Cross-posted from:
https://lemmy.world/post/1076832
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Why isn't it intuitive that a device designed to evaporate water quickly gets hotter than the boiling point of water
Because it is intuitive that water doesn't need to hit boiling point to dry off.
But when it doesn't it takes a long ass time to dry, else we'd just line fry instead
Yes, but you seem to be forgetting that we're talking about the difference between room temperature and melting plastic. That's hundreds of degrees F. Even twenty degrees makes a substantial difference for drying water.
It's fully within reason to expect a dryer to be less hot than melting plastic unless it's a gas dryer. Even then, many clothes are literally made of plastic. Nylon? Radon? Plastic. It's totally reasonable to expect a dryer to not melt typical kinds of clothes. (though at least nylon's melting point is significantly higher than some other kinds of plastic)
And you're forgetting that water needs huge amounts of heat to evaporate. The heat capacity of plastic is rather small in comparison, so a machine capable of quickly vaporizing water also has the power to melt crappy thin plastic.
Modern dryers usually have a safety thermostat, but lint buildup is still a big fire hazard, so there are obviously temperatures in significant excess of boiling here.