Maintaining Sourdough Starter 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?
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.