Questions on this Maytag Performa

[panasonicvac]

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Got a couple of questions that I'm sure are easy ones to answer. My first one is how old is this dryer or how do you date code these Maytags? And my second one is what would the matching model be to the washer? I think it's a top loader type but I'm not certain. My grandparents never had a matching washer to this dryer. But honestly if I ever did acquired their house (highly unlikely), the first thing I'd do is to get a new washer cause the current washer is trash in my opinion and I wouldn't mind finding a matching washer to this dryer (though I'd likely get something else instead). Any answers would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[DADoES]

 
Last two letters of the serial is the manufacture date coding, year and month.

I believe AA = 2002 January.

The coding is not intuitive, a translation chart is required unless one has it memorized.

 

[foraloysius]

IIRC the matching washer would be the LAT2500. A toploader indeed. An LAT3500 would be a good match too but was a model higher up in the line.

 

[maytag85]

That’s a Maytag SOH (Stream Of Heat) dryer, this design dates back to 1976 which replaced the HOH models. Will dry loads fairly quickly despite only having a 5600 watt heating element, will even dry loads as fast as you can wash them though that depends on the length of the ductwork along with what’s being dried. Not as interesting as the older HOH models, but will get things dried fairly quickly.

 

[panasonicvac]

Thanks guys

Yeah it's a good dryer, I think it dries better than the old Neptune at the cabin but I'm pretty sure it was because there was lint built up in there before we just had it replaced with a Speed Queen from the renovation. I even love the buzzer sound it'd make at the end of the cycle, I like it better than what the Neptune had. I wish I could've paid more attention to the old Maytag dryer my grandparents had before this Performa, at least that's what my grandfather told me cause he said he always had Maytag and honestly I don't remember the old dryer at all. But I did remembered the old washer he had before and it definitely was a Maytag that got replaced in early 2011, it looked like it was original to the house when it was built in 1982. I also wish we could've had that one fixed instead of replacing it because again the washer is trash.

Those two matching top loaders I think would've been so much fun to use, and probably would be around today had the old washer got replaced at the same time. But I'm glad to have some memory of the old washer cause I would've not remembered it at all if it did got replaced.

I was thinking at first the dryer was a little bit newer than that. I mean when Maytag owned Hoover, I can easily decode the date of the serial numbers on the vacuums so I originally thought it was built in April of 2003 but the fourth number didn't looked right to me so that was why I asked.

 

[maytag85]

Maytag built a helical machine with the ‘Performa’ name, but was probably more of a marketing thing than anything else. Lorain Furniture had a video of a helical machine with the Performa name on it, was a suds saver model too.

If you find a helical Maytag with the Performa name on it with the suds saver along with a matching gas dryer, it’ll pay for itself many times over.

Don’t think these older Maytags really used much electricity at all, the ratings plate on my Maytag A806 says it pulls about 7 amps (~500 to ~600 watts), the Maytag Dependable Care I grew up with in the early to mid 2000’s is based off of the helical design so it definitely pulled a similar amount of wattage. Since the Maytag A806 is paired up with a DE806 HOH dryer, pulls 4500 to 4800 watts.

 

[panasonicvac]

Oh wow, that's pretty interesting! If that video was still up, I would've been curious to see how that worked. I don't think the suds saver feature would've worked for us cause it goes directly down the drain.

 

[launderess]

Lorain Furniture and Appliance channel on YT is full of informative videos if people would but look.

 

[foraloysius]

BTW model numbers, the last model made of this series was the LAV3600, it had one small dial more than the LAT3500.

Here’s the manual for it.

https://www.searspartsdirect.com/manual/1cq1qe5eoq-003048/maytag-lav3600aww-washer-parts

 

[panasonicvac]

Nice!

I was confused because I thought I read in my mind that the YouTube channel used to have a video of one before but it was no longer there. But very fascinating! Was there a brochure of these Performas? If so, I'd love to take a look at them.

 

[combo52]

Maytag performer 27 inch dryer

Hi Alex, this dryer is the same as a Neptune dryer, almost all parts are in interchangeable.

It's a decent dryer. It is not the same as a stream of heat dryer. It has a smaller diameter drum. It has a 5400 W heating element no Maytag dryer ever had a 5600 W element.

This dryer design replaced the stream of heat dryers which were made from 1973 until the Neptune's came out came out and Maytag replaced the 29 inch wide stream of heat dryers.

No Maytag dryer with its matching Maytag top load washer would keep up with the washer. The washers only took a little over 35 minutes for a cycle. The dryers were never that fast when you had heavy loads. The gas models were a little faster with the exception of the halo of heat. Gas dryer was actually slower than it's electric counterpart. Halo of heat dryers had a 4800 W heating element so they were a little slower right off the bat, but the gas dryer was particularly slow because of its relatively low 18,000 BTU in an overly sensitive high limit thermostat and a weak blower system.

John

 

[qsd-dan]

"No Maytag dryer with its matching Maytag top load washer would keep up with the washer."

My electric SOH's can and do.

"The gas models were a little faster"

No, they were were a little slower.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #11

Once had an electric Maytag SOH from the early 1990’s (sold it back in 2018 and replaced it with the DE306, now is the DE806 franken dryer), actually dried relatively quickly. Think it was more to do with the heat being more consistent vs a gas dryer where it’ll cycle on and off multiple times throughout the cycle where a heating element will mostly stay on, with the exception of some of the HOH models.

 

[panasonicvac]

We used to have a Neptune gas dryer, I liked it but my mom didn't because she thought it dried slower than the electric ones. And honestly, I couldn't notice a difference ever since we switched back to electric. But I did however noticed that the Neptune electric dryer at the cabin did dried slower, again I'm pretty sure it was because there was lint built up in there as I remembered something was burning inside the dryer the last few times I used it and I don't think it was electrical. I was planning on dismantling the dryer and clean it out for my next visit but the flood saved me from doing so, might've been too difficult for me anyways. I also was going to order a new part for his dishwasher but of course the flood once again did me a favor. Overall, my grandfather wished the Neptune didn't get thrown out cause he really liked it and I also wished we kept it as well. I just hope he'll enjoy the new SQ I got for him, I believe so.

 

[qsd-dan]

My DG808 and DG713 equally dried slower than my 3 DE808 dryers.

All on the same exact vent.

This is fact, not opinion.

 

[maytag85]

I imagine one would dry fast if it had a 30,000 to 37,000 btu orifice in the burner. Definitely would get things dried in 26 minutes, maybe 20 minutes.

 

[qsd-dan]

I wonder what BTU rating the line is crossed at fast drying times vs excessive fabric wear from too much heat. I'm guessing 30K+ BTU's is getting close if not already excessive.

 

[maytag85]

The commercial Maytag SOH dryers (at least the ones that are stacked) are rated at 30,000 BTUs, since things are dried fairly quickly, there’s less wear since items aren’t rubbing against one another.

It will get up to temperature fairly quickly, but the temperature is dictated by the cycling thermostat(s), one it gets up to that temperature, the heat will be cycled off.

 

[henene4]

With sufficient airflow and a sufficiently large drum and matching load size, you can scale basically infinitely in heating power.

The limiting factor at some point becomes the laundry itself.
A T-Shirt has only so much surface area and heat/moisture can only move through the fabric so fast.
Once items are dry, heat doesn't cause shrinkage. But if you heat beyond the evaporation rate of laundry, wet laundry in a dryer can get pretty damn hot - thus shrinkage.

Heat doesn't really cause excessive laundry wear - regardless of what washing system, the majority of lint is produced during washing.

A good example is the dichotomy of EU heat pump dryers and the typical laundromat dryers.
These laundromat dryers could dry 40lbs in less than half an hour - but even a 10lbs load still needs 15-20min to properly dry. So the limit is the evaporation rate from laundry.
Heat pump dryers can run 2h - but my T-Shirts still last years which they shouldn't if tumble drying would cause excessive wear scaled by time.