hair dryer

A friend of mine has no gas heat or hot water at his house.

I was looking at his gas hot water heater and I said to him

I bet a 1600 watt hand held hair dryer would heat up the water in the tank in 3 or 4 hours.

he said I was nuts.

I rigged up the hair dryer - blowing thru the opening to get to the pilot light - sealed up the rest of the opening with a small towel.

It worked - the water got so hot you still need to mix it with cold water to take a shower.

now I do not have to loan him any money - he gets paid next friday.

I think I would be concerned about the hair dryer getting so hot it caused a fire???

Maybe a "heating" gun could be used? We used it for lead abatement. Sure took a long time "burning" off the paint from the walls.

hair dryer's case got a little warm - not a problem.

1 watt= 3.4 BTUs

1 BTU heats one pound of water 1 degree F


dcarch8

Hair dryers usually has a bi-metallic switch to cut off the heat if they get too warm and also a thermal fuse (looks a bit like a bullet) that will permanently open if it gets too hot.

That said, I would never run a hair dryer without supervising it.

Greg