Fiberglass Air Filters on Maytag Dryers?

[lowefficiency]

I've seen a few references on threads here, of early Maytag dryers using a fiberglass filter on the rear air inlets, to filter dust out of the incoming air prior to heating.

Does anyone know which years (or models?) Maytag used these for, and when/why they were discontinued?
Has anyone retrofitted a newer dryer with one of these filters?

For example, here are photos of the filter on a 641C, posted by member 'maytag63' in this thread:
"Maytag 641C dryer"
https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?49163

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember reading through a Maytag salesman's book and reading about these as a sales feature. Number one they stated, as you have shown, that Maytag dryers drew in air higher than most dryers which drew in air near floor level at the front of the dryer. I understand that the approach to this had to be handled delicately so as not to risk insulting potential customers by intimating that the floors in a prospective customer's house were dusty and dirty. I believe that Maytag used the terminology that Maytag had an "air conditioned" cabinet in that air pulled into the dryer followed the top and sides of the cabinet before being sucked over the heating element at the front of the cabinet.

 

[qsd-dan]

Some of the TOL dryers from this era that I obtained over the years still had these in place. All of them were dirty and had a funky aroma to them so they made their way to the trash bin. I did keep the spring retainers that held the material in place and have 'em around here somewhere. One could probably finagle a cheap furnace filter to work if they had severe allergies or just wanted to go full throttle to OCD-ville.

I assume this idea was abandoned because the filter would eventually clog and cause performance issues. Never saw these affixed to a Highlander dryer and 99% sure the holes for the spring retainers were no longer stamped out on the rear panel by the time the 06 series rolled into production.

If it's really that important to you, I could drag out my microfiche reader and see what models offered the filter and possibly post a part#

 

[jamiel]

My grandmother's Rheem Wedgewood dryer had a metal corrugated screen in the kick panel ostensibly to collect dust before it was blown into the laundry. Seemed rather pointless IMHO--perhaps if you used some of the filter adhesive (like on aluminum permanent furnace filters) it might have some effect..

 

[tomturbomatic]

We had a King Hardware store in our shopping center. Over the years they had several different brands of appliances; Frigidaire, Maytag, & Speed Queen come to mind most readily, and mostly, if a kid was reading something and not causing breakage, they left you alone. Their sales literature was ambrosia for me, as it would be for most of us, and I guess I was reading about dryers because I was either on a campaign to get one or we had just gotten one so the clarion call of battle was still echoing in my brain.

 

[DADoES]

 
Major long-time local dealer was Whirlpool so that's what majority of the peeps selected.  Some had Kenmore.  Western Auto had Catalina (Norge) which ran a distant 3rd.  Next town over (which had Sears and Monkey Wards catalog stores) had a Westy dealer, I knew of two Spacemates stacked sets in town (my kindergarten teacher and the local Chevy car dealer [could see their set in the corner of their garage]) but never saw a toploader.

There was a local dealer for a short time that had Philco and Easy. One family friends household that I recall had a Philco flapalator, then an Easy set.  On a service call in the late 70s with the Whirlpool dealer to my 4th grade teacher's house, she had an Easy dryer with the WP washer.

A family friend operated the city trash service with a landfill on his farm property.  I recall going along with dad a few times to dump some debris there, we found a 1960s Norge washer top with control panel which I took home for play.

One childhood friends' family had a 1960s FilterFlo with a Catalina dryer.  Washer replaced with a 1974 WP.  I visited their mother recently when one of the boys died from cancer (had not been in that house in more than 38 years), she has a Frigidaire FL pair.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
Dryers should be designed to accept standard furnace filters. Looking at the crap on that Maytag filter, which likely was not filtering to very fine a level, yet it still managed to save a bunch of dirt and dust from getting in to the dryer.

 

[yogitunes]

well this sort of makes sense.....and curious to add one...

you could account for a good amount of the fuzz bunnies found in dryers come from the air being drawn in to the dryer to be heated...

while we may keep our laundry areas relatively clean, a great majority don't....

and now you have to think, how much of that unfiltered air is being drawn through your clothes as their drying?...

 

[lowefficiency]

Spotted in today's Picture of the Day...

(Not sure when this was from, but they reference that filter as a new feature.)

 

[launderess]

"I understand that the approach to this had to be handled delicately so as not to risk insulting potential customers by intimating that the floors in a prospective customer's house were dusty and dirty."

Oh I can top that. *LOL*

Owner manuals/installation directions for washing machines sold in many parts of world come with explicit instructions regarding keeping appliance free of vermin.

Had to ask someone who once lived in Asia (Singapore or Bangkok, not sure...), and was told it had to do with keeping *ahem* "bugs* (read roaches), along with mice or perhaps other creatures from setting up housekeeping inside appliance.

 

[launderess]

Dust inside dryer

IIRC we've had this discussion many times in the group, usually when someone has taken apart a dryer to clean interior cabinet.

Upshot is yes, depending upon location and several other factors inside of dryers can become fouled by lint sucked into machine as part of make-up air. Many mistake this lint as a result of laundry dried inside machine.

Know my AEG Lavatherm (and one assumes other condenser dryers) have some sort of filter that "cleans" intake air before it reaches fans.