Pilotless Gas dryers

[harvestgold]

Does anybody know what year Pilotless gas dryers were available ?? As much as i love my old gas dryers i just hate having that big old pilot light burning away all the time. Are there any kits available to convert the constant burning pilot to Pilotless ??

 

[peterh770]

The early Bendix dryers were pilotless. I think Robert sent me a 1952 that was pilotless.

There are pilotless conversion kits for commercial dryers which may or may not work in a domestic dryers.

 

[bobbyderegis]

Maytag introduced them in 76 with the 08 series. An old RCA Whirlpool I used to have had auto ignition, and that was from the 60's.
Bobby in Boston

 

[tomturbomatic]

Many gas dryers were available both ways many years ago and the models that were sold by the gas companies had a standing pilot while models sold by non-gas-marketing interests had electric ignition. Others like Norge had standing pilots only.

 

[spinout]

In many, if not most, instances you can retrofit an electric ignition type of burner in place of the pilot one with little difficulty. This is easier than retrofitting the existing pilot burner itself because of the integrated flame controls. WP/KM are particularly easy because the burners are almost completely interchangable among almost all dryers they ever produced.

In a similar fashion, you can convert some dryers from electric to gas easily using a few "donor" parts. (Gas to electric is somewhat more difficult and mainly a wiring job.)

Note that there are several different types of electric ignition systems out there, particularly on the earlier (50's/60's) dryers. Later ones, produced from the '70's and thereafter all use the boring, but reliable, hot surface ignitor. I personally prefer the vibrating contact sparkers that were popular on the sixties machines--no waiting for them + they have a better entertainment factor. I hate to wait!

Several different types of retrofit kits are available for pilot burners and are made by White Rodgers, Robertshaw, Johnson Controls, Honeywell and others. I have a couple of them here--if you are interested I'll go dig them up for specifics.

Joe

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Hi Joe,
I always loved the vibrating contact sparkers that the older dryers had.
Is the reason that they quit using this type of ignition was because of not being reliable?
Also, I would love an older Kenmore with the White Rogers type burner where it did not really cut off during the drying process, but turn down. I wonder why that concept was changed also.
Do share more of your knowledge.
I have always loved gas appliances.
Thanks
Brent

 

[rinso]

Westinghouse and Westinghouse-Made gas dryers for Montgomery Wards were semi-pilotless. The used a glow plug to ignite a pilot which ignited the main burner.