29" WP top-mount filter dryer - painting bulkhead ?

[jben]

My daughters current dryer is giving her problems so I'm cleaning up a 29" Kenmore top-mount filter model to take to her in a couple of weeks. I plan to paint the top surface because it's got rust damage (probably from setting a bleach bottle on it over the years). However, my question relates to the inside or drum area.

I don't know if the factory applied paint to that rear bulkhead surface was anything special. Regardless, do you foresee any problems if I re-spray some paint on that small worn area near 7:00 so that it looks nicer? Or, is that just going to flake off pretty quick again when the clothing falls against it so it just ends up a waste of time; and perhaps could even contaminate her clothing?

If painting inside is OK would you also consider painting that vent at 11:00 or is this a different situation because of the heated air inlet. As you know, many of these older dryers end up looking pretty bad at that location which I guess is from the constant heat on that metal surface. It sure looks different than the vent on the other side and it also looks like that left side was never painted from the factory - so perhaps they know it will not last on that surface.

Any ideas or experience with this welcome.

 

[stan]

Don’t have

any experience painting inside of a dryer, but if it were me, I’d leave the inside alone.
Looks like you’ve got the inside around the electric motor nice and clean..that’s more important for safety and functionality. You may want to remove the duct on the back of the dryer and blow that out and vacuum around the heating element. (Safety)
The top of the dryer is different. That you might want to wet sand, prime with scratch filling primer, then lightly wet sand the primer, then re coat with an appliance epoxy paint.

HTH

 

[repairguy]

The left side heater duct was never painted from the factory on this design going back nearly 60 years. The right side exhaust was always painted with the bulkhead and they would sometimes wear like the spot down at the bottom. The heater duct has obviously been overheated and caused some deterioration usually caused by a bad exhaust duct system. Personally I would clean the left side as best as possible and I wouldn’t worry about the bottom.

 

[combo52]

Repainting dryer drums

Is not necessary, unless the dryer is going to be left sitting for long periods of time not used and in a climate like at the ocean where it’s extremely humid where you might actually get some rust which would come off on clothing when the dryer is put back to use.

That said, I might go ahead and touch up the worn area around the 7 o’clock position and also paint all the way around where the seal rides on the bulkhead where it’s rusty clean that up paint it let it dry thoroughly and then reassemble the dryer that can keep you from getting rust stains on clothing from the seal area. We do this often when we’re doing whirlpool dryers.

John