Maytag Center Dial Dryer Rack for Shoes and Sweaters

[vintagekitchen]

Hey, I know this is a stupid question, but my grandmother's and aunt's Kenmore dryers always had a rack which went in the dryer if you were going to dry shoes, or a a sweater laid out flat, or anything else which you wanted dried, but not tumbled. Was a rack like this ever offered for center dial Maytag dryers? I know these racks are wasteful, but they do make drying shoes so much faster, 1/2 hour on the rack, then open the dryer door, and in the morning the shoes are well dried.

So, does anyone know if these handy racks were ever offered? And if they were offered, are they still available?

 

[combo52]

Drying Racks For MT CD Dryers

There certainly was not one for the HOH dryers, LOL and I don't remember one for the later SOH dryers either. You are correct that drying racks are in general a BIG waste of power especially if you use electricity to run your dryer.

 

It is far cheaper and more effective to sit your wet shoes in front of the grille of your refrigerator [ on the side where the warm air blows out ] over nite and they will be nice and dry in the morning. I just did this with my partners shoes last night by setting them in front of the grill of our Kitchenaid freezer and they were completely dry this AM. You may also dry shoes in the oven at a very low temperature using much less energy than running a clothes dryer for a few hours.

 

[whirlcool]

You are right about dryer racks. When we first got our Whirlpool set we washed our tennis shoes and placed them on the rack to dry. Even though the dryer got good and hot an hour later the shoes were still very wet. They would have taken hours to dry in the dryer.

I never thought about the refrigerator exhaust. We just hung them outside to dry.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I think, just from the design, that the drying rack for the 27" Kenmore dryers would be more effective since it looks like it is designed to draw the air through the rack and into the front-mounted lint screen, but yes, using waste heat to dry shoes is more efficient. It looks like another WP air flow advance, like the quick chill shelf in some WP refrigerators that used ducted cold air flowing between two layers of glass to quickly cool foods.

I do remember hanging my mother's hoisery on the Stop 'n Dry rack in our Norge and then holding in the door switch to watch them blow around. You had to hang them in the middle so that they were equal length on both sides of the rods or they would blow down (and out of the dryer if the dryer was operating with the door open).

 

[goatfarmer]

Years ago, when we came in with wet shoes, Mom put them in front of the dehumidifier that was always running in the basement. Worked well.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Well, there're always those Dryer bags you hang on the door....
Not sure if they're that good for seals in the door, they would deform them in the long run in certain cases I think...
Sweaters, both wool and else dryes perfectly in the tumbling drum anyway IMO. No need to use those things for them...just for shoes and for some very hard and rigid delicate stuff. I don't need these devices anyway....
http://www.yankeepostman.com/Sneaker-Dryer-Bag/productinfo/134/
http://shopping.rediff.com/product/mesh-dryer-bag/11079286

 

[vintagekitchen]

Dryer bags..

My mother actually had one of these, in her GE dryer it worked amazingly well, of course, GE dryers syck the air through all those little holes in the door itself, and then down into the lint filter, so the bag was in a constant forced stream of hot air. I don't know how well it would work with the solid door plug on my Maytag SOH..

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Then..... there are always these solutions available also for sneakers:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-S...190808180027?pt=US_Dryers&hash=item2c6d0dc53b

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Solid door plug....

Well, I think it is up to the air moving inside the drum mostly...so maybe would do the same even in a whirlpool with the vent in the back of the drum or in a dryer with the front lint filter.....as long as air moves into the drum..