Drying laundry is a pretty straightforward chore that does not require special attention (unless you are drying it outdoors). Speeding up the drying process – now that’s a challenge. The fact that the year-end is typically a monsoon season in Singapore isn’t helping much either.
Growing up, we were taught the various factors that affect the rate of evaporation. Here’s how you can use your primary school science knowledge to better understand the science behind drying laundry!
1. Wind
Wind prevents the air from saturating by bringing in ample fresh air, accelerating the rate of evaporation. With the increase in wind speed, the water vapour on your garments will be swept away with the wind. However, wind raises dust, exposing your laundry to more germs.
2. Temperature
The temperature need not reach the boiling point of water to dry clothes. Between 50°C - 60°C is good enough to mimic the conditions of drying your laundry under direct sunlight. While drying your laundry speedily, you can eliminate bacteria too, killing two birds with one stone. For the uninitiated, 60°C is the perfect temperature to kill bacteria.
3. Airflow Rate
Similar to using strong winds to dry laundry, the water vapour on your garments will be swept away with a good airflow rate.
In contrast, if the air surrounding your laundry is perfectly still, the water vapour that comes off of any drying garment will tend to only stay mostly near the surface. Good airflow helps these water molecules to “move past” the surface of the garments. Ultimately, speeding up evaporation.
4. Humidity
The lower the relative humidity, the higher the evaporation rate. The relative humidity is how much water vapour the air holds at saturation.
For example, compare drying your laundry on a sunny day versus post-rainy day. The sunny day experiment would yield better results as relative humidity is low.
Tips For Faster Drying
It is simply impossible to wait for a day that offers all these good evaporation conditions just to dry laundry. We are looking at having hot yet windy weather for at least a couple of hours to be able to dry a week’s load of washing. Fret not, you would not ever face this problem if you are using a Steigen automated laundry system to dry your laundry!
The signature Solar Drying technique showcases the perfect combination of Steigen’s 60°C* Solar heaters and powerful blowers which encourage better evaporation while getting rid of bacteria. The system also features an inbuilt Ioniser and Dust Mite Repeller to reduce odours and remove various airborne allergens too.
Taking into consideration all the aforementioned evaporation factors in mind, you can even dry laundry indoors at any time of the day with Steigen! Now you neither have to chase the Sun nor be chased away by the rain.
*Only applicable to Solar Alpha.
