New to Me Whirpool Imperial from 1983

[esgelrothion]

Hello Friends!

This is my first post here, and I wanted to show off my new-to-me dryer! I just bought my first house and was thrilled that this dryer was included in the sale! (along with a more modern but satisfactory washing machine). She's a Whirlpool Imperial from (I believe) 1983. If I'm reading the serial number correctly, she's a Christmas baby, and the 4085th unit manufactured that week in 1983. What I do know is she's a beast! I put in a medium load on a moderate setting, and the clothes and towels were dry in like 30 minutes! The machine in my apartment would've taken over an hour. Someday I'd love to get the matching washing machine! If anyone has any pictures of what her the washing machine that matches this dryer looks like I'd love to see - trying to find specific model images on google isn't easy! Sorry for the bad lighting, my laundry room lights aren't the best. Thanks for looking - I hope everyone has a great week!!

 

[combo52]

1974 Whirlpool Dryer

Hi Nate, you new to you dryer was built the 51st week of 1973 and is considered a 1974 model.

 

These were good fast dryers, hope you enjoy it.

 

John L.

 

[esgelrothion]

Thanks for the info, John! Wow! This dryer is much older than I thought! My house was built in 1984, so I assumed it was shortly before then, but now I see I should've been looking at the model number rather than the serial number. It certainly is a fast dryer - I'm looking forward to getting to grips with the different settings, but I love pressing the big chunky start button!

 

[repairguy]

Congrats on gaining a great dryer! The washer can be found but at their age usually need a complete rebuild to be one that’s used as your primary machine. They pop up from time to time in the shopper’s square forum here. Usually some traveling or shipping would be required if you really want it.

 

[mickeyd]

Hi Nate~

Right under the Imperial Banner above is a search box, a very long and very thin oblong box. Just type in whirlpool washer, hit search, and you'll find hours of viewing wonderful machines till you find your match.

I linked one of the first ones at random. Remember to skip by the adds until you come upon the archived threads of Automatic Washer.

vintage 1960's - 1970's Whirlpool washer

Hi everyone I am new to this Forum, but I have a small collection of washers and dryers such as the Maytag E2L, Whirlpool Design 2000, Speen Queen Marathon (1986 - electronic). I was wondering if any of you guys have an 1960's or 1970's Whirlpool washers that you want to get rid of. such as the...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[qsd-dan]

Same basic design is still used to this day although these older ones are built much better.

I would highly recommend opening it up, and at minimum, cleaning out all of the lint. There could be a fire hazard amount of lint in there.



Also remove the rear panel an remove the air duct the goes between the lint filter opening and the blower wheel housing. These dryers eat up tons of lint and all kinds of items from the course screen in the rear bulkhead and it all gets held in that baffle area of the air duct as well as the blower housing.

 

[maytag85]

The Whirlpool 29” design is proven but as Dan mentioned, lint tends to accumulate fairly quickly at the bottom of the lint screen plenum right before the blower and will eventually restrict the airflow causing long dry times. If not corrected, it eventually will cause the high limit thermostat to kick off the heating element and possibly will burn out the heating element after so many times of getting a bit too hot. A heating element works sort of like a incandescent light bulb and once it burns out, it’s time for a new one.

 

[combo52]

Whirlpool Bilt 29 inch wide dryers

Nate if the dryer you have is dry and close that quickly it is not clogged in any significant way.

Just be sure it’s connected to a good clean exhaust system you won’t have any problems.

Whirlpool 29 inch dryers are the least likely to clog up any full-size dryer ever made.

The way the lint filter housing is right on top the blower you almost never get a significant accumulation in there I have never seen one that was clogged to cause performance problems yes they’ll be a little bit of it at the bottom but it doesn’t hurt anything.

After working on these dryers every working day for nearly 50 years I can count on one hand the number of lint filter housing so I’ve seen seriously clogged and I’ve only seen one or two blower wheels clogged on this design dryer the blower was a genius design it doesn’t tend to clog.

I remember seeing one little filter housing it was all clogged up and it was clogged up because they had spilled half a bottle of liquid Tide down the lint filter opening and of course all the lint eventually stuck to all the tide detergent lol

John

 

[ryner1988]

John

I'm not sure if I can agree that lint clogs hardly happen on these dryers. My 29-inch WP dryer, 2008 production according to the serial number, used to dry clothes in about 60 minutes when I first got it used over 5 years ago, and that's a conservative estimate based on heavy loads like towels. Now it takes close to 2 hours to dry the same type of load. Why do you think this would be if not lint build-up? Do you think the heating element is failing, or could it be something else?

Given the washer drama I experienced over the summer, I would not be a bit pleased about replacing my dryer, so I would like to repair this issue if possible.

 

[combo52]

Slow Drying

Hi Ryne, Have you checked out your dryer problem yet ?

 

You likely have a clogged-restricted vent in you building. Try drying a load or two with the exhaust pipe disconnected and see if the problem of slow drying is still there.

 

It is silly to blame the appliance before you check out the problem, try this and let us know.

 

John L.

 

[repairguy]

It’s a vent problem. When a clothes dryer runs for a long time with a clogged vent line the exhaust finds other places to go including inside the cabinet of the dryer filling it with lint. The lint duct inside the dryer will fill with lint also because there is no airflow to push it out.

 

[ryner1988]

Reply #20

Oh yes, I will be most seriously upset if I have to replace the dryer because I just replaced my washer this past summer. Moreover, if the vent is clogged down the line, correct me if I'm wrong but a new or repaired dryer would make no difference.

 

[qsd-dan]

"The way the lint filter housing is right on top the blower you almost never get a significant accumulation in there I have never seen one that was clogged to cause performance problems yes they’ll be a little bit of it at the bottom but it doesn’t hurt anything.

After working on these dryers every working day for nearly 50 years I can count on one hand the number of lint filter housing so I’ve seen seriously clogged and I’ve only seen one or two blower wheels clogged on this design dryer the blower was a genius design it doesn’t tend to clog."

I have never been inside one of these dryers where that air duct wasn't AT LEAST 1/3-1/2 clogged. My own was clogged enough to extinguish the flame almost immediately after lighting. I pulled out 1.3 plastic grocery bags of lint out of the air duct and blower housing. Also found small pencils, pens, tweezers, hair clips, hair ties, a live .22 round, and some other stuff I have forgotten about.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #12

I had something similar happen to my Kenmore portable dryer back in 2018, after a few weeks of drying towels and laundry in it (was giving my Maytag A810 set a short break that summer and wanted to use something different), it began to take awhile to dry laundry and had to be disassembled or something else it would take a long time to dry and possibly would have the high limit thermostat kick off the heating element. This is the reason why I like the 1965 and older Whirlpool dryers, never had any issues with lint building up in the lint screen plenum since the fan is behind the drum and pushes the air through the lint screen as opposed to pulling it through and lint doesn’t really seem to build up in the blower housing either.

 

[qsd-dan]

In 2019, my buddy was replacing the motor that died in his early 2000's Kenmore dryer. He had it torn down most of the way but couldn't figure out how to remove the blower from the motor...even after I sent him a YouTube clip. I had him bring the dryer over on his truck and did it for him. I asked if he took off the rear filter air duct and cleaned it. He gave me a confused WTF look so I knew that wasn't done, lol. I popped it off and it was 3/4 clogged.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #14

My aunt had a 1999 Whirlpool Ultimate Care II Whirlpool gas dryer that wasn’t drying all that well according to her. Wouldn’t be surprised if the lint screen plenum was full of lint and even remember my uncle had the rear panel removed a few times trying to diagnose the problem. That ended up getting replaced with a Amana Scorch-O-Matic gas dryer which ultimately got replaced by a “Maytag” dryer that’s Whirlpool built.

 

[gyrafoam]

A 1969 MOL Gas Whirlpool------

is the best dryer I have ever owned. I bought it as part of a set back around 2007 (washer still works fine) and John Lefever graciously gifted me a window door. It still works just fine and until recently had been a daily driver for over 15 years. Could use new rollers.

 

[repairguy]

Reply# 16 Agreed

I’ve used a 1971 model Whirlpool Imperial 80 for the last 20 years. It came from a weekend home with little use when I acquired it. I put rollers, a belt, and an idler pulley when I got it and replaced the belt again a couple of years ago. Nothing else has been done. I’ve never done anything to the heating system. I would say the heating element is 51 years old and it’s an excellent drying machine.

 

[Chetlaham]

Clogging In Top Filter Dryers

Happened to me in 2009. I took apart the dryer and it was 3/4 clogged with lint. Vent was right above the dryer. Hose was good. It does accumulate in the bottom plenmum, and a lot in some cases.