Working condition. Southern California.
1956 Kenmore high-speed gas dryer
- Thread starter Marky_Mark
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That water heater is like mine.
repairguy
Well-known member
Built the 5th week of 1955. Pretty cool that it is still in use 67 years later.
This sale was previously brought to attention, on 11/23/2021. I recognized the photos, particularly the hand-written note.
repairguy
Well-known member
I thought it had been previously posted.
I did think there was a good chance it had already been posted, considering it is so noteworthy. So I did search AW before posting, but I didn't see it.
The word that comes to mind when I think of this dryer: solid!
The word that comes to mind when I think of this dryer: solid!
repairguy
Well-known member
No worries. It was worth posting again.
When CU tested dryers of this vintage, the electric model was rated unacceptable unless operated on a 50 amp circuit because the air flow pattern was so inefficient that the one hour timer did not provide enough time to completely dry a mixed load of cottons on one setting of the 60 minute maximum timer. The gas model with the 37K BTU burner was able to dry the test load within the time constraints of the 60 minute timer.
Reply #7
Didn’t some Whirlpool and Kenmore electric dryers in the late mid to late 50’s have the extra fan to help push the air through the dryer or not? I imagine a 50 amp model with the extra fan would be turbo charged since it would help with the air flow and drying speed for sure.
Didn’t some Whirlpool and Kenmore electric dryers in the late mid to late 50’s have the extra fan to help push the air through the dryer or not? I imagine a 50 amp model with the extra fan would be turbo charged since it would help with the air flow and drying speed for sure.
Whirlpool and Kenmore dryers with two blowers
This dual blower set up was only used on early electric dryers not gas of course, it was only used on standard 4800 W dryers.
I’m not sure why they did this they didn’t continue it very long and it probably didn’t make any difference.
John L
This dual blower set up was only used on early electric dryers not gas of course, it was only used on standard 4800 W dryers.
I’m not sure why they did this they didn’t continue it very long and it probably didn’t make any difference.
John L
They could have added a bigger fan of course, but it’s a balance between heat input and air movement adding a bigger fan probably wouldn’t of made it much faster because these early dryers were only 4800 W or 25,000 BTUs.
Then there’s the other factor of trying to make the machine not to Noisy there’s already quite a bit of noise from the fan in your 63 dryer and having two fans that size in the dryer might’ve gotten a little loud.
John L
Then there’s the other factor of trying to make the machine not to Noisy there’s already quite a bit of noise from the fan in your 63 dryer and having two fans that size in the dryer might’ve gotten a little loud.
John L
Reply #12
It may get loud with 2 full size fans but the only way to find is it put 2 full size fans on a Whirlpool or Kenmore dryer of that era and I believe you might have all the parts in your parts stash to do that. To compensate for the noise with the 2 full size fans, might want to put dynamat all over the inside of the cabinet which will help quiet it down a little.
Having 2 full size fans in a 50 amp dryer definitely will speed up the drying process even more since there will be a ton of air flow along with the high wattage element in it.
It may get loud with 2 full size fans but the only way to find is it put 2 full size fans on a Whirlpool or Kenmore dryer of that era and I believe you might have all the parts in your parts stash to do that. To compensate for the noise with the 2 full size fans, might want to put dynamat all over the inside of the cabinet which will help quiet it down a little.
Having 2 full size fans in a 50 amp dryer definitely will speed up the drying process even more since there will be a ton of air flow along with the high wattage element in it.
The main fault with this series of dryers was the path of the air that allowed much of the heated air to travel behind the drum from the inlet to the exhaust instead of through the tumbling fabrics. John used strips of felt glued to the bulkhead to help direct the air flow through the perforations at the rear of the drum into the tumbling load and then around the exhaust port to pull air from the drum after making the longest path through the load. So it was not the power of the air stream as much as it was the path of the air stream. The best thing that can be done with this dryer to improve its performance is to improve its efficiency.[this post was last edited: 2/20/2022-10:21]
Reply #14
I can see that adding felt strips is the easiest and simplest way to improve efficiency on those dryers. It still would be cool to see a high speed 50 amp dryer with 2 full size fans on it, and that may be overkill but would be fun to experiment with. One of these days when I get my hands on a older Whirlpool or Kenmore electric dryer from the late 50’s, I definitely will try experimenting with 2 full size fans on it to see how it does. Probably would dry fairly quickly since there’s positive incoming and out coming air which means it would have a insane amount of air flowing through it every single minute it was running.
I can see that adding felt strips is the easiest and simplest way to improve efficiency on those dryers. It still would be cool to see a high speed 50 amp dryer with 2 full size fans on it, and that may be overkill but would be fun to experiment with. One of these days when I get my hands on a older Whirlpool or Kenmore electric dryer from the late 50’s, I definitely will try experimenting with 2 full size fans on it to see how it does. Probably would dry fairly quickly since there’s positive incoming and out coming air which means it would have a insane amount of air flowing through it every single minute it was running.
