Frigidaire Two-Way Tumble Dryer

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~Wonder why it never caught on.

It probably never caught on in the US in that our larger dryer drums naturally tend to tangle and ball-up less then other country's smaller ones. The feature is therefore of limited utlity here.

I'm guessing that two-way tumbling is a change of engineering and and additional motor, something that may not be worth re-tooling a factory to make if the reulting feature provides a very limitied (if any) benefit in our machines.

My Italian-made compact 110v portable Combo-o-matic (years ago) had a reverse tumbling dryer. It helped I'd say due to tiny drum.
 
My 1st generation Frigidaire/Electrolux dryer (1996; paired with their first FL'er) had a 5.7 cubic foot drum and it reverse-tumbled. Mine was gas, so it reversed only about every 6 or 7 minutes. The electric version reversed more often. I didn't notice less wrinkling---in fact, I'd just come off a huge KitchenAid dryer, so the Frigidaire's drum seemed tiny and wrinkle-inducing by comparison---but sheets and tablecloths didn't ball up, which was nice.
 
I also had an Electrolux/Frigidaire two-way tumble dryer in 1997. Although it didn't have as much capacity as my Kenmore HE dryer, and it's wrinkle performance with large loads was less than great, the one thing it really did well was not ball up large items like comforters or loads of king size sheets or blankets. Even my HE dryer commits the mortal sin of rolling large items into a ball during drying. I never had to go back to the Frigidaire and unravel a large load or comforter, like I have to with my Kenmore Elite.
 
The reversing feature requires a DC drive motor and a special control board. Most of my customers who have one don't even realize it is a reversing dryer. It really doesn't make a difference in drying performance.
 
I had this dryer in Omaha and it was an OK machine. The thing that I was concerned about was when the dryer stopped to reverse itself the heater stayed on. The dryer would reverse for 30 seconds then stop again ...all the while the element was still on...not much airflow durning the reverse part going on. When the dryer would stop again to go back to normal tumbling the effect was a blast furnace effect. Peeled the paint off the back of the drum and the back of the machine turned brown from the buildup of heat. My ex has the dryer and it was on the verge I think of causing a fire. His new partner likes to "fill it up". And you really cant with that dryer since the drum is so small and everything gets wrinkled so easily. I explained that when I visited but what do I know...
 
Trouble Prone

Frigidaire stopped manufacturing these dryers because they were trouble prone. The motors they used failed more frequently than non reversing. That is why they are gone.
 
Trouble Prone

Frigidaire stopped manufacturing these dryers because they were trouble prone. The motors they used failed more frequently than non reversing. That is why they are gone.
 
actually,

You don't have to go the DC route, a simple, standard reversing AC motor (like most US TLs have) will do just fine. There are many still being built and sold in just that form here in Europe today.
Nor is it all that hard to modify the belt tensioner to run in both directions. There are really only three changes necessary. The belt tensioner, the motor and the timer - you want a bit of a pause in there before the drum reverses.

But why bother? US dryers, unless horribly overloaded run just fine, their big drums prevent tangling pretty well. There is another reason. Many US dryers do have reversing motors...but when the motor is in "reverse" a slip-clutch on the motor shaft doesn't drive the drum belt. The blower and heat runs and with a simple rack, the dryer is optimal for drying sweaters and things which must not be tumbled.

I worry about the continuous heating elements in early Frigimores...got my folks one of the very last of the old series this winter and they use those horrid dryer sheets. No way to get anyone to believe me that they are dangerous. Anyone here have any good links showing the horrors these things can cause?
 
`Many US dryers do have reversing motors...but when the motor is in "reverse" a slip-clutch on the motor shaft doesn't drive the drum belt. The blower and heat runs and with a simple rack, the dryer is optimal for drying sweaters and things which must not be tumbled.

Oooh i was unaware of this. Andyone have any brand names, year of vingtage or modern links as an example?
 
no way 2 way

These dryers were hard on belts, blowers and idler pullys. I'm like everyone else, nice idea but didnt see the point, except with smaller capacity dryers. The motor on this unit was a reversing AC motor. The last one I worked was gas and the heat did stop upon reversing.

Just my 2cents

Scott
 
neighbor's Monkey Wards

Has this system too, which is how I came to know of it. Replaced their timer after some thirty years of use...but neither the belt nor the tensioner nor the slip clutch nor the AC motor were in that bad of condition.
When I asked this week, they did recall that the dryer had eaten through two sets of belts and clutches under warranty...then things had run well from the early 80's on.
So maybe there were problems at the beginning?
I do know that neither belts, nor motors nor tensioners are a common problem with reversing dryers in Europe.
 
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