Drying cabinet
A drying cabinet is an electrical machine designed to expedite the drying of items - usually clothing - that are unsuitable for a traditional clothes dryer. Such items may include delicate clothing designated as "hang dry", "dry flat" or "do not tumble dry" on their wash instructions, as well as items such as comforters, boots and coats.
History
Europe
Since the 1980s, drying cabinets have been common in European laundromats, especially in the Swedish Tvättstuga - a laundry room in Swedish housing cooperatives. With the large size of the drying cabinets and relatively small size of European homes, drying cabinets have been almost exclusively found in self-service laundry facilities.
United States
With the steadily increasing size of American homes over the past decades, the laundry room has increased in size and functionality as well. To meet the increasing demand for luxury appliances in the US residential market, a handful of home appliance manufacturers (including Asko and Staber) have begun to supply drying cabinets for the home within the past few years. A typical residential drying cabinet is approximately the size of a narrow refrigerator, and is used to supplement traditional tumble dryers.
Industrial use
Drying cabinets are particularly useful in industrial applications for the quick drying of wet weather clothing such as that worn by emergency services like fire fighters. In Australia, the Thermal Electric's Drysafe drying cabinet uses tubular resistive heating elements at the bottom with a fan at the top to draw the hot air through the cabinet and over the hanging clothing. Clothing can be dried in one hour. A boot rack can also be fitted.
References
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