[stickfigure]

That doesn't answer the question, which is an interesting one. Where in the dry cycle does shrinkage occur? If you dry on hot to slightly damp, do you get the same level of shrinkage as cool to fully dry? If so, why haven't I ever seen a dryer that starts hot and transitions to cool as the clothes dry out?

[mikestew]

If so, why haven't I ever seen a dryer that starts hot and transitions to cool as the clothes dry out?

I'm pretty sure that all of the three dryers we've had in the last twenty years had a permanent press setting that does exactly that. Our current one certainly does, and it's just the front-loader that was on sale at Home Depot, nothing fancy.

[taejo]

But they call it "permanent press" so those of us who didn't study domestic science don't know what it does ;)

Thanks for explaining something I was always curious about in the laundry room but forgot about by the time I reached a computer.

[mikestew]

But they call it "permanent press" so those of us who didn't study domestic science don't know what it does ;)

Yeah, fair enough. Come to think of it, I don't even know why I know this. Our current dryer has something on the display that says something to that affect, but our previous ones were old school analog dials without explanatory text, yet I always knew that "permanent press" meant it starts out hot and ends cool so the clothes don't wrinkle.