Congratulations on your treasures!
Be very careful with synthetic fabrics and the old Filtrator dryers. I guess you are talking about the TR-60 dryer. These dryers are fine for cottons and even some cotton/synthetic blends, but they run very hot. When drying cotton/poly blends, like perma press garments, keep the thermostat turned to the lowest setting and set the timer for no more than 20 minutes initially. Start from a cold dryer; in other words, make this the first load you dry. Because the drum is between the heating elements and the items being dried, the drum itself gets very hot and synthetics can melt to the drum or be scorched by its temperature. In the 1958 Filtrator, the instructions for drying Wash 'n Wear loads included starting with a cold dryer and pulling the Filtrator cartridge out about one third of the way to allow some air circulation through the dryer. Since these fabrics are not as linty as cottons, dealing with lint from the opening in the drying system does not present a problem. With a full load of cottons such as towels spun in the Unimatic, the dryer usually takes 40 minutes to reach the operating temperature causing the thermostat to cycle. I have a heat relay in my 58 so I hear when this happens. I don't know if your dryer has the drum light and ozone bulb, but even without the ozone bulb, you are going to love the Filtrator Fragrance the dryer produces during operation. At the end of Filtrator season, be sure to clean the lint out of the drying chamber, take the Filtrator cartridge out in the yard and hose all of the lint out of the tubes and the spaces where the air flows between them. Wash the water pan well and let all of this dry thoroughly. Leave the door ajar. Usually a folded wash cloth between the door and cabinet and some tape to hold the door in that position is sufficient and the dryer will be ready to dry on the first cool day when a little heat will feel good. Filtrator drying is one of the joys of cold weather and one of the cold weather rituals you most hate to give up as the weather warms. Unless you have the dryer in an un-air conditioned area, it will not be something you want to use in the warmer months of the year.
It is funny that the newest "Steam Dryers" seek to replicate the dewrinkling abilities of the Filtrator and water condenser dryers, although not as efficiently. The older dryers had an almost sealed drying chamber, making it easier to raise the humidity level. I have dewrinkled wool suits and other garments by heating the dryer with a couple of wet towels and then, when it was nice and warm and steamy inside (after about 10 to 15 minutes of preheating), tossing in the suit. A few minutes of tumbling in the steam releases all of the wrinkles and the garment is ready to put on a hanger. You do not have to worry about the heat settings to do this for woollens since the dryer is not going to get too hot for wool in the 15 to 20 minutes of steaming since a lot of the heat is going to be absorbed by the wet towels as the water is turned into vapor, but even in the older Filtrator, I believe there is a "Wool" setting on the thermostat.
In the early days of automatic dryers, the procedure given for "drying" woolens in a dryer was to heat the dryer on high heat with a few dry bath towels. The towels not only cushioned the tumbling to prevent damage to the surface of the wool, but also helped speed the removal of moisture from the wool. Once the dryer was hot, the blanket or other woolen item was placed in the drum with towels above and below it then allowed to tumble for 5 minutes, never more than 10. It was then removed, stretched back to its original dimensions and allowed to finish drying either over a line or blocked on a dry towel.
Because the Filtrator is slow, the most efficient way to handle your laundry is to start with the lightest weight items so that the drying will not fall too far behind the washer's cycle. Often the lightweight things are items you want to put on hangers or fold so you will need to be near the dryer when it stops. I do shirts, then sheets and dry the towels last. Also, the heat that builds up in the dryer while drying the first lighweight load will speed the drying of the successive loads. By saving towels for the last load, once you put them in the dryer for 80 to 100 minutes, you will have free time to go about other things without worrying about a time-consuming load finishing before you can start drying another load.
I hope you have a lot of fun using these machines.
Tom
