New Gas Dryer Recommendation?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

ken

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 26, 2012
Messages
2,563
Location
NYS
A friend of mine had his 17 year old dryer quit so he tore into it last night and found the burner and duct very rusty. So he asked me what the consensus is "on that website you talk about" as to what brand of gas dryer gets recommended most. I believe the old one is a Kenmore. I did mention he might give some thought to replacing the burner and duct as the dryer works otherwise.
 
Kenmore...

can be LG, Whirlpool, Frigidaire, and probably others. If he wants a Whirlpool quality dryer, best to go to the source and buy a Whirlpool!

Malcolm
 
I think a certain amount of surface rust is to be expected, but "very rusty" is pretty vague. Unless there is perforation I'm not sure the rust is of any concern. It didn't quit due to the rust.

Odds are the dryer he has is perfectly serviceable. Especially if it is a top lint filter Whirlpool design I'd fix it until is was no longer repairable (then I'd fix it again for good measure). At this point its only 1/2 way through its life. Its worth finding out the cause of the failure, most likely it will be cheaper to repair then replace.

I'd buy a new Whirlpool if I had to buy new, but it has to have the top lint filter placement.
 
Heres the email he sent me explaning what he found

Hey what new gas dryer brands do they like on that appliance site. I think its time to retire ours. The burner and the duct was full of rust so I don't know if I trust it anymore. I'm guessing one of the sensors is bad because I can't get the burner to light. I sucked out about an inch of rusty flakes in the duct beyond the burner.
 
I have the generic gas Admiral, made  by Whirlpool and sold at Home Depot.  Lint filter on top, regular with auto cycle, timed low heat, air fluff.   It works as well as the electric Kitchenaid I gave to family when I moved here.  No frills and very fast.
 
17 YO KM Gas Dryer

The rust at the bottom of he heat stack is normal, he did the correct thing to clean it up. The real problem is the non-heating condition, on a gas dryer of this age this is almost never more than a $150 repair if you have a good independent company fix it, if he wants to figure out what is really wrong he can probably fix it himself for $50.

That said and back to the orignal ?, I would get a WP dryer with a top mounted lint filter, 2nd best choice if he wants a really good basic dryer would be a Speed Queen.
 
I agree with Phil. Some service rust could be possible as long as it hasn't deteriorated to the point it's all perforated. It could be something as simple as the ignitor going up on the dryer which should be replaceable. I had a Kenmore dryer that happened to. Once the ignitor was replaced the dryer was fine.
 
I recommend the LGs. Mine dries so fast and holds huge amounts with little,if any noise. Consumer Reports likes them as they have the best repair frequency. Easy to load and unload, stainless steel drum,sensitive dryness bar, interior drum light and five different temperature settings. I just washed seven pillows,used my highest spin speed and set the dryer at normal heat. They were dry in twenty minutes flat. Bedspreads,blankets and area rugs dry a lot faster too. I renember one day, I had just a few of my.rainbow hankies in to dry and,due to the strong vacuum it has,they began sticking to the screen covering the lint filter . Now that's a lot of hot air.
 
Go with whirlpool, we have a maytag/whirlpool electric dryer bougght in 2009 and it still works fine and dries everything perfectly. We have dried 2 towels along with a regular load and it was all dried in 45 minutes on medium heat. Whirlpools are a little loud when they turn on but the noise level goes down as it warms up. And yes lol the same thing happend with us. We were drying microfiber clothes and some of them were sticking to the lint trap grate.
 
Whirlpool. Rear Filter. Gas, Mine was almost 30 years old before I replaced it with speed queen (only because I wanted to give the speedqueen a try. The speed queen is satisfactory but the whirlpool was better at not over drying the clothes.
 
Okay...

I hear the top filter design Whirlpool is the best design. I have never understood why. I do know you appliance brains will help me with this.
To my brain I always see the heat (gas or electric) entering into the left, and quickly getting sucked out on the right side of the dryer.
What am I missing?
Was the blower (sucker) lower in volume letting the applied head linger longer in the drum? They always seemed so close together. It always appeared to me that the heat would come in and get sucked out to the right.
Just curious. I don't have any rear suckers in my presence to test.
B
 
Brent, I think the air enters the drum with more velocity than one would think. With gas the top left of the dryer door gets warm quickly. I remember posts here from others that they sometimes "turn" large bedspreads or quilts for more even drying. I wash quilts at the the coin op so I have no experience with this. This "uneven" drying is never a issue with a normal load of mixed clothing or an extremely full load of towels. The top filter is large and effective. The Whirlpool family has an extremely effective "cool down" phase. Hope this helps. alr
 
Whirlpool top filter dryers have a unique airflow design; that coupled with a wider drum allows for faster, more even drying of regular laundry. If you watch it tumble, the clothes hit the "horseshoe shaped" air stream twice; once when it passes the lint chute outlet, and again as it passes the heat outlet. Also the blower is in the back of the machine so it does push out air at a faster rate. Most other brands drums are narrower and deeper, so the clothing tends to tumble closer to the left corner of the drum and not spread out as much, which is where most drying occurs. The only fault of the top filter dryer is with bulky items and sheets; it does tend to not dry the middle of a bulky item. You do have to turn the load over a few times to throughly dry it. Also, it tends to ball up sheets. It's the only dryer style I ever recommend.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top