Automatic Dry Cycles

[supersurgilator]

I have a question for you all about automatic dry cycles. It seems I haven't had very good luck using the auto dry setting. I have a 7 year old GE dryer that will over dry anytime I use the auto setting, even when I set it to less dry items are very dry. I also used a Whirlpool dryer at a place we were staying at to wash 2 identical loads of towels. The first time it shut off when the towels were still very damp. The second time I manually stopped the load and everything was perfectly dry, yet the dial hadn't moved from where I set it.

For those that have a Whirlpool/Kenmore that has the sensor in the drum, are those really more accurate in determining when the load is done? I've always been under the impression that they are but I've never used one so can't comment.

 

[appnut]

Yes, ryer with a sensor in the drum/actually sensing moisture in the load are very accurate. All the dryers I've purchased since 1978 have electronic sensors.

 

[qsd-dan]

I'm assuming both your GE and the Whirlpool dryers are of the thermostatic auto dry design. Those are somewhat accurate in room temp conditions. Most have a "Less dry/More dry" selection which is used to match the load. I have read that thermostatic auto dry design is very inaccurate above and below room temps. In cold areas below 60F, the it will overdry and sometimes never shut off. In hot areas, it will shut off too soon leaving a damp load.

 

Electronic control is the most accurate but different designs provide different results depending on the load and where the sensor(s) are/is placed. In the 29" Whirlpool/Kenmore dryer design, the intake, exhaust, and sensor are located at the rear bulkhead. It does alight with clothes and small/light blankets, but put pillows/comforters in there and the results are disastrous. At the other end of the scale, the Maytag HOH design has 3 large sensors centered on the baffles, placed in the path of the load at all times. The results with these, regardless of the load, is extremely accurate.

 

Some of the early Whirlpool/Kenmore designs had sensors located in the middle of the drum using a similar design of the HOH (probably stole that from Maytag). I have used one of these dryers (I think it was a '63) and it was far, far more accurate than the later design with the small sensor located in the rear bulkhead. It still had the same issues drying large/bulky items as the later models with its goofy rear to rear airflow design.

 

[henene4]

There are a few things no sensor I have ever used was very good at.
Synthetics or microfiber items just don't sense properly, ever, in my experience.

But, for many, if not most, loads, even simple, electronic sensing systems do a very good job.
Biggest hurdle there are thick seams or just differently drying kinds of items.

Thermostatic controlled sensor drying is just timed drying that stalls the countdown as long as the heater is on, basically.
So, if intake air is frigid, and maybe your heater isn't running at full spec, it might never trigger the thermostat to cut the heater.

With both systems, though, a way to get better results with difficult loads appears to run a higher dryness setting with lower temperature.

That way, even if your load might sense dry sooner than it should, it has more time to "even out" the drying result.
The other way around, even if it overdries, it won't blast your laundry with all to much heat until you grab it.

I have exactly one load I just gave up on sensor drying, so it just goes in on 90min timed.
For all my other loads I have learned as to which setting to use for which load (for example, the higher drying setting to get my jeans and sweat pants dry even around the seams).

But I find that with each dryer, there is learning curve, and I have yet to use a new dryer and not being forced to rerun the odd load for a few minutes.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

samsung and lg dryers

What about Samsung and LG dryers?

 

[qsd-dan]

What about Samsung and LG dryers?

LG and Samsung copied the Whirlpool/Kenmore 27" design which is suspiciously close to Maytags SOH design. It has back to the front airflow with the sensor placed up front near the exhaust/filter. I'd imagine the results would be similar to Maytags SOH dryers.

 

[ryner1988]

My 29-inch Whirlpool dryer with the sensor on the bulkhead does great with most loads (roughly 45-50 minutes to complete a large mixed load and just over an hour to complete a large load of towels) but as Dan mentioned it does struggle some with large heavy single items like a thicker bedspread. The sensor leaves the inside damp and so I have to re-arrange and run the cycle again. Then again, I've never used a dryer where I didn't have to do this.

 

[rinso]

Our DE-806 HOH dryer was very accurate, but painfully slow at drying towels or jeans. The thermostatic dryness control on a few dryers I've had since then was acceptably accurate, but did a much better job with sensing small load dryness than my current LG, which just runs for a few minutes and shuts off prematurely. It is very accurate as long as it has a full load.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Automatic Dryer cycles

Our Duet dryer does a pretty good job. The Normal cycle tends to overdry ever so slightly. The Casual cycle underdries. Heavy Duty roasts things. However, the Heavy Duty and Normal cycle refuses to dry fleece blankets and shuts off within 3-4 minutes. The bigger issue here is that you can not adjust the temperatures for the given cycles.

 

[maytag85]

Haven’t used a dryer with an auto dry feature in awhile, looking forward to seeing how my soon to be Maytag DG407 HOH gas dryer will do. Only thing is, there is only low heat available since it’s a single temperature machine but seemed to do well when it was a DG306 with a 120F thermostat I installed back in 2020. The burner would stay on for a good 40 minutes when drying towels before cycling off, the front of the cabinet would be quite warm to the touch but as the cycle progressed, it would become cooler and cooler to the touch. Sometimes the burner would be off for a good minute or two before advancing to the cool down period which would result in clothes that weren’t over dried or full of static, and would be perfectly dried.