Can I use my microwave oven to dry my clothes?
by 
King Cheung
ANSWERS: 8
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Yes, you can. You SHOULDN'T, but you can. I've done it... but I don't recommend it. (It was an hour of desperation--cold winter and me without any warm dry socks!) It's really just a bad, bad idea. I set one sock on fire. Another one warped into an interesting, decidedly non-foot shape. I noticed that all the socks I microwaved wore out and developed holes quicker than my other socks. So don't do it. No matter how desperate you are. Hop down to the laundromat and use the clothes dryer. Repeating my admonition about absolutely not doing it, here's how I did it--and I accept no responsibility if you try this and ruin your clothes/microwave/burn down your house/etc.: Don't even think about nuking dry anything with metal on it--buttons, fasteners, underwire, etc. Put your microwave on 50% power. Every 15 seconds--and I do mean EVERY 15 SECONDS--stop the microwave, take out your clothes and swing them in the air to shake off excess water and cool them down. They'll kind of steam when you take them out. If you don't do this, they will burn. Repeat until dry.
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Generally "No." A microwave's function is to heat things up via radiation, and do it by heating all the way through at the same time, basically from the inside out, not by heating just the surface inward, like a conventional oven. If you put wet clothes in a microwave, the water saturating the clothes will first heat up and boil. It'll be like you dumped the dry clothes into a pot of water on the stove and turned the burner on HIGH. The clothes will get extremely hot, and remain wet until the water is boiled away.
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LMSO (laugh my socks off)... hmmm are you joking? lol!!!
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I did what you said and nice dry socks, handy for emergencies but would not dry anything bigger that socks or pants and you have to keep checking them as if you wonder off you might end up with a very wet kitchen due to the fire dept having to put it out :)
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If it doesn't have anything metal/plastic/anything that can melt on it then it should.I've put a blanket in a microwave(no more than 10-15 seconds though) and it's still just fine.
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Sure, I've done it many times. I've only done it with underwear and socks -- but it can be done with anything that doesn't have metal on it. But I personally wouldn't use this technique for anything valuable or expensive, unless it's like an emergency kind of situation. One of the commenter's techniques is exactly the one I use -- check often to make sure the clothes don't burn (as the wetness decreases, the frequency of the checks should increase, to around 10 or 15 seconds). If I have time, I use the microwave just long enough to get the clothes ALMOST dry, and then use a regular table fan for half an hour or so for the last bit of wetness. I made the mistake once or twice of burning clothes. With sufficient care, though, this is an easily avoidable outcome.
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COULD you? Yes. SHOULD you? No!
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What about natrual fibers verses cynthetic blends or Polyeasters? One U.S. Army issue O.D. Green sock filled my kitchen with enough smoke to set off the the smoke detectors in my neighbors house! The Freaky Green Funk! is a persistant agent MOPP Level 2.
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