What a great question to have. I certainly don’t want my dryer being damaged after what I spent on it at Lowe’s.
Most shoes will not damage your dryer but yet your dryer may damage your shoes. This is something to consider.
If you are worried at all about your dryer being damaged you should skip it all together and turn to other methods for drying your shoes. You don’t need a big ole dryer to get those sneaks dry.
Leaving your shoes outside in the sun or in a breeze will work just fine and it is way better for the environment. Only it might take a little longer but patience is a good skill to learn.
Stuffing your shoes with newspaper while outside will help speed up the drying process, the newspaper will act like a wick or sponge to draw the moisture out of your shoes.
Materials to watch for
Shoes with soft surfaces should not harm your dryer. It is heavy shoes and shoes with hard spots you should watch out for. Light athletic or soft shoes will be fine. Be sure to throw in a towel anyways so things aren’t clunking around.
If you just put only a pair of really heavy wet shoes in your dryer it can potentially throw your dryer out of alignment. You don’t want this. This is mainly with shoes like big boots.
Some dryers will shut off if they don’t like what is in the load.
Speaking of big boots you should definitely skip the dryer with a pair of steel toes. This is just asking for dents in your dryer and something getting broken. Not to mention the most annoying thing ever to listen too. Cowboy boots are a definite no for the dryer as well. Sorry yee yees.
A good tip is to throw in a towel with your shoes in the dryer. The towel will cushion everything and make the drying experience much more pleasurable for your shoes. This will protect both your shoes and your dryer. It will even protect your ears and yourself from going crazy!
Make sure to clean your shoes off before the dryer too. Putting dirty or muddy shoes in the dryer is just asking for problems. Using water and a cloth or brush should do the trick. Just make sure to not have any rocks mud slinging around in your dryer.
What about laces
Your average athletic shoe is not going to damage your dryer. Just make sure to take your laces out as they can get caught and hang up on all sorts of things while drying.
Shoe laces can shrink in the dryer anyways so might as well skip it.
You can begin with cleaning the laces with a solution of your choice.
You can just set your laces aside outside to dry. Or shoelaces can be put in a dryer bag so that they are protected and not getting tangled in anything during drying.
Conclusion
Hopefully this has helped you make your decision as wether to use the dryer for your shoes or not.
If you have just the slightest uncertainty about your shoes damaging the dryer then you should not use it and leave your shoes outside to dry. This will not hurt anything.