POD 9/29/11 WP washer and dryer ad

[tomturbomatic]

Look at the background with the washer and dryer beneath the open window. In 99% of installations, the dryer would be vented through the wall beneath the window and if you had it open while using the dryer, depending on prevailing wind direction, the dryer exhaust would come back in through the window; not all of it, but certainly some of it. Also, these old style dryers with the belt-driven blowers had the exhaust vent just below the control panel so the dryer exhaust would be blowing out just below the window.

You will also notice that there is no lint screen access on top of the dryer because if you wanted a lint screen, it had to be mounted to the back of the dryer which would not allow flush to wall installation. So, this setting for the dryer would have hot, linty air blowing out right below the open window and, in the winter, condensing moisture trapping the lint on the wet glass. The disfunctionality makes me think of Frank Lloyd Wright, but probably many architects could share the blame for this attempt to get the wife out of the basement into a sunlight and fresh air-filled first floor laundry.

 

[ingliscanada]

At least in Canada...

In those days, many homes were not designed to accommodate a dryer or an automatic washer. Those were luxury items for the rich folks.

And the way the drying process is described, I take it the WP dryers always had the 4" duct with a high-speed blower, rather than the 3" duct with "baking" dry that most other dryers of that time had.

Gary

 

[westingman123]

Personally, I'd want the mangle under the window, anyway. Rather like having your kitchen sink under the window. Allow your mind to wander into the yard, while your hands are doing the flat work!

 

[yogitunes]

I always looked at these ads and wondered who ever had a setup like that......of all the homes I have ever been in, none had setups like this......lucky if the machines were even side by side, mostly in the basement, or where ever they could find space.......and most of the newer homes had them tucked into a closet hidden behind doors....

but we always dreamed of a full featured laundry with washer/dryer, a sink, cabinets and countertops.....and places to store chemicals, hang clothing, laundry shutes and bins for sorting, space for an ironing board.....plus other ammenities....

a laundry area should be a room to perform these task, with the mess out of site for the busy household, allowing you to get to the laundry when possible, not a niche in a hallway/mudroom passing thru to the garage, at this point their in the way.....

but, for the most part we are thankful for having a washer and dryer at home rather than drag the clothes to the laundromat, no matter the configuration......

 

[bajaespuma]

Whatever floats yer boat.

I'm surprised that comments of this sort are being made about this particular ad when we've seen both Jane Wyman and Rosemary Clooney touting Lady Kenmores that were installed in what has to be the primest of prime real estate in their respective homes( or photo studio facsimiles).

 

Personally, I've always liked the idea of having my washer and dryer in the kitchen, although so many people are right to object to dirty laundry being in the same room with food preparation. Very common in the UK.

 

To me it makes the most sense to have them on the bedroom floors, where all the laundry is generated and then stored. But for worry-warts, the basement makes the most sense because, if there's some mishap like a leak or a burst hose, all that water isn't going to go up. I've heard some horror stories from people who've had their machines on the upper floors who have had to pay thousands in repairs to ceilings and walls from just one leak.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Another theory on "dryer ductwork beneath a large window

Maybe the dryer is a VENT-LESS dryer...

-- Dave

 

[gansky1]

I've been in so many houses that have horrible vent systems, the builder or architect spec the dryer vent to run down through the floor and then along the joists to the back of the house so as not to disrupt the brickwork and aesthetics of the front of the home. Sometimes the laundry is located in a "convenient, step saving location" and the vent has to run through a maze of framing, walls and joists to make it to the outside. The worst I've seen was the dryer was against an interior wall (back of the front entry) and the outside wall was next to the side of the dryer. The vent ran through several 90 degree elbows, under the floor and 34 feet to the back of the house. By the time the 29" Kenmore dryer exhaust got to the end of the vent, it was barely a trickle of air, even after cleaning the entire length of what turned out to be mostly flexible foil tubing. For a family of five, this made drying times excruciatingly long so they ended up drilling through the front of the house and installing less than 24" of vent to the outside.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Long-Winded Ductwork... Check THIS Out:

OK, what GANSKY 1 described here is frighteningly like how my dryer exhaust is set up...

I'm hoping, too, that I don't have an unsafe arrangement, and otherwise don't know what alternative (and what reason this is even set up in this catastrophic way) I have to a better system (which won't involve cutting the foundation of my house or any other skillful carpentry much too complex for me to handle & given how troublesome that basement has been (water leaks through the wall & window back there--and through my FURNACE!) cannot bear any unusual monetary expense!

-- Dave

 

[tomturbomatic]

First, WP never made a ventless dryer.

Regarding this comment, "I'm surprised that comments of this sort are being made about this particular ad when we've seen both Jane Wyman and Rosemary Clooney touting Lady Kenmores that were installed in what has to be the primest of prime real estate in their respective homes( or photo studio facsimiles)." In mild climates often seen in the deep fat fried south and the southwest, the laundry is often in so-called breezeways that may have been glassed in or in garages that sometimes have windows. The photo studio facsimile remians a very possible setting.

In what Greg was describing the vent runs of great length are made worse by several 90 degree turns that are, each, the equivalent of 10 feet of pipe (I think) in calculating the length of vent for a dryer. In Florida, in fancy homes where the laundry is not in the garage, the vent travels through space in the wall to the roof. Whether from a laundry room or a garage, the roof vent has to have a mesh or grid to prevent debris and animal life from getting in the vent, but that helps catch lint making for another maintenance chore of going up on the roof for cleaning. I don't know if it is a building code that mandates venting through the roof to avoid flood water in storms, but that is the way I have seen dryers vented in Florida.

 

[combo52]

DRYER VENTING

WP did make some early dryers that did use a 3" vent, however no WP built dryers really baked the clothes dry as the heaters were always enclosed in a separate box well away from the clothes.

 

Dave your vent system while not neatly installed is acceptable as long as it is keep clean. It would be better to move the dryer to the wall under the vent or short of that have the vent line go up behind the dryer and across to the outside connection. I find from experience that it is not ideal to have the vent pipe or hose laying on a cold basement floor as this collects to much lint. If you must use this type of vent run it will need more frequent cleaning.

 

[bajaespuma]

I hate to admit this, but I once lived in a duplex condo where my neighbor and I had similar bathroom/laundry areas on the ground floor sharing an adjoining wall. Susan's dryer vented directly through the house's outer wall whereas the duct-work for my dryer traveled about 10 feet through that shared interior wall to get to the same exterior wall; the dryer outlet was maybe 4 inches from hers. She had a Whirlpool pair, I had a Maytag pair. The blast of exhaust from Susan's dryer was like the belching of an engine out of hell. The Maytag exhaust was characteristically calm and polite. I still don't believe that the 10 feet of extra duct-work made that much difference.

 

[ingliscanada]

Basaespuma

Just curious; how old were the WP and Maytags in the duplex?

Gary

 

[combo52]

EXHAUST BLAST

Ken the 10 feet made the difference to go 10 feet there were probably a few elbows and each one is the same as at least an additional 5 feet of pipe. While WP dryers have always had good blowers if you look at the specs you can see that the MT is about the same.