I got a heated drying rack because my apartment dryers don't dry any of my clothes. I ordered a tors+olsen, x frame, and just have small questions. Should it be kept by the window, or in a restroom? I left it on with a mini dehumidifier in my closet for a few hours, but when I came back, the air was moist, and the clothes were still damp. Since I'm living in an apartment, I want to minimize the chances of mold, or anything else happening in there. Also noticed when it's on, it only drys the part of the clothes directly touching the rails, the rest of the clothing is unaffected. I've considered looking into other drying racks with covers, but firsthand experience with just regular ones would help. Any tips?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1sq5nxh
Posted by AlienToast934
9 Comments
It’s not bad if you can lay clothes over multiple rails but other than that it’s really not an improvement over normal drying racks.
Ideally it should be left in an open space with plenty of room for air circulation. Aiming a fan at it could help speed the process.
I use a regular drying rack in my apartment, but out in my open plan living room/dining area. My clothes would never dry in my closet and there is plenty of airflow where I have them now.
I don’t dry my clothes because they last SO much longer without going through the dryer, especially underwear.
Run your clothes through the spin cycle a second time to remove excess moisture. Set this rack up in a bathroom with the dehumidifier in there also, so you can close the door on it.
a small fan to circulate air is likely a lot more effective than a heated drying rack
FAN! Add a fan to the same space and it will make a world of difference.
Basically adding air movement makes it so the water vapor coming off the clothes is has a place to go, and reduces the “vapor pressure” giving space for new water vapor.
That water vapor has to go somewhere and that is where your dehumidifier comes in or air exchange in the apartment. If you have a lot of wet clothes, all that moisture (however many kg/lbs of it) has to go into the air. Clothes can retain 1.2-4x their weight in water, so a 4.5kg/10 lbs medium load of laundry is going to release between 5.4-18kg or 12-40 lbs of water vapor into the apartment.
Your dehumidifier pulls 10oz (0.295L or kg) of moisture from the air per tank, so this means you’re really looking at more air exchange being needed if you don’t want to be emptying the dehumidifier constantly. But this really is going to depend on where you are living and the relative humidity and what level you are looking to maintain in your home.
Also worth reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporation
a fan is cheaper and won’t cost you a lot in power, strictly from a thermodynamics perspective this seems like a waste of time
Depending on your local weather, have you tried opening the window to get drier air in?
The idea is to open wide during 10 minutes, to replace air, not cool down everything. Dry air has a low heat capacity, so it’s easier to heat cold dry air, than to dry hot wet air.
Again, if you’re local weather is hot and wet, it’s not very efficient to open windows.
Another nice little addition is to have a temperature and humidity sensor with a display just to get an idea of the relative humidity level. It’s also a way to anticipate mold issues.
Don’t leave it in the closet you want it to be somewhere with air flow
Hmm, that’s neat, didn’t know these were a thing. I have heated towel rails in my bathrooms though and they are amazing. Ambient humidity is quite high so the heated towels make all the difference between it being dry when I need to use it, and being moldy in about 48 hours. So I would imagine the same logic applies.
My understanding is that the pockets of heat basically create little mini convection currents — moving air = faster drying. They don’t get hot enough to boil (and evaporate) the water content. That’d be silly.