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Given the time of year and my home's shoddy heating, I opted to put my starter on top of the clothes dryer to keep it warm. With five people in my family it gets regular use, especially towards the end of the week, so the actual level of warmth isn't an issue. But I am a little leery of the agitation- will the dryer's vibration affect the starter in any way?

RICK
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    How often do you use your starter? I keep mine in the fridge between feedings, and take it out of the fridge and feed it about three or four hours before I want to use it. I use it usually about every five to ten days. It sounds like yours has a permanent home in the laundry room and I'm wondering if there's a reason if you're not using the starter every day. – LMAshton Apr 01 '15 at 10:50
  • Oh it's not permanent, I just used it to keep it warm when I was getting it going. I keep it in the fridge, use it once or twice a week. – RICK Apr 01 '15 at 23:46

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The vibrations will have an effect:

On you, because it will be harder to judge the "ripeness" of your refreshed sourdough. You often want to catch the point "just before its starts to go down again" - which will be hard to do when the shaking machine bursts the bubbles all the time.

I doubt that the yeasts and bacteria in the starter will mind - they won't get seasick.

Stephie
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    Quick hack: mount a shelf over the dryer? – Stephie Mar 14 '15 at 17:02
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    Okay, I was mainly concerned about the yeasts themselves, I hadn't thought about it making _my_ job more difficult. I'm not sure if a shelf would work, the dryer gets warm but it doesn't really radiate much heat. – RICK Mar 15 '15 at 17:26
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I don't think it will bother your starter any, and as far as YOU go, I read a great tip of putting my starter in a canning jar, or a glass jar, so the action of it could be easily visualized. Right after stirring down, adding air and feeding it, put a rubber band on the jar at the current level, and have one or two more rubber bands handy...I keep mine up by the top of the jar. I move one to around where a double quantity would be... example: If I have, for instance, 2" of starter in the container, My next rubber band will be at about 4", or double. I also put one at around 6", and I have an absolute visual on what that starter is doing, just by glancing in it's direction. Going up? When I first notice that it has marks on the side of the jar where is has begun to shrink, I move a rubber band to that point, and/or do my 'float' test if I am wanting to bake. Or, I know to feed it again before it drops all the way back down to the starting point.

3fold
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