Much Maligned Maytag Halo-of-Heat dryers

[lightedcontrols]

The HOH...

....dryer was always my favorite. Very easy to restore. I've never seen one catch anything on fire, including the felt in the front, and I've never seen one scorch anything either. (even if the venting was not ideal) Those dryers were better made than anything else on the market at the time (and today too) and as usual, CU was full of shit in their testing report. I know of at least 9 of these dryers being used today as daily drivers and you couldn't pry them from the owner's cold dead fingers! They are easy to repair and are one of the quietest running dryers that I know of. Mark

 

[pturo]

HOH is great, but modern people boast about their huge capacity dryers that in fact dry clothes, but extract lint poorly. You can't expand the size of the the dryer drum by 20% with the same exhaust and filter size and expect the same results for drying time and lint extraction.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Maytag service people have admitted to John and me that the dryers were not as well enigneered as the washers and often required more servicing, generally not for major things, but for things like coins falling onto the heating element. Maytag's electronic dry control was the simplest design and less expensive to replace of all of the other brands who came to electronic controls later.

Nothing Greg or I have said was in any way directed at anyone's dryer nor was anything meant to dampen enthusiasm over finally having the dryer of your dreams. We stated some facts about the dryer's design and things that happened because of that design. Maytag, as has been sadly demonstrated by its demise, was a conservative company that traded on their name and evidently did not watch the trends of other home laundry manufacturers. They were late to bring out a larger tub that held a whopping 2 gallons more water than their standard tub, but they did not try to make an actual large capacity washer like most others. The dryer was mid 1950s technology with speed reducing pulleys when other makers had found that a belt around the drum and an idler pulley worked and saved a lot of steel and one extra belt. The dryer was not updated until 1977, I think.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

We had a HOH gas dryer for 20 years,replaced by a *#!^*GE dryer.Although the Maytag had a very small drum,the clothes came out FAR,FAR,FAR less wrinkled.But it was slow.Loved the quietness.

 

[gansky1]

Here is my DE806 - I've used it rarely this summer as most washing goes on the clothesline.

 

[gansky1]

All buttons - in PANK!

 

[irishwashguy]

I love the Halo of Heat Maytags

I grew up with one,and remember it well. The warm blankets that would emerge from it on a cold and rainy night, there is nothing and I do mean nothing like it, even the new set my mom bought in the 80's to replace the old set,it is nothing like the old one. Everything was always dry.I hope to own another one someday. It will give the Miele a run for its money, believe me!!

 

[washertalk]

That pink set is just, sweet enough to eat.

Your museum looks great. love the detergent collection.

What flavor would those maytags be, I wonder. Strawberry, Raspberry, tutti-fruity, tropical punch (too lite), ahh, CottonCandy.

 

[maytagwc401]

We had the little portable one when I was a kid. So small. But I liked it. My friend's parents had the Harvest Gold gas model. With electronic control. I was always amazed at how quiet that dryer was. The only way to know it was on was by the amber orangy light on the control panel, over the center dial.

 

[maytag85]

This is a old thread but...

I’ve had nothing but good luck with my Maytag DG306, and even though it does take longer to dry it is still pretty gentle on the clothes. It is a lot quieter too, and despite a couple of rattles I can barely hear it running, and my laundry room does have tile so the sound does reverberate a little but even then it’s quiet. Will service the DG306 this spring for the annual lint clean out, and I plan on making any necessary adjustments when I have it apart.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Sorry to take this off the tracks, but if you want to hear a really quiet dryer, listen to an old Hamilton. With anything else in the basement going, you have to check for the light coming out of the window in the door to be sure it is on. The drum bearing is so perfect that if you remove the belt and give the drum a twirl, it will turn slowly for around  a quarter of a minute before slowing to a stop.

 

[maytag85]

There are other quiet dryers out there, but I think the HOH is one of the better known quiet dryers out there. I will say the Maytag DG306 is quieter than my Maytag DG810 is, and is definitely quieter than the 2006 Kenmore front load gas dryer that proceeded my vintage Maytags. About the only thing I can hear on my Maytag DG306 is the gas valve cycling on and off and that’s about it, can’t really hear anything else on it

 

[bendixmark]

Quiet Dryers

I have an 806 maytag dryer and it is very quiet.I also have a beautiful TOL 1960 Hamilton and that is whisper quiet so the Tomturbomatic dude is indeed correct.

 

[maytag85]

One dryer I did see in person last summer was a mid 50’s Whirlpool Imperial dryer, and it’s the old school Whirlpool 29” dryer with the belts and pulleys on the back, and it’s definitely louder than a HOH but isn’t too loud if that makes sense. Not sure how loud Norge positive air flow dryers are, but I’ve read in other threads that they get lint EVERYWHERE inside

 

[bajaespuma]

Minor gripes

I have a bunch of HOH dryers and they all work.

Reasons I don't use one anymore as a DD include the stingy porthole requiring older-me bending down way past comfort, the need to then do something like a challenging Yoga Asana to then reach into the drum to dismount, disassemble and then re-assemble the lint filter and the lack of a good drum light focused on the load and not my corneas.

I think my favorite HOH dryer model was the D702 which had all the bells and whistles and gave the user more options than 4 automatic cycles.

 

[maytag85]

You do have to reach into the back of the drum to get to the lint filter, but one trick that might make it easier deal with the HOH dryers is to remove the lint screen and just put the lint screen cover back on so it’ll exhaust the lint outside like many of the early WP/KM 29” dryers in the early 50’s that didn’t have a lint filter at all. Definitely will speed up the drying process since the air flow isn’t being restricted by any lint

 

[tomturbomatic]

You risk the strong air stream pulling fabrics against the lint screen cover grid. Better to put a small kneeler in front of the dryer to ease the access process.

 

[rinso]

The thing I liked most about the HOH dryers, is that their dampness sensing design was so very accurate, especially if one used the Permanent Press cycle. It would work well with any size load. The newer "strip" type sensors in many brands, are at a loss with small loads.

 

[washerlover]

I agree with Rinso, the automatic sensing feature in these dryers is extremely accurate and I believe superior to any other manufacturer.  And I concur with Bajaespuma’s comment about the drum light.  Kind of a dumb place to put it behind the lint screen so when any lint accumulates, it obscures the drum light even more.  And it is a bit of a stretch for us older folks to crouch down and reach into the back of the drum to access the lint filter.  Much prefer those like Frigidaire and GE that have the filter right in front in the door as they are so easy to clean.  Other than that, however, I love my HOH dryers!

 

[maytag85]

I’ll admit I don’t have decades of experience with the HOH dryers, but since I got my Maytag DE306 and A606 and DG306 I haven’t had any bad luck with them so far and I find the HOH dryers dry more evenly even with the 306 timed drying HOH dryers. Only repairs I’ve made to my HOH dryers is making a new wire that goes from the heating element to the high limit thermostat on my DE306 because it burnt out on me and wasn’t heating, and the DG306 I have is a different story. I basically converted a Maytag DG606 to a DG306 timed drying dryer, and did somewhat of a restoration since it had some rust from the standing pilot and the electronic dry control worked the first couple of times I tried it on damp dry but then stopped working, and I honestly didn’t feel like spending hours going through it so I ended up putting a 306 timer in it to make it simpler. One thing I do want to do to Maytag DG306 is wiring up the neon pilot with the burner so it will indicate when the burner is off or on.