How hot does a dryer get? Refrigerators, heaters, dishwashers, and washing machines are among the most basic household appliances. One of the ones most worth mentioning is the clothes dryer because it makes it much easier to get through laundry day.
Hang drying clothes takes a lot of time and can be really tedious, whereas using a clothes dryer reduces both these factors so much.
Clothes dryers have three controls: high heat, low heat, and off. Heat is an essential element when it comes to drying your clothes with a dryer but you need to keep an eye on this because too much can cause troubles with the longevity of your machine.
How hot does a dryer get
The average dryer temperature is 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Dryer temperatures are measured in a “cycle”.
In general, each cycle takes about 15 or 20 minutes to complete. Modern dryers are divided into two different cycles the intermittent and the continuous cycle.
The intermittent cycle uses longer periods of drying time with shorter cool-down periods during which heat is off.
The continuous cycle functions by heating with powerful heat at all times, giving you drier clothes more quickly but costing more on your utility bill.
Preset Temperature for Each Cycle
After the early 90s, nearly all laundry machine manufacturers reduced the internal temperature.
Modern dryers have at least three general cycles: low heat for delicates, medium heat for permanent press, and high heat for regular clothes.
The temperature range is 125 to 135 F across these cycles. As a reference, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission states that an adult can suffer third-degree burns after five minutes if his or her skin is exposed to hot tap water at 120 degrees F.
Obviously, for your safety, companies want to make sure that the dryer cannot cause harm as you are interrupting a cycle or unloading clothes after drying is complete.
Damaged Heating Element
Dryers can overheat if the heating element malfunctions. It’s harder to determine if this is the case, but you can check by making sure everything else is working.
If the thermostat works fine and there’s no obstruction in the vent or lint trap, it’s likely the heating element.
Some dryer parts can be removed and replaced, such as this component, so consult your owner’s manual to determine where it is located in your dryer.
A dryer that is too hot will damage your clothes and cause them to shrink excessively, so we recommend routine checks to ensure the temperature is properly calibrated.
Sensors Measure Temperature Automatically
Many of the newest high-tech appliances have built-in temperature and moisture probes; these probes are introduced and used for food preparation to determine when the meat or poultry is done cooking.
A wrinkle, so to speak, is left in the clothes if the dryer runs for too long or at high heat. The manufacturers included this feature to time the drying process so that it’s efficient.
For example, steam will be produced from a nozzle in the front of the dryer after it is heated up so as not to burn your clothing while they tumble during the cycle, creating wrinkles and marks on it if over dried or placed at too high of a heat level.
Sterilization of the drying process
Another way to think of maximum temperature is when a washer or dryer can’t do any better.
Typically, the scalding hot water in the washing machine kills germs and bacteria throughout the entire process before you begin drying with heated air.
However, there are some materials, such as feathers, that are too delicate to go in the washer no matter how minimally the drum tumbler agitates.
Dryer manufacturers use sanitation standards put forward by the National Science Foundation, and their goal is to kill 99.9 percent of bacteria using high-temperature heat.
Consult your user’s manual on how not to over-dry your clothing so as minimize creasing and shrinking versus prolonging a cycle until all laundry gets completely dry.
Conclusion
How hot does a dryer get. The average dryer can get fairly hot, but it still won’t be too extreme. In fact, most dryers have a rather wide temperature range that one can use when drying their clothing.
The average dryer will heat up to a temperature between 125 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit which is rather convenient for those who want to catch an affordable yet effective model.
If your clothing is generally in good shape and does not possess any issues a wide range of temperatures should not cause damage to your clothing or cause shrinking and the like.
However, even within what amounts to a normal setting on the most basic of typical machines if you see that your clothes are shrinking or beginning to disintegrate without any signs of wear occurring beforehand, then you may want to check the temperature setting of your machine just in case.
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