Has anyone figured out the (lack of) a lint catcher on these old dryers?

[northwesty]

As I get ready to hook up this Kenmore 1951 dryer, I was wondering if anyone had a good idea about the lack of a lint screen? Here is the original lint set up, I think it mounted on the back of the machine in this tray but the heat just vented into the room, not outside. Has anyone made a box or such? Or found something that would work at a hardware or appliance store?

The item on top is from the air intake from the Westinghouse, if I remember correctly. I suppose I could have a metal housing custom made that these would fit into. Thanks for any advice.

Seems like I clean my lint screen pretty frequently on the new machines, so I don't want that stuff all over the back yard!

 

[trainguy]

Like FilterFlo Always Sez...

Get a Frigidaire washer with Jet-Away Lint Removal. The overflow rinse floats the lint away, eliminating the need for a lint filter in your dryer.

 

[danemodsandy]

Hi:

We had a Kenmore pair of this vintage when I was a kid; Dad got them, erm, previously owned somewhere. This was the early Sixties, so they had some mileage on 'em. Wish I had those machines today!

The dryer was a flat-out yard flocker, deluxe. The lint screen you have was long gone when we got the units, and the dryer just vented into the back yard. The vent pipe had to be dismantled and cleaned out from time to time. To give you an idea how primitive the setup was, the vent pipe was just that- a pipe that ran through the wall to the outdoors, no wall cap at all. To make things worse, the dumb-ass who installed the pipe angled it UPWARDS, so rain could run down the vent and get into the dryer's innards, creating a shock hazard. You approached that dryer VERY carefully after a rain, let me tell you. Once wall caps were invented (or at least after my parents became aware of their availability and purpose), we got one, so everyone's still alive, LOL.

It was one of my chores to deflock the area under the vent pipe, since it discharged where it could be seen from our patio. Ick, especially after rain. Sometime around 1965 or so, we got a new BOL Kenmore pair, with actual lint filters, and that was the end of white Christmas in July.

 

[alr2903]

Flocking for the frugal

My parents had the westy spacemates, without a lint screen. Mom simply put a mesh onion bag over the outside exhaust hood, she would toss away the whole mess and replace the mesh bag when she bought another sack of onions. the exhaust length was short though, i can see your need for a screen if you have a long run of vent pipe.

 

[gansky1]

I had a box on the back of the 1960 WP dryer that held a screen (which was missing) a hinged lid on top and a hole in the back for venting. I'm not sure why it was on this dryer as that model had a top-mounted lint screen but I brought it home - I'll have to look for it in the garage, I might still have it.

Our 72 GE dryer wasn't vented outside for a while after we bought it, mom used a knee-high sheer stocking (plenty of those around to wear with those double-knit pantsuits!) but with all the other polyester getting snagged in the wicker laundry basket, the stockings didn't fill up with lint very quickly.

 

[christfr]

well i took one of those elbow things from the depot and stuck it on my westy and then put a knee high panty hose on that then you can just throw it away when its full of clean it out.. seems to work