Insulate That Dryer Baby!
 

Recently came into contact with Fiberglass bat insulation from duct scrap (r-6 owens corning). So I have a lot of insulation for cheaper than actual dirt almost. ~$0.03/lb
I figured well why not we've been on the insulation kick lately with slapping some on the prius and doing all of the reinsulation and air sealing with the house. I've been thinking for quite a while about why so many heating and cooling appliances come without insulation whereas a big green egg or a yeti are a favorite in their categories for what they do because they do well at air sealing and insulation and give the consumer fantastic results. I didn't go crazy but the inspiration was looking at the efficiency of heat pump ventless dryers and then seeing how unreliable they are to speed queen and how small and expensive they are. Yikes! But they are still cool enough.
Anyways, I have a speed Queen ADE3LRGS171TW01. I went ahead and took the whole dryer apart and cleaned all of ducts twist turns casing motor windings coil etc... Its like new now. Used some headliner glue i had laying around and glued R-6 batt insulation to the entire underside of the top cover, left cover, and right cover. For the rear cover since the appliance needs to breath i just glued R-6 batt to the drum areas outside of the heating coil intake tube to the dryer.
Was kinda nervous doing it since i figured my results would either be:
A. Dry now thinks its hot and doesn't heat.
B. Dryer now wants to melt my clothes.
C. Fuses blow or thermostat triggers too often.

Well the correct answer was D. None of the above.
The dryer ended up with the same exit temp. Does great. Per my first run on emporia vue with a couple of towels i threw in there it seems I am around a 0.95kWh cycle for the first trial run. I also just set my emporia view back up so i don't have any before numbers.

Probably won't tweak it too much more but im interested in going back in and throwing a bottom layer on somehow to get the bottom side of the drum. The belt was in the way and i had to hurry up and leave so i buttoned it up as it was.

I seriously wonder how efficient this thing will be compared to a heat pump dryer though. Energy star isn't that accurate but it said a Speed queen dryer was at 608kWh/yr, a Samsung heat pump ventless dryer was at 125kWh/yr, and a miele was at 133kWh per year. The only kicker was my dryer is a 7.0cuft and those are 4.0cuft. So (7/4)*125kWh = 219kWh/yr for a 7.0cuft heat pump dryer?
If i remember correctly my 7.0cuft whirpool used 3.1kWh/cycle. I don't know if thats comparable but it sounds like the efficiency will be interesting to watch. If the numbers turn out to be true besides the loss of sucking air out of the house in the summer/spring/fall it seems like i will be close to a heat pump dryer. (winter i vent inside for the extra humidity here and there on top of my humidifier for my house)
Really makes you wonder if the engineers these days, besides giving you expensive products like heat pump dryers, even thought about the simplest item in the book: insulation.

Other observations:
Instead of being as loud as an old 90s dryer that we can all think of (even though i think it is a 2013) it is incredibly quiet now. Its like i shut the door to the room now. Its as quiet as some of the new stuff. So not bad at all. A big plus as well is you can't tell it has been modified in any way it just sounds quieter.
Considering I used around half a can of headliner glue = $17.55/2
Maybe 2 pounds of insulation : $0.06
Total cost was around ~$8.84

I've been thinking about updating my house to all heat pumps but this turned out so well it sounds like I will just stick to a regular electric vented speed queen dryer since i do a lot of laundry, typically around 10 loads a week.

Now what else can i insulate...

What are you guys getting for kWh/cycle for your dryers?

*Dryer says 5750 Watts and 26 Amps / 240v on the front door

The outside dryer 0kwh a load. Inside state of the art computer controlled variable heat and tumble speed <>7 kw a load x runtime (not a constant time per load even on same cycle selection). Unless it's cold or wet, wife prefers outside. Better smell, less futzing and did I mention cheaper and sometimes faster?

Otoh, clothes pins are rare anymore

My dryer blows air inside in the winter and I have one outside I try to use during the summer.