I have never understood why building codes were not upgraded to require this change in true energy star homes.. 

 

[earthling177]

Exactly, Duke -- maybe they are waiting for a revision on the building codes. Certainly they'd have to get at least the manufactures to promise making dryers that had the necessary plumbing.