How to Install an Outdoor Clothes Dryer

If you’re ready to join the “right to dry” crowd – consumers who are opting out of electric clothes dryers in favor of hanging clothes outside to dry in the fresh air -- make a permanent commitment to green laundry with an outdoor clothes dryer, also known as an umbrella clothesline. Outdoor clothes dryers have a permanent anchor in the ground, but the clothes dryer folds up for storage.

Things You'll Need

• Post hole digger
• Small gravel or stones
• Cement

Instructions

1. Select a site for your outdoor clothes dryer. Dig a hole 12 inches deep and 10 inches wide.

2. Fill the bottom of the hole with 5 inches of gravel. The outdoor clothes dryer includes a sleeve or tube that the dryer slides into. Place the tube base in gravel. Pour cement to about 2 inches below the top of the hole. When cement is soft set and still pliable, place outdoor clothes dryer pole in tube base and make sure it is standing straight. Take the pole out of the tube base and let cement dry.

3. Fill the hole to the top with soil and sod. Place the dryer pole in the tube base to use.

4. Take the dryer pole out of the ground and fold up and store out of sight until the next laundry day.

Tips & Warnings

• This type of outdoor clothes dryer is convenient, because it may be hidden from sight of neighbors after use.

• Be sure to store outdoor clothes dryer away from children and pets, because they could become entangled in line and strangled.

References

• Consumer Reports: Are Clotheslines Making a comback?