Performance Improvement of a Domestic Condenser Tumble Clothes Dryer by Using a Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger

An air-to-air heat pipe heat exchanger was built and tested for a domestic condenser tumble clothes dryer in this study, which can achieve better drying performance than a water-cooled type condenser tumble clothes dryer. The heat pipe heat exchanger was made asymmetrical, which can make full use of the irregular internal space without changing the original structure of the dryer. Under the same test conditions, the condenser tumble clothes dryer with the asymmetric heat pipe heat exchanger had lower final moisture content and a faster average drying rate than the water-cooled type condenser tumble clothes dryer. The average drying rate increased by 10.032% compared with the water-cooled type dryer. At the same time, it can achieve the objective of drying clothes without using water. This can save 2600–13,000 L of water for one year and reduce the cost of drying clothes. Besides, the energy consumption was investigated. More energy consumption and drying time can reach better dry results. With the increase in the hot fluid flow rate, the energy efficiency of the dryer has a decreasing trend. As the drying process progresses, the average drying rate decreases. These conclusions are helpful in optimizing domestic condenser tumble clothes dryers.