This may be new

[Frank Lee]

If you've been running around all day doing household chores incl. laundry and failed to defrost something for supper, don't despair!

Take your frozen whatever and set it on the dryer as it's going- it's nice-n-toasty up there. Then after pulling the clothes out set it in the dryer. Don't turn it on again tho'.

Beats nuking it.

[cfg83]

Frank -

Ha ha, laundry and dinner time meet. You could over-engineer it and build an oven heat exchanger for the exhaust outlet.

CarloSW2

[Christ]

Frank -

Originally Posted by Karen Whitehair

Unexpected Science Experiment? by K. Whitehair

Thanks to an unintended science experiment, I recently discovered that popcorn will pop in a clothes dryer. After learning this amazing fact, I was curious to see if I could have confirmed this phenomenon without conducting the experiment at home.

First I tried Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves). No luck.The results pages did mention popcorn and dryers, but not popcorn popping in the dryer. MyChattyFeet’s Myspace blog looked promising in the results list. However, I couldn’t view it because MyChattyFeet didn’t want random people (me) reading the blog and set it to private. Most results were trying to sell me popcorn and were totally unrelated to my quest. With no answer, I continued my search. Next I tried Google.com. After refining my search multiple times I determined that Google failed me. Sure there were pages where the words popcorn and dryer appeared, but the sites weren’t talking about popping popcorn in the dryer. And I had to wade through too many pages trying to sell popcorn and popcorn poppers. Then I turned to the search engine Scirus: For Scientific Information Only (Scirus.com). I tried numerous search terms, trying to find out if others had noted the phenomenon of popcorn popping in the dryer. Still no answer to my question. However, no results were trying to sell me popcorn. There was actually information about popcorn, although not about popping popcorn in clothes dryers. [Note: At this point in my search I had learned that some electric roasters are considered a hybrid of a clothes dryer and popcorn popper. Useless and totally irrelevant to my quest.]

Frustrated, I turned to LexisNexis, the subscription database notable for covering major news outlets. I didn’t find my answer there either, nor any advertisements luring me into buying popcorn. I did find a guide to popping popcorn from December of 2006 in the Sacramento Bee that I will soon be putting to good use. So I haven’t found my answer yet, but will continue my search. Was what happened in my clothes dryer an anomaly? Or is it a documented scientific fact? I have no answer. But what I did learn is that it can be hard to find actual research about some topics in general search engines like Ask.com and Google.com. This is because they are loaded with commercial pages. However, databases and specialized search engines at least take you straight to technical research and related information.

[Frank Lee]

Thought of it as that's what happened to me today; was doing laundry when it occurred to me I had to have spaghetti and meatballs, except the meatballs were in the freezer. Ran to the freezer, put the desired quantity of meatballs on a plate, and set it on the dryer until the load was done. Pulled the load, set the plate in the dryer, folded laundry, got the pasta going, and voila! thawed meatballs.

[Christ]

Because otherwise, the heat from the dryer is wasted.. I like the idea of using the dryer vent to pre-heat the oven, though. That's a good one.

[Piwoslaw]

Do driers have a heat exchanger? I'd think warming intake air with the exhaust would greatly increase its efficiency.

[bgd73]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Do driers have a heat exchanger? I'd think warming intake air with the exhaust would greatly increase its efficiency.

the drier needs clean air in, like a car engine, reaction 4 action. static kaboom...and if you think its safe, wait out a few thunderstorms and find out.
The place I am in now has a shared dryer like a laundromat. It gets hit by lightning. I know damn well its the dryer. I can almost understand a hitlerian insanity separating genetics into categories never to mingle again. It is grotesque.
after it helped melt my sube in the first year unrestored, a few gallons of paint later and the dryer vent goes by, leaving the innocent pile of STEEL alone....
I was just thinking frozen meat and dryer here together. holy good god, I wonder what it would end up...sealed or not...
If my own place, dryer all mine, clean air assured. I would do the defrost thing. clever. it is even nice and slow avoiding microwaves localization.