GE 7 cu ft electric dryer

[ozzie908]

US VS EUROPEAN DRYERS

Having used the majority of dryers available in the UK including commercial gas ones I have for my personal use a Whirlpool dryer made in the USA its 240 13amp 3kw and is the best dryer ever it beats all uk ones including 7kg condenser its quick and due to its size is excellant at drying anything including king size duvets its only down side is its dimensions make it hard to fit in most kitchens luckily I have an unused airing cupboard that it fits in its exhausted through the roof. I hope I can always find space for it as I would hate to lose it now... and the best bit it was only £5.00 as it had a blown internal fuse.

 

[the7]

Exhaust hood for GE dryer.

I checked the exhaust system of my GE dryer. It seems the weaker part is the original exhaust hood which was similar to the 2.5" as shown on the right-hand side of the table.

Now I have changed it to the 4" version as shown in the left-hand side.
The difference of exhaust length could be 5 to 10 ft in the over length.

It was in the border line case with the old hood. Now it is within the recommendation when using the new hood.

I notice that there is more air flow in the outlet of the new hood.

 

[the7]

For this GE model.
a) The set-temperature of the Control Inlet Thermostat could be lower when its 9 Kohm is connected to the 120V.
b) The set-temperature of the Drum Outlet Thermostat could be also lower when its 9 Kohm is connected to the 120V.

A) When the Temperature Selector is NORMAL, both Control Inlet and Drum Outlet are HIGH.
B) When the Temperature Selector is PPress, Control Inlet is LOW and Drum Outlet is HIGH.
C)When the Temperature Selector is Delicate, both Control Inlet and Drum Outlet are LOW.

 

[the7]

US VS EUROPEAN DRYERS

I would say that US dryers are optimally designed for NA market in terms of simplicity and easy of maintenance and low cost and relatively large capacity.

 

[the7]

New 4" hood on the left.
Old 2.5" hood on the right.

New hood was installed to replace the old hood yesterday.
There is less restriction of air-flow using the new hood.

I will try to find out if there is any improvement in drying time.

 

[the7]

Today a similar cotton/mixed load was used to test the dryer with the new hood.

A) From 0 to 10 min, the temp was increasing slowly from 66F to 117F (51F increase)

B) From 10 to 20 min, the temp was increasing very slowly from 117F to 122 (only 5F increase).

C) From 20 to 30 min, the temp was increasing slowly from 122F to 151F (29F increase).
During the periods of A, B and C, the inlet thermostat was switched ON/OFF one of the heating element to maintain the set-temperature of the inlet.

D) From 30 min to 45 min, the outlet thermostat took over to the set-temperature of the outlet. The outlet temp as measured varied from 133F to 154F. When the temp exceeded 154F, both heating elements were switched OFF. When the temp fell below 133F, both heating elements were switched ON.

E)From 45 min to 51 min (cooling down period) the outlet temp fell slowly to 102F and at 51 min the buzzer sounded to end the drying cycle

Note:
1) There is about 10% reduction in the drying cycle with the new hood.
2) But I think that there could be about 2 to 5% reduction in heating cost because the inlet temperature is maintained by the Control Inlet Thermostat.
3) The temperature variation at the outlet is about 3 deg F with the Control Inlet Thermostat in active mode.
4)The temperature variation at the outlet is about 20F (say 133F to 154F) with the Control Inlet Thermostat in active mode.

 

[the7]

XXX 4)The temperature variation at the outlet is about 20F (say 133F to 154F) with the Control Inlet Thermostat in active mode. XXX

should read

4)The temperature variation at the outlet is about 20F (say 133F to 154F) with the Drum Outlet Thermostat in active mode.

 

[combo52]

NEW GE ELECTRIC DRYER

How long is your vent system and how many elbows are in it? The cycling of one heater so early in the drying cycle does not seem correct. This is one of the major reasons that I have never liked dryers that have the heater elements right behind or right in front of the dryers drum. GE is cycling one heater with the inlet thermostat to keep the rear drum temperature lower to prevent scorching clothing and dryer fires. It would be interesting to try drying a load with the vent disconnected and see if the one heater cycles so early in the drying cycle.

 

Only GE and Frigidare still put the heaters so close to the clothes load and as a result they have to use very sensitive thromostats to prevent the above mentioned problems with clothing damage and fires. Too make matters worse both GE and Frigidare dryers have small lint filters and if you are drying a very linty load it can get quite restricted during one load.

 

MT discontinued this poor placement of the heater element in 1976 when they finely discontinued the HOH dryer and Frigidare got rid of this problem when they introduced the 1-18 dryers in 1970. Even European dryers separate the heater element from the clothes by placing it in a metal box away from the drum. The heater element in an electric dryer easily hits 1600 degrees or more hotter than the flame in a gas dryer.

 

On a full sized WP built electric dryer the heater will not cycle even once until the exhaust or blower housing thermostat is satisfied. This is one of the many problems with Consumer Reports as they rate these GE dryers highly but they are tested under perfect conditions, they even rated the worst dryer on the market in north America the Frigidare as a best buy a few years ago. Thier engineers should come on service calls with me for one week and see all the burned up heaters and rear drum bearings in GE and Frigidare dryers that we see.

 

[the7]

How long is your vent system and how many elbows are in it?

The length of the flexible aluminum is about 3ft.
I estimated the length of the rigid metal is about 8 ft.
The effective no of elbows could be 4.

This seems to be within the recommendation for the GE dryer.

 

[the7]

combo52 says:
"Only GE and Frigidare still put the heaters so close to the clothes load and as a result they have to use very sensitive thromostats to prevent the above mentioned problems with clothing damage and fires.

Even European dryers separate the heater element from the clothes by placing it in a metal box away from the drum."

I would think your observations are right.
1) GE should put the electrical heating elements inside a metal box similar to the heating chamber of its gas version.
2)It is also preferable to have a control inlet thermostat in addition to the safety over-temperature thermostat at the inlet such the inlet air temperature could be maintained at an optimal temperature even before the outlet temperature reaches the outlet set-temperature.
3) I think that the newer version of the 29" WP has such control inlet thermostat for the model with Normal/PP/Delicate selection.

 

[the7]

combo52 says:
"On a full sized WP built electric dryer the heater will not cycle even once until the exhaust or blower housing thermostat is satisfied."

Most 29" WP uses "High-limit Thermostat of 250 deg F and Thermal Fuse of 360 deg F" at the inlet. The high-limit may not have a chance to cut-off the heating power because the inlet air temperature does not reach 250 deg during the heating up . The "Thermal Fuse of 360 deg" is for extra safety cut-off and non-settable.

The GE uses two thermostats at the inlet - Safety Thermostat and Control Inlet Thermostat.
I would think that
a) the Safety Thermostat would work at a temperature close to the "High-limit Thermostat of 250 deg F" and
b) the Control Inlet Thermostat would work at a temperature lower than that of the Safety Thermostat (say 20 to 50 deg lower). It is designed to maintain a regulated inlet air temperature. It has two inlet set-temperatures for this model with Normal/PP/Delicate. With a lower inlet temperature, it would take a longer time to reach the target temperature at the outlet.

I think that there are also two inlet set-temperatures in some new 29" WP dryer model with Normal/PP/Delicate(Gentle Breeze model?).

 

[the7]

Looking at the data from the GE circuit diagram:

a) The inlet temperature of the GE is maintained from 180F to 210F by the Control Inlet Thermostat and the Safety Left Thermostat
b) The Thermo Hi-Limit Right Thermostat will shut down the whole dryer if the inlet temperature exceeds 250F when all the other thermostats fail to work.

Thus it seems that the GE dryer is working at a lower inlet temperature than the 29" WP dryer. This could be the reason why the WP does not cycle the heater until the target temperature at the drum outlet is reached.

 

[combo52]

WP 29" & 27" ELECTRIC DRYERS

Most WP 29" and all 27" dryers do not tapper the inlet heat entering the drum, however some electronically controlled 29" dryers have dual heaters and some also have a thermistor on the heater box that controls the inlet temperature for  low temperature loads and to save a small amount of energy on certain control settings.

 

The inlet temperature can be far higher on a WP or other stationary bulk head dryers because the clothing is never in constant contact with the inlet area. The clothing is always quickly passing the inlet. On revolving back dryer drums, including the European models with a separate box the entire rear of the drum can get very hot. This is more likely to happen when the load is very large, the exhaust is too long or otherwise restricted or when very linty items are being dried and the filter clogs during the cycle.

 

[the7]

Thanks combo52 for the valuable info from your experience.

 

[the7]

Further findings for the GE dryer:

a) NORMAL Temperature:
The temperature at the drum outlet varies from 133F to 154F when the target temperature is reached.
The Control Inlet temperature would be maintained within a limit (say 180F to 210F)

b) PPress Temperature:
The temperature at the drum outlet is same as that of the NORMAL.
However the Control Inlet temperature limit will be lower than that of the NORMAL (say could be 10 to 20F lower).

c) Delicate Temperature:
The temperature at the drum outlet varies from 122F to 147F when the target temperature is reached.
The Control Inlet temperature limit is same as that of the PPress.

I will use the PPress Temperature most of time because the clothing seems to be softer with a lower inlet temperature .

 

[the7]

I used the PPress Temp to dry a load of cotton/mixed this morning. It took about 3 to 5% longer to reach the target temperature at the drum outlet. It seems that the dryness and condition of the clothing is quite similar to that using the NORMAL Temp.

I think that there is practically no difference in energy usage. Perhaps it is better for the clothing (especially for Cotton/PP mixed load) using lower inlet heating temperature.