Electric Dryers

A clothes dryer or tumble dryer is a household appliance that is used to remove the moisture from a load of clothing and other textiles, generally shortly after they are cleaned in a washing machine. more...

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Most dryers consist of a rotating drum called a tumbler through which heated air is circulated to evaporate the moisture from the load. The tumbler is rotated relatively slowly in order to maintain space between the articles in the load. In most cases, the tumbler is belt-driven by an induction motor.

Fuel types

There are two general classes of rotating dryers: electric and gas. Both of these refer to the method used to raise the temperature of the air flowing through the tumbler, since the tumbling action is usually electrically powered.

The electric dryer generally uses a coiled wire that is heated with electric current. The amount of electric current is varied to adjust the air temperature. In the United States and other countries following USA wiring standards, electric dryers typically have a 4-wire NEMA 14-30 plug, rather than the 3-wire NEMA 5-15 plug used by most appliances, and need a 30-ampere, 240-volt centertapped single-phase circuit. Small "portable" clothes dryers, popular with urban dwellers, normally use conventional 110 volt connections.

The gas dryer employs a gas burner that burns natural gas, propane, or butane to form a jet of hot gases that are directed into a venturi chamber, which uses Bernoulli's principle to pull in ambient air and raise its temperature. The air temperature can be altered by adjusting the size of the gas flame or, more commonly, by merely extinguishing it and relighting it. Gas dryers require electricity to spin the clothes, but the amount of electricity is much smaller than in an electric dryer removing the need for a special connection. The motors normally run on standard 110 volt electricity.

Traditional dryers

Traditional dryers continuously draw in the cool, dry, ambient air around them and heat it before passing it through the tumbler. Afterwards, the resulting hot, humid air is simply vented outside to make room for more dry air to continue the drying process.

The traditional design makes no effort to recycle the heat put into the load, and so is quite inefficient. Nevertheless, the basic design is simple, reliable, and cheap.

Ventless dryers

Spin dryers

These machines simply spin their drums faster than a typical washer could in order to extract additional water from the load. They may remove more water in two minutes than a heated tumbler dryer can in twenty, thus saving significant amounts of time and energy. Although spinning alone will not completely dry clothing, this additional step saves a worthwhile amount of time and energy for large laundry operations such as those of hospitals.

Read more at Wikipedia.org