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Might as well take advice from Alton Brown and put some strips of meat in there to make some beef jerky.

I used to recycle heat and moisture from my dryer in winter by running the exhaust into a 5 Gallon bucket with 6" water in the bottom. The water would catch large lint particles. Air would blow out the top of the bucket after passing through about 6" of furnace filter folded to fit into the top of the bucket. The snap on lid held the filter in place and allowed easy access to add water/change filter.

It reduced my winter heating bills and moisturized the air at the same time and made my house much more comfortable in the winter months. It also motivated me to not let the laundry pile up- every time I ran the laundry the house became so much more comfortable! It cost about $5 to make- just a kitty litter bucker, a dryer vent, and some duct tape.

Just remember that the dryer also adds the products of combustion if it is a natural gas powered dryer. CO2, etc. If it is electric, that won't be a problem.

Also, you should try to move the bucket as far away from the dryer as is practical, say 6 or 8 feet or a different room if possible, to try to keep the exhaust mosture from going back into the dryer intake!

As long as the clothes are reasonably clean when put into the dryer your system should work well, but beware of previously mildewed or otherwise badly contaminated clothes goint into such a system. It might cause the water to become contaminated. IMHO

Someone with more knowledge of fluid dynamics might be able to back me up on this, but I believe this system would work better if the filter was spaced farther from the fan. e.g. build a plywood or cardboard box between the filter and the fan so it moves the filter maybe 6-12" away from the fan.

Posted by: Marc de Vinck on April 13, 2008 at 4:58 AM

@Jack

For some reason, and I am not a physicist, I think you are right. Although that would make this build take more than 30 seconds.

Posted by: CRS on April 13, 2008 at 8:50 AM

I did this back when we renovated our 1st house. When tearing out plater walls, we put a box fan in the window purging air out with an open window on the other side of the house. When all was done and when sanding new drywall mud, we had this micro filter & fan in the work area to filter the dusty air in the house. (if you ever tore out plaster & put up drywall, you know the dust issues)
Funny, with just the fan purging air out the window, neighbors thought the house was on fire.

Posted by: Marc de Vinck on April 13, 2008 at 9:15 AM

@CRS

I just did drywall....and I wish I thought of using that. I used a shop vac hooked up to a 5 gal bucket to trap most of the particulate, but the fan/filter would have been a nice backup.

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