Typically, a gas or electric dryer should take about 30 to 45 minutes to dry a full load of clothes. Dense fabrics—like a quilt or a load of thick bath towels—may take up to an hour to dry. If your dryer's taking too long to dry your laundry, it's important to figure out what's wrong instead of ignoring it.
A typical drying cycle takes about 45 minutes, but this time can vary depending on the cycle, heat setting and size of your load. Delicate cycles take roughly 15 minutes, while heavy cycles, like bedding, can take up to three hours to fully dry.
A small load on the hottest dryer setting will only take 15 to 20 minutes to dry completely. Check the label on your clothing and make sure they can handle the heat, then crank that knob to the highest setting before starting your dryer.
The average load of clothes takes about 60 minutes to dry in both gas and electric dryer models. If you've set your dryer's timer for a full drying cycle and pressed the start button only to find the clothes still damp when you open the dryer door an hour later, the dryer is taking too long to dry.
Throw a dry bath towel in with the garments you need dried quickly. The towel will absorb some of the moisture, making your items dry faster. Remember to take out the towel after around 5 minutes, if you are drying just a few items, or 15 minutes for a full load.
Drying. The average load of laundry takes between 30 and 45 minutes. While there are some items that take longer to dry — towels, jeans, etc. — most items are dry in about 40 minutes.
Typically, a gas or electric dryer should take about 30 to 45 minutes to dry a full load of clothes. Dense fabrics—like a quilt or a load of thick bath towels—may take up to an hour to dry. If your dryer's taking too long to dry your laundry, it's important to figure out what's wrong instead of ignoring it.
Generally, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes to dry an average load of laundry on a medium setting. However, some loads will only take 20 minutes, and others may require 60 minutes or more.
Regular/Heavy: Fastest and hottest setting of your dryer. It's best to use this setting when you're drying white or light-colored clothing.
A dryer should never run when you are not home or while you are sleeping in case of a fire. More than 15,000 dryer fires break out each year. For more dryer tips consult our blog on how failure to clean your dryer could cause a house fire.
But if there are bad stains, or very dirty patches, on these items a 30-minute wash won't clean these clothes effectively. To clean these kinds of clothes you'd need to pick a normal washing cycle that is more intense, is longer, and uses a hotter water temperature.
Overdrying clothes causes them to shrink, and not only the first time they're washed. Sleeves and pant legs continually get shorter and shorter when machine-dried improperly.
Dirty Dryer Lint Screen Filter
If your dryer is taking multiple cycles to dry clothes, it may be because the lint screen is dirty.
Also, your clothes will not dry properly if there are too few items in the dryer. At least 3 to 5 items are recommended and will ensure the sensors in your dryer can properly detect the laundry's dry level if you're running a Sensor Dry cycle.
5. Don't overload the dryer. It's a mistake to think stuffing the dryer will save you time—it actually has the opposite effect. Clothes need room to tumble so heated air can pass over and through each item, so keep your load to a minimum for maximum effectiveness.
While high heat can dry your clothes faster, though, it isn't always a good idea. It's energy-inefficient, bad for your clothes, and bad for your dryer.
The most common reason for a dryer to start and then stop a few minutes later is an overheating dryer motor. If you don't know when your dryer motor was last replaced or are hearing a loud buzzing noise coming from inside the motor, then this is probably your issue.
1) Cut your drying time by increasing your spin time. 2) Hang items that take a long time to dry. 4) Clean out your lint trap with every load. 5) Clean your dryer ducts.
Electric dryers span a wide range of wattages, from about 2,000 to 6,000 watts. That translates to about 2 to 6 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Based on the national average rate of 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, each hour of electric drying will cost somewhere between 24 and 72 cents, depending on the model.
Energy prices are at their lowest between 10pm and 5am, but make sure you never leave it on over night as this could be a fire risk. Other ways to keep costs low include washing clothes less (save a pile of laundry rather than running a half-empty cycle) and washing with cooler water.
While it's sometimes okay to dry laundry overnight, it's not the optimal time to do so. It's best to hang out washing between late morning and early afternoon when the sun is strongest.
You just shouldn't. Clothes that are actively dripping water are the most dangerous to try to dry, since when the drum spins, that extra water will fly around the dryer. Some water might make its way into the internal components of the dryer, which would immediately break it. Not ideal.
While it's hard to generalize about how long it will take your laundry to air-dry—fabric type, air temperature, and presence or absence of wind all play a part—expect it to take 2 to 4 hours for most types of fabric on a pleasantly warm day with a light breeze.