Tumble-Dryers, How to get the best from your tumble dryer or fluffer.

Tumble-Dryers page all the insider knowledge

The first points to look out for when buying a tumble dryer.

When choosing a new tumble dryer there are several points to look out for.

Does it have an automatic moisture control sensor system to ensure the heaters are not running when not required, which would waste your valuable power supply?

Does the the air flow from the back of the drum to the front, so that the clothing falls through a stream of hot air in the most efficient way?

Does the drum counter rotate, so that the washing does not end up in a tangled knot inside the drum, which would mean the washing would not dry evenly?

Does it have temperature choices to accommodate different types of fabric, hot cottons, cool woolens and delicates?

Is the drum smooth inside with no nasty bits of sharp metal to cause extra wear and tear on your clothing?

Does the fan motor pause allow fabrics to fall to the bottom of the drum, so they are not flattened against the door for the whole drying cycle?

A typical smaller commercial tumble dryer showing all the things to look out for when buying, installing or using.

There are several types of heating used in the larger commercial tumble dryers, Gas either LPG or town gas, Electrical, or steam pressure. normally high pressure.

Gas heated Tumble-Dryers seems to be the fuel of choice for most commercial machines sold these days within the UK, but they have more service problems than an electrically heated machine.

Because the heat comes directly from the flame, which passes through the clothes, the extraction rate and efficiency is the highest and most cost efective, whcih is why it is very popular in Tumble-Dryers everywhere.

High pressure steam is useful where there are a lot of machines in a large hotel or hospital laundry.

The electrical power required to heat them all would be huge, so a single boiler with backup is used to supply all the heat to washers, dryers and rotary irons so that they are all supplied by one heat source.

This boiler could be heated by coal/solid fuel, fuel oil or gas of what ever type is available and cheapest locally.

How to work out what size of Tumble-Dryers you will need to cope with your laundry load.

The first fact on drying laundry in Tumble-Dryers, is that for 1Kg of laundry, you will need 25 litres of tumble dryer drum volume, ie Tumble-Dryers are two and a half times the size of the inside of a washing machine for the same load. This is for cottons towels, bedding and kitchen cloths etc.

So a 6kg washing machine will have a drum volume of 60 litres, a 6kg tumble dryer will have a drum 150 litres.

Which is why when looking at a large laundry room the tumble dryers look huge compared to the washing machines.

If you have an hotel, restaurant, nursing home, or hospital to calculate, firstly work out the total laundry to be dried, consult the extraction rate of the dryer,then you have the weight of water to be removed and can then work out how many hours work a particular machine will take to complete the job.

The total weight of water to be removed can be ascertained from the extraction rate of the spin cycle for the washing machines' spin cycle. Say a spin will remove 50% of the weight of water you will be left with half the dry weight of the laundry left in the machine in water to be removed by the Tumble-Dryer. As long as you calculate the worst case, for high absorbancy towels, then polycottons and synthetics will take less drying, due to their low absorbancy.

If you would like a spreadsheet to complete this calculation with all its variables, I can email one to you if you use the contact me page..........@

Contact me with your comments and questions. Remember when installing Tumble-Dryers never put LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) heated machines below ground floor in a basement, or on board ship as any gas leak would build up to form an explosive mixture with no escape.

Always try to use one outlet pipe for each machine exclusively, as to calculate a manifold for a series of machines is difficult enough, but to get the builder to construct it correctly is another ballgame.

From my experience the builders always assume they know more than you and create a dogs breakfast of an exhaust system.

Which is costly to replace and will end up with arguments sometimes ending in court.

Go to my calculation page at ......

Laundry calculation page

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Contact me using the contacts page if you have comments or questions