Saving Drying Time!

March, 2021
Elijah del Castillo
Mrs. Zander
7th Grade, Science

Abstract

The purpose of the experiment is to determine the effectiveness of the methods frequently suggested to reduce the
time it takes to dry clothes in a dryer. This experiment compared three methods: adding a towel with the load for the first
15 minutes, adding wool dryer balls, and adding plastic dryer balls. The hypothesis of this experiment is that all three
methods are effective and that adding a towel for 15 minutes is most effective. In the experiment, a set of towels were
repeatedly washed then dried using different methods that reduce dryer time. The results show that adding towels or dryer
balls reduce drying time by 22%-23%. The plastic dryer balls reduce the time the most, but just barely more than the
towels and wool dryer balls.

Introduction

People use energy all the time. In their cars, in their phones, in their heating

sources. People need energy, and they want to save as much of it as they can. Reducing energy

use cuts down the carbon emissions in the environment. Less carbon emissions would result in

cleaner air quality and a healthy planet. On a practical level, people want to save on energy to

save money. Smaller energy bills can save hundreds of dollars. This is what this science project

is going to be about, saving energy in one's home by reducing the use of one of the biggest home

appliance energy hogs - the dryer.

The best way to limit the energy use of dryers is to not use it whenever possible.

However, for some, this may not be convenient or practical. Those who don't have access to an

indoor or outdoor space to hang clothes may have no choice but to use dryers.

“Electric dryers span a wide range of wattages, from about 2,000 to 6,000 watts…”

“...each hour of electric drying will cost somewhere between 24 and 72 cents, depending on the

model.” PG&E estimates that by using an electric dryer 4 times a week would amount to $21.45-

$25.46 per month.

 According to BC Hydro, "a dry towel can help reduce your drying time by 10%. This can

lead to a savings of about $27 per year, if you do seven loads of laundry a week."

Several websites such as Appliances Online and Real Simple among others suggested

adding a few tennis balls to help speed up drying time.

Electrafix explains that "the theory behind how dryer balls work (wool ones, in

particular) is that they can help prevent laundry from clumping in the dryer. The balls also retain

the heat they receive from the dryer and therefore boost the drying process."

An in-home test from Prudent reviews revealed that the plastic dryer balls the author used

reduced drying time by 14% while a Popular Mechanics article said it was hard to see a

difference when drying with the plastic dryer balls.

Based on published work, there are conflicting reports on the effectiveness of these three

methods. This experiment aims to examine the effectiveness of three methods that help in

reducing the drying time. The findings may provide guidance to those who would like to cut

down energy costs. The effectiveness of these methods can determine the ways in which people

can save money and energy. There are claims of other benefits from using dryer balls but for this

experiment, only the energy-saving benefit of these suggestions are being tested.

Materials and Methods

Materials

● 1 Washing Machine (Kenmore Elite)

● 1 Electric Dryer (Kenmore Elite)
● 7 Towels
● 6 wool dryer balls
● 6 plastic dryer balls
● Stopwatch

Methods
 Towels were selected for this experiment because these typically take a lot longer to
dry which requires more energy. The same set of towels will be used for the different
conditions. Wash all the loads using the Normal setting. After each load is washed, weigh the
load before and after drying. For each condition, use a stopwatch to measure the time it takes
for the towels to dry. Use the same dryer setting with an automatic sensor to detect when the
load is dry.

The control will consist of drying the towels alone without adding anything. The first
condition is to dry the load of towels with 1 large towel. Remove the towel after 15 minutes.
The second condition is to dry the towels with 6 wool dryer balls. Add the dryer balls with
the load of towels The third condition is to dry the towels with 6 plastic dryer balls.

Repeat the procedures of washing the towels at normal setting and drying it at normal
auto dry setting using the different methods at least 3 times.

Record and compare the amount of time it took to dry the loads. Calculate the average
of time across trials. Compute the percentage of reduction in drying time. Record and
compare the amount of weight loss across trials. Compute the rate of weight loss per minute.

Data:

Table 1. Amount of time to dry a load of 6 towels and the weights of the load before and after
drying the load.

Trial 1
Weight before Weight after
adding to dryer adding to dryer Weight loss
Method of Drying Time (mins) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs)
Nothing added 45 13.0 8.8 4.2
Towel added 33 13.0 8.2 4.8
Wool dryer balls added 38 12.9 8.8 4.1
Plastic dryer balls added 36 12.4 8.1 4.3

Trial 2
Weight before Weight after
adding to dryer adding to dryer Weight loss
Method of Drying Time (mins) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs)
Nothing added 46 12.4 8.6 3.8
Towel added 36 12.4 8.6 3.8
Wool dryer balls added 35 12.6 8.2 4.4
Plastic dryer balls added 34 12.6 8.4 4.2

Trial 3
Weight before Weight after
adding to dryer adding to dryer Weight loss
Method of Drying Time (mins) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs)
Nothing added 46 12.4 8.5 3.9
Towel added 38 12.4 8.2 4.2
Wool dryer balls added 34 12.4 8.4 4
Plastic dryer balls added 35 12.8 8.8 4

Results:

Table 2. Comparison of the Dryer time across methods and the amount of time saved.
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average
Added (minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes) Time Saved
Nothing 45 46 46 45.7
Towel 33 36 38 35.7 22%
Wool Dryer balls 38 35 34 35.7 22%
Plastic Dryer balls 36 34 35 35.0 23%
Figure 1. Graphical representation of the comparison of dryer time between methods.

Table 3. Weight loss and the rate of loss in water per minute

Weight Loss Rate of loss per minute

Added Trial 1 (minutes) (lbs) (lb/min)
Nothing 46 4.2 0.09
Towel 33 4.8 0.15
Wool Dryer balls 38 4.1 0.11
Plastic Dryer balls 36 4.3 0.12

Weight Loss Rate of loss per minute

Added Trial 3 (minutes) (lbs) (lb/min)
Nothing 46 3.8 0.08
Towel 36 3.8 0.11
Wool Dryer balls 35 4.4 0.13
Plastic Dryer balls 34 4.2 0.12

Weight Loss Rate of loss per minute

Added Trial 3 (minutes) (lbs) (lb/min)
Nothing 46 3.9 0.08
Towel 38 4.2 0.11
Wool Dryer balls 34 4 0.12
Plastic Dryer balls 35 4 0.11
Figure 2.Graphical representation of the rate of weight loss in minutes

Discussion:

Table 1. shows the data collected from 3 trials using 3 methods of reducing drying time.

The table shows that using these methods can save between 7 to 12 minutes or 15%-27%. The

variation may be explained by how each method was implemented. Table 2 shows that on

average, using these methods can save 10-11 minutes or 22%-23%.

The effectiveness of the adding the towel is because of the towel’s fabrics that absorb the

moisture. This allows each item to dry more quickly. Removing the towel after 15 minutes is

important because if left in the dryer, it may increase the drying time due to an increase in

volume of items to be dried. On one trial, adding the towel saved 12 minutes while another trial

saved only 8 minutes. It is possible that the placement of the towel had affected the drying time.

The effectiveness of the adding dryer balls can be explained in its ability to separate the

clothes, minimize clumping, retain heat and increase air flow between fabrics. This increases

the surface area by which air/heat can go through the fabrics resulting in faster drying time. The
wool dryer ball is absorbent. On one trial, adding the wool dryer ball reduced drying time by 7

minutes while on another trial, it reduced it by 12 minutes. The plastic dryer ball’s spikes make

it good for the hot air to circulate through all the clothes. On one trial, adding the plastic dryer

ball shortened the drying time by 9 minutes and on another it was 12 minutes. Similar to the

adding a towel, it is possible that the placement of the dryer balls affected the drying time.

Table 2 shows that on average, using the 3 methods are energy efficient drying

mechanisms that reduce drying time by 22%-23%. Adding plastic dryer balls was slightly more

effective than the two other methods.

Table 3 compares the rate of the amount of moisture that was lost during the drying

period while using the three methods. It shows that using these methods reduce the moisture

content between 0.8 lbs per minute to 0.15 lbs per minute.

As expected, adding towels and dryer balls are effective at reducing drying time. The

hypothesis that adding towels are more efficient was not proven in the experiment. However,

there is only a slight difference in its efficiency compared with dryer balls.

The potential cause of errors may be due to the equipment. While the setting selected on

the dryer was Auto-dry, there were times when after the dryer automatically turned off, the

towels were still damp. In these cases, the towels were put back into the dyer and the towels

were checked after 2-3 minutes depending on how damp some of the towels were. This also

introduced possible errors in recording of time. Another source of error is the inconsistent

placement of the load in the dryer. On one trial, the balls were purposefully arranged within the

towels instead of being tossed on top of the pile of laundry. To improve the accuracy of the

experiment, better equipment may be needed. The results could also improve if there were more

trials done. More trials may make better data. It would also be helpful if the way the load of

laundry was added was more consistent and deliberate.

Conclusion:

The results from this experiment show that adding plastic dryer balls, wool dryer balls, or

a towel is an effective energy efficient method of reducing drying time, and they can help lower

the energy usage of a dryer. The plastic dryer balls work slightly better than the rest. Saving an

average of 22%-23% of time by using these methods can reduce energy cost in the long run. This

experiment could be further tested with different fabrics, and different dryer settings. Those

looking to save money but have to use dryers would benefit from this information. Since plastic

dryer balls are more efficient, people can save more energy using them.

Personal Reflection:

I found this experiment a little time consuming. To make the control consistent, I had

decided to use towels for this experiment. Using different fabrics and clothes might introduce

more variability in results. I also selected towels because they are frequently used and take longer

to dry. In our family, we are asked to use our towels more than once. I would then have to wait

till all of us have used the towels before using it for the experiment. This made data collection

slow.

I gained better understanding about how to get better use of the dryer. I no longer simply

dump clothes and dryer balls into the dryer and now make more effort at adding the garments and

dryer balls in such a way to avoid clumping.

Bibliography

De Mesa, Rafael. “10 Easy Ways to Cut Your Laundry Costs.” BC Hydro, 1 May 2017,
www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2017/10-laundry-tips.html.

“Do Dryer Balls Really Live up to the Hype?” Electra Fix,

www.electrafixbc.ca/articles/balls.html. Accessed 14 Jan. 2021.

Palermo, Andrew. “Do Dryer Balls Really Work? Surprising Results From In-Home TestDo
Dryer Balls Really Work? Surprising Results From In-Home Test.” Prudent Reviews,
prudentreviews.com/dryer-balls. Accessed 14 Jan. 2021.
Sawyers, Harry. “Do Dryer Balls Work? As Seen on TV Lab Test.” Popular Mechanics, 23 Oct.
2009, www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/a4795/4334763.

“What Are Dryer Balls? Do Dryer Balls Really Work?” Green Energy Efficient Homes, green-
energy-efficient-homes.com/dryer-balls-review.html. Accessed 14 Jan. 2021.

Wicklin, Rick. “Do Dryer Balls Reduce Drying Time?” SAS, 12 Aug. 2013,
blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2013/08/12/do-dryer-balls-reduce-drying-time.html.

Woodford, Chris. “How Clothes Dryers Work: The Science of Drying Clothes.” Explain That
Stuff, 13 Feb. 2020, www.explainthatstuff.com/how-clothes-tumble-dryers-work.html.