Much Maligned Maytag Halo-of-Heat dryers

[pturo]

I have seen some posts(not from here) about halo-from-hell, etc, and how hard they were to repair, and how slow they are to dry.
I have a DG906 from 1971(from a good member in Michigan),that I put in new belts, pilot tube and pilot light assembly, but not bad maintence for a dryer that is 36 years old. The thing is a German Tank, no rust and a cabinet that you could stand on, and fix your basement pipes.
The automatic dryer settings are easy,and take the guesswork out of drying, saving money, and blah, blah.

I have a 1995 Maytag dryer and a Kenmore dryer at my Dads place and nothing, I mean nothing compares to the lint free and wrinkle free drying that the Maytag halo-of-heat gives on T-shirts,knits and socks, despite the limited capacity compared to todays bohemoth dryer drums, with which I will point out, not an increase of lint filter design or exhaust capacity.

Halo-of-Heat was a really good design from the standpoint that the heat came from the front and it was vacuumed through the clothes to the back in a really big lint filter, in the drum, not on top of the drum. My black t shirts come out immacualte in the Halo-of-Heat, wheras on the Kenmore and Maytag 1995 dryer, they come out with lint.

While not the biggest capacity, the Halo-of-Heat did a good job of vaccuming the clothes due to its on the spot lint filter in the drum compared to the drums that are much larger without an increase of lint filter capacity or even exaust size capacity.
Seems to me that Maytag had the balance right of drum size and exhaust as well as heat entry.

 

[rickr]

I really like mine....

I restored this set from 1958 a few years ago. I do not use the washer that much. Usually only 1 or 2 loads per week. But I use this dryer more than the others that I own. It works very well, and I like the bell chime at the end of the cycle.
Halo of Heat models are a very well made dryer, and they run super quiet.

 

[pturo]

They are quiet, and WHOOHOO, WHAT A GREAT SET YOU HAVE. Thanks for sharing.

 

[rinso]

I had a 1969 DG806 Maytag Halo dryer. It wasn't the fastest or have a huge capacity, but you could hardly hear it run. It really did do a good job of removing lint, and was superb at handling permanent press items. And guess what? The darn thing is still in use as its companion washer. (My ex-wife has them. Damn!)

The two have needed only minor, normal wear & tear repairs over the years and very little rusting has taken place.

 

[frigilux]

That's a truly beautiful, classic set! I'm a Maytag neophyte---did all the Halo-Of-Heat dryers have a lint filter on the back wall of the drum?

 

[maytagbear]

The HoH I knew best

a DG502, had the lint filter at the back of the drum. It looked a bit like a round waffle. Ours ran and ran and ran from 1967 to 1981.

I had a love/hate thing with the controls. 4 buttons
Regular, Permanent Press, Damp Dry, and Air Fluff. I hated the fact that the Air only ran for about 10 minutes. I either had to stay in the basement, or run down. I did love the little amber panel lamp, and the Maytag chime......

The next one had the right hand dial, and the dark panel, white buttons. I guess it is called the Big Load. I loved the up front filter, but that was about all. Ma economized (even though I chipped in), and got the thermostat, instead of the sensor. It had a nasty buzzer, instead of the chime. It was still running in 1996, when we sold the house. It went to a friend's mother, along with the (sob!) A208.

My current Maytag dryer is the (highly) Dependable Care of my dreams. LDG9806AAE. Variable tempertatures, drum light, sensor drying, the chime.....the burner firing is the only noisy aspect.

I've used other brands of dryers, and they're all ok, but there's just something about a Maytag dryer.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[pturo]

The Maytag dryer was as strudy,smart and reliable as the washers, and at the time, not recognized for thier brillant and uncomplicated design, IMHO.

 

[gyrafoam]

Whats the big deal with the HOH's? The only negative comments I ever heard were in regards to the gas version. Evidently the placement of the burner was a bit too close to the clothes for comfort, and I remember some discussion about controlling the heat so the clothes wouldn't scorch.

I always thought these were great machines.

 

[gansky1]

On the down-side, the HOH dryer was a small capacity dryer in a cabinet large enough (earlier models pre-'06) to accommodate a drum at least three inches larger in width that would have helped decrease wrinkling in larger loads. Many people (and CR) did not like the bending and reaching to access the filter at the back of the drum. The machine is, as mentioned, a pain to work on - if you need to do anything more than change belts or work on controls at the top, the entire cabinet had to come off the machine. The electric dryers had only a 4800 watt heater which makes them slower by comparison to other makes with more powerful heaters. The smaller heater was due in part because it was located so close to the clothes and the outside front panel at the front of the drum. In addition, the location of the heater coil made it susceptible to small items like coins, etc. falling into the heater and shorting out the coil. In an odd departure from Maytag's earlier gas dryers with electric ignition, the HOH gas version was only available with a standing-pilot ignition and over time, the combustion by-products tended to corrode and eventually rust the entire inside of the cabinet. This was also true for the wiring and even discoloring the glass panels on TOL models. If the dryer wasn't installed correctly or in less-than ideal leveling conditions, they grumbled and were noisy.

Despite all these detractions, they are among my all-time favorite machines - I have two electric models (DE950 & DE806) installed now. YAY HOH!!

 

[bajaespuma]

Ahead of their time but nobody cared

IIRC Maytag's pitch for these dryers (and it was a little ahead of its time) was how gentle they were on the clothing. I even remember how CR criticized the automatic versions of the dryers for leaving the clothing a little on the damp side (and there were no adjustments you could make on those models). If you look ahead about 20 years later that's exactly what CU and others recommend for using a dryer with less wear and tear on fabrics: gentler heat and taking the clothes out on the wet side.

 

[charbee]

All very good news...

Can't wait until we can start using our DE-606!

 

[rp2813]

Gas vs Electric HOH

Philip, the best dryer I ever owned was a gas HOH model like yours with the automatic settings and lint screen in rear. Easiest thing in the world to use and it was quiet and efficient. I cannot say the same thing for the electric HOH model that my gas model replaced. That one tended to take forever to dry a load of towels and would end up nearly burning them. The front of it would get hot to the touch. One day the element shorted out and nearly caused a fire. The difference between that POS electric and the beautiful little gas model was like night & day. Enjoy your great dryer! It's unavoidable!

Ralph

 

[toggleswitch]

~In an odd departure from Maytag's earlier gas dryers with electric ignition.

A) Were these chatter-box sparkers that lit a pilot light that in-turn ignited a main burner?
B) A glow-bar/coil
C) None of the above / other.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The dryer the HOH replaced had a huge drum. The HOH was long overdue for a redesign; the pulley/blower system at the back took up much needed drum depth. If the regular dry did not dry things enough, you could always use the Wash 'n Wear or Permanent Press cycle for dryer clothes. The revolving Dynamic Disk lint filter was pretty small and being so close to the fan, a lot of lint was pulled through it instead of staying on the screen, probably more so with the old, metal filter than the newer mesh one. A customer came into the store in the mid 70s with a nylon bath rug that had a funny waffle pattern in the pile. She said that it came out of the dryer that way. I told her first of all, I could see that she had a Maytag dryer. She gasped and asked how I knew that. I told her that was the pattern of the cover of the lint filter. She had dried it alone and it got sucked against the filter and there was nothing else in the drum to tumble past and knock it loose. I think a wash in some very warm water would pull the permanent set out of the nylon pile. The deluxe HOH dryers had some very nice features, two of which were the porcelain drum and porcelain top. I bought my DE806 still bolted to the shipping pallet in 1975. It was in the Davison's clearance section maked down from $359 to $199. I took that as a sign that it was meant for me. Maytag ran into trouble when they came out with the time/temperature HOH models. If the vent was too long or slightly blocked with lint, the thermostat cycled the heat off (and consequently the timer motor on) so much of the time that customers sometimes had to use two full extra dry normal heat cycles to dry a load. And, yes sometimes the felt front drum seal did catch fire. The HOH dryers were clearly made for the smaller capacity Maytag washers. When they were paired with larger capacity washers, results could be less than satisfactory. The dryer would shut off with very damp items that became moved against the drum between the baffles and were not tumbled into the air stream or past the sensors. In extreme cases, the clothes pressed against the heat inlet holes at the front could be scorched. Clothes could be scorched and synthetics could melt at the back of the GE and Westinghouse dryers also, but it took a huge overload to cause that to happen.

 

[repair-man]

I don't believe I have ever seen the inside of a "pre" HOH
model. I just assumed they where all HOH designs up until 1976. Was the blower and heater in a different place ?

Ed

 

[rp2813]

Ed, it looks like neighboring thread #13309 might have a partial answer for you.

Ralph

 

[goatfarmer]

Maytag HOH dryers were fine dryers, until, as Greg says, you had to get to the element, or even something simple like the door switch. Then you found out how much work was involved to service those items.

I do like the lift off door on the earlier ones, though.

kennyGF

 

[washertalk]

Why does this dryer sound like a something from a cartoon.

Maytags have a good reputation, I will give you that. personally I don't have that much experience with them. The ones that I have had were smooth operating and quieter than other brands.

I have seen this dryer and had to replace a burnt felt seal on a gas model once, myself. It was an avacodo maytag that worked otherwise.

Still, I don't know if it is the phrasing or the fact that in general unplanned fires tend to concern me.
Is it:

"And, yes sometimes the felt front drum seal did catch fire."
or
"the clothes pressed against the heat inlet holes at the front could be scorched"
or
"That one tended to take forever to dry a load of towels and would end up nearly burning them."
or
"In addition, the location of the heater coil made it susceptible to small items like coins, etc. falling into the heater and shorting out the coil. ...the HOH gas version was only available with a standing-pilot ignition and over time, the combustion by-products tended to corrode and eventually rust the entire inside of the cabinet. This was also true for the wiring and even discoloring the glass panels on TOL models."

and

" If the dryer wasn't installed correctly or in less-than ideal leveling conditions, they grumbled and were noisy."

Truth is truth, I appreciate that.

I know what you mean by the cabinet completely rusting out. Rarely is it the dryer that does the rusting. And you know that if there is a standing pilot it is constantly giving off a flow of heat. It doesn't matter what brand it is.

 

[rinso]

One of the repairs that my ex had to have done to her gas HOH dryer was a result of her kids (not mine) roasting hot dogs on the burner assembly, which was completely exposed when one opened the pilot access door. It worked like a charm, but one caught fire and burned the felt drum seal. (no kidding)