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Old 09-15-13, 10:33 PM   #91
6Monty6
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Default Clothes Dryer Heat Exchanger

Here is the latest of four video I have on youtube...I am pretty happy with the design: Clothes Dryer Heat Exchanger Part 4 - YouTube[/url]

Or search clothers dryer heat exchanger 6monty6

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,

Mark

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Old 09-15-13, 10:37 PM   #92
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There are No links!!!!!!!

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Old 09-16-13, 09:46 AM   #93
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You can't post links, until after you've made some postings. I think it's 5 or 6..
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Old 09-16-13, 01:17 PM   #94
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It's easy to type the title into Youtube to get to it.
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Old 09-16-13, 03:28 PM   #95
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Gascort,

Great idea using counter current concept, but here is a critical problem - condensation . . . .

Years ago (~1980), I saw the same paradox; all that heat going out the wall when it could be used to heat the house (I was living in East Lansing Michigan). So, I rigged up a serpentine set of aluminum pipes (exhaust dryer vent material) with two 90 degree elbows to make a 180 degree turn. One end connected to the electric dryer vent outlet and the other went out to the wall outlet.

I must have had five or six of the exchange tubes with maybe a dozen 180 degree turns. All mounted on the wall horizontally with stand offs above the washer dryer. The total length of pipe was perhaps 50 feet. It looked great, so pretty and shiny and I was SO proud of my skills and ability to save $ . . .



I blew air from the house air handler system across the wall mounted aluminum heat exchanger and it worked GREAT!! The amount of heat dissipated was superb with about a 30-40 F decrease in the temp measured at the dryer outlet part of the exchange tube to where it exited the wall.

But then reality kicked in. Despite being careful to change the lint filter, my beautiful shiny heat exchanger began to accumulate lint. And yes, the lint stuck to the insides of the aluminum pipe and the heat performance began to degrade terribly . Then one day, it began leaking water and that dripped on a clean stack of dried clothes. New baby in the house and Momma was NOT happy .

Turns out, the temperature humidity relationship of a dryer is rather strict. The air going out is quite saturated with water vapor for that temperature. Decrease the temp and the moisture in that dryer air WILL condense out.

The year before I had put a "heat reclaimer" on the woodstove stack and it accumulated tremendous amounts of creosote (for exactly the same reasons).

So, I have given up on reclaiming dryer heat and instead have put washer/dryer in a sealed room with an outside air vent (for makeup air). I used an outside door for the room entry with good neoprene gaskets and a good sweep seal so the door sealed quite well. The make up air vent (6 inches) comes down from the attic and I put a filter over the open end in the attic. This works REALLY well.

Nobody sees it but I remain proud of the savings nevertheless .

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Old 06-04-14, 11:07 AM   #96
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Great thread.
I've been thinking of use our dryer exhaust for preheating our hot water, something we need whether winter or summer.
There are 'condensing' or 'ventless' dryers that use either recirculated room air or tap water in a heat exchanger to dry clothes. Unfortunately the water is typically wasted. My thought is to preheat our 50 deg. F well water in a heat exchanger connected to the dryer. The water/heat would then be stored in a separate tank that feeds into our water heater. I could add an air-to-water heat exchanger to our existing electric dryer exhaust and then somehow plumb/pump the water to the preheat tank.

Thought I'd shared to get a sanity check.
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Old 01-24-15, 11:18 AM   #97
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Anyone come up with new ideas for this yet? I'm replacing my old flex hose with new ducting today. The old white plastic ribbed stuff has cracked, is full of lint dust and had a kink at the top of the run to the outside. Really bad install. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to replace it. I should see a savings just from a proper run allowing quicker drying times.
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Old 01-24-15, 05:41 PM   #98
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Simplest is best, esp in colder climate where you can use the added indoor humidity.

I simply route the dryer vents (have 2 dryers) to a box with a furnace filter, dump the heat right back into the room - work with electric dryers only for obvious reasons.

Never had had a problem with high humidity or condensation. Dryers are in the basement, more sawdust down there than anything that would get past the furnace filters.

Summertime: solar dryer outside <G>
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Old 01-25-15, 07:01 AM   #99
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I ended up going a different way for now. I found a used Bosch Axxis clothes dryer, fixed it up, and installed it in the same area where our heat pump water heater (Geospring) is. Theoretically, at least some of the hot dry air exhausted by the dryer is used to heat our water.
I was very happy to close off the outside dryer vent.

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Old 01-25-15, 07:36 AM   #100
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Super awesome! Not only are you keeping the heat, you are also reusing someone else's rubbish. Surprises like this is why I read these stories.

Quest, i have a favor to ask of you. After you have a little experience with this condensing dryer, can you please writeup a short review? Lots of fellow members are asking questions about these machines. Many are on the fence as to the quality vs energy savings vs running time etc.
The electric toaster and gas burner dryers have a headlock on the market. Many would-be buyers are not convinced these units really work. Much less work well or for long.

Edit: thanks for the write up sir. Didn't expect ot so fast.


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