Maytag Performa/Magic chef dryer

[norgechef]

My Frigidaire dryer just stopped heating and even though its probably just a heating element I have always disliked the dryer so its going to the dump. I have decided to bring my old 1994 Magic Chef dryer back into the house and use it as a daily driver but I remember the reason I stored it was something due to having to run it twice to get the clothes dry but im thinking its just plugged full of lint from the previous owners. It heats up really well (maybe too much) and i figure the thermostat is shutting off the element to prevent a fire so therefore the clothes are not drying, im going to take the lint blower apart and clean it out of course but I was wondering if these dryers plug up with lint easily? I remember I would have to vacuum out the Frigidaire yearly because the lint build up kept making the dryer overheat. Im assuming the Magic Chef has gone 19 years without a single cleaning.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Most Chef design dryers like that, when I see them, can/will lint up right where the filter housing meets the blower housing. Venting can have something to do with that build up, of course. If the element is getting hot enough to trigger the high limit above it, then you most likely have that pesky venting to deal with after you've eliminated the linted up filter housing or maybe a bad/stripped out blower wheel. The blower would be an easy one to peg if only for the absolute racket it makes...

RCD

 

[norgechef]

It seems pretty quiet to me...

It rumbles a little bit but not enough to disturb anyone (like any old dryer would, right?) but other than that it is very quiet, clogged venting would not be a factor because the washer and dryer are in a laundry closet and the vent goes directly outside and last time i checked it seemed pretty clean to me. I guess I could try vacuuming through the back of the vent on the dryer too, there could be some lint stuck in there I suppose. I just remember the last few times I used the dryer it took like 70-90 minutes to dry a XL load, an hour is the most I would ever have to dry clothes in any dryer I have ever used that was functioning properly. XL loads in the Frigidaire usually only took 60 minutes to completely dry a full load. Could it just be that the high limit thermostat is malfunctioning and shutting off for no reason?

 

[dustin92]

If that one is the same as a Maytag Performa dryer, it is probably working fine. We have a Maytag Performa (gas) dryer, and 70-90 minutes is pretty much normal for us. I have completely disassembled and cleaned it, and cleaned the vent (one 90 degree bend out the back of the dryer and about 5 feet straight outside), and it still takes forever. I would definitely reccomend cleaning yours out though, ours was full of nasty lint, and some of the lint was singed by the burner, yikes! Ours isn't quiet, it runs with a low, steady rumble, so yours is probably fine in that respect as well.

 

[alr2903]

IIRC thats about a circa 1988-89 dryer.  We had the matching set and they were very good machines.  Our dryer wore out the back drum rollers, we had them replaced and the second set seemed to go bad in a couple of years.  Not a bad dryer but they do build up lint in the front that requires vacuuming to get the lint filter to seat properly.  All considered they are not bad dryers. alr

 

[norgechef]

The one in the pic is not mine

It looks pretty identical though. How do you know if a dryer has bad drum rollers? are they just noisy or what? I have never had that happen but id like to know what it sounds like if they ever wear out.

 

[combo52]

Post 1980 Norge Dryers

NC you diffidently should completely disassemble and clean this dryer before putting it back into service and

as Andy suggested be sure the blower is still tightly attached to the motor shaft.

 

These dryers are SLOW drying by design, they crammed the heater in such a small area that is had to be 650 watts smaller than any other full sized US built dryer, this coupled with a poor airflow pattern through a very restricted lint filter housing made for a SLOW dryer under the best of conditions. And to make matters worse they had to use a VERY sensitive Hi Limit thermostat because the heater was directly under the dryers top so if your vent was not very short the HLT was going to be cycling off frequently further lengthening the already slow performance of these dryers.

 

Overall these dryers work OK for light use, short vent installations where they are coupled with a washer that has a spin speed of over 850 RPMs, when coupled with a regular TL washer the dryer runs so long to dry normal loads that it will have a much shorter life span.

 

[alr2903]

Norgechef that was years ago, but i knew when the rollers were bad. The sound is similar to  tennis shoes in the dryer.  When the rollers are bad on these particular machines usually the belt keeps breaking. alr2903