Vintage Commercial Dryers

[a440]

Just a curious question....

With all the talk about new inventions on new products for washer and dryers. It seems like the talk about dryers is always bigger is better.

I have always had a fondness for vintage commercial dryers. I know that most of them are worn out from use over the years. I was wondering is anyone has bought and used a commercial vintage dryer to use home wise?

We have seen several commercial front loaders used in home use. I don't remember any commercial dryers however.

Anyone? I for one would love one. I do have a place with a gas outlet that would work. I have been to many "for sale" and passed because they are just worn out.

Just curious.

Brent

 

[arbilab]

Getcha one then, if you have the space, gas, high-volume venting (8" duct). Takes 3 residential washers to fill it to an efficient level. Assuming you can do the rebuild (zero labor cost) the parts are probably available.

The 'worn out' part is a balance between how cheap they sell and rebuild costs. I mean, if it were economical to rebuild at the point where they were retired, don't you think the commercial laundry would have? I worked at a hotel briefly and their aged dryers constantly failed from one thing or another. Their washers weren't much better, only the newest Wascomat pretty much worked, the two Unimacs took turns breaking down.

 

[toploader55]

My Experience...

Has been Hoyt, Huebch, and Speed Queen Commercials.

Milnor Washers.

We had at the Yacht Club I worked a 35# Milnor EP35 Washer and a 75# Reverse Tumbling Dryer. (Natural Gas) During the 3 years I was there, we had no Service Calls at all on either Machines.

That Milnor was built better than a Tank. The Main Bearing was that compared to the bearing they use in the trucks for a Rail Road Car. Yes, That Heavy Duty.

If I owned my own home, I would definitely love to have a Commercial Set up just to wash Comforters and Large Items to see Water really slosh those items around. The Miele 4842 I bought 3 years ago even with the WaterPlus feature set, still does not provide enough water.

 

[tomturbomatic]

If you want to use a commercial dryer, put it in an unheated space. They will remove a very large amount of air every minute and that air has either been heated or cooled if the dryer is in a climate-controlled part of the house.

If it is total capacity you are needing and not just the large drum for the occasional quilt, a pair of stacking dryers would give you a lot of capacity at possibly more economical operating costs. You would again want to consider the impact on your home's climate control system since with both in operation, you would be pulling around 300 cubic feet of air a minute out of the house through the dryers. If you are having to heat or cool the replacement air, that can be very expensive.

 

[nmassman44]

A quick fix to the air movement issue would be to open a window. I do that with my dryers since they will suck the heat out of the house in the winter, plus they dry faster with the dry winter air we have going on now. Granted when they are running together pulling 180 cfms for my Profile dryer and 200 cfms for the Frigidaire built GE dryer, it's quite breezy in the basement when they are on.

 

[a440]

Thanks for all the input.
Sadly I never thought about all of the air being pulled out by a commercial dryer. This is a huge amount of air.
The set up that I could have it in a room set aside in the basement. It already had the gas setup run and a place where I could put in a vent.
I will keep looking.
Thanks for the input.
B

 

[tomturbomatic]

Does the room have a window you could open while the dryer is in operation?

 

[revvinkevin]

You will NEED to have an open window.....

 

 

I was just looking at the specs for new commercial dryer (in this case Uni-Mac).   I thought they'd require a larger gas line connection, but even with the 75lb dryer @ 165K BTUs only requires a 1/2" gas line.    

 

On airflow, both the 50 & 75lb dryers have an airflow rating of 750 CFM!   Granted a "vintage" commercial dryer the airflow may be less, but I doubt it will be as low as 300 CFM......... Unless you're not talking about large dryers like 50 lbs or more??

 

A different 30lb commercial dryer I found is only 400 CFM, but that's still a big step up from a residential model.

 

Kevin

 

[combo52]

Opening a window

While running a dryer indoors can be a good idea but it will not dry faster with cold outside air than the warm 70 degree room air that the house likely has.

Used commercial gas dryers are easy to find if you look in the right places. We have a 50lb SQ dryer that we are going to install in the back of the museum alongside a 35Lb SQ bolt down commercial washer. The dryer has a 6" vent and is 85,000 BTUs.

 

[a440]

Tom,
Yes the room does have three windows next to where the dryer could go.
I would just love a huge gas commercial dryer. I am a dryer nut.
B

 

[tomturbomatic]

The dryer is good if you have large loads for it. I remember back in the 70s when a friend lived at Riverbend which was then in the middle of nowhere northwest of Atlanta. It was so in the sticks that instead of a 7-11, they had grocery vending machines with milk and other foods you would not normally think of as being sold in vending machines. Each Saturday morning, he took enough laundry to fill three GE V-12 washers in the laundry room. He dried all three loads together because he said it took the same amount of time in one dryer to dry all three loads as to dry one. The larger load caught more of the airflow than a smaller load.

 

[philcobendixduo]

On the subject of "makeup air" for dryers

I have a 1967 California tract home that has a "rare" indoor laundry room.
Most California houses of this vintage have the washer and dryer hookups located in the garage.
I always wondered why my furnace had an intake (return air) vent located on the outside wall.
I actually blocked it off many years ago because when the wind blew, the draft from the INDOOR intake vent located in the family room would really make the room cold - and drafty!
It also allowed outdoor smells like wood burning smoke, skunks and car exhaust to be sucked into the furnace and blown throughout the house.
I just read in an online forum that many homes have these furnace return air vents allowing outside air to come in to make up for bathroom vent fans, kitchen vent fans, fireplaces and dryers that suck air OUT of the house creating negative pressure.
I just had my house fully insulated and a chimney top damper installed so my house is now much more energy efficient AND there are less places for air to leak in.
To avoid sucking conditioned air out of the house when I run the dryer, I open the door from the laundry room to the garage a "crack" to allow air to come in from there and I close the door from the laundry room to the house.
I think todays modern "energy efficient" homes have an air to air heat exchanger that allows for outside air to come inside without wasting energy and causing drafts.
I wonder how many people have never considered that a dryer "sucks" air out of the house (if it's a vented dryer)?