Turquoisedude's tale of dryer redemption - the 57 Frigidaire Imperial this time!

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If cleaned out regularly, I'm hoping it'll be a good 20 or 30 years before it'll need a full dismantling and severe lint removal! The instructions for these dryers describe how to do a thorough cleaning without taking the machine apart - it takes a little effort, but I'll be follwing them!
 
Hopefully you will get 30 years of use out of it.

I would be afraid of those exposed heating elements. They look like they could broil anything too close to them.
 
The dryers with the exposed elements like in the Frigidaire usually have a very large drum so that clothes don't get too close to the heaters. There is a danger, of course, in overloading the dryer - one does not dry a large comforter in a dryer with elements like this! I have to admit I was scared of using something with glowing red elements (I grew up with fan-forced drying...LOL) but I have gotten used to this idea now. And needless to say, I don't leave any of my vintage dryers unattended when I am running them. Paranoid perhaps but there have been times when I needed to make that 50-foot dash to the breaker panel...
 
50 foot dash to the breaker panel... sounds scary...

These perforated drums remind me of when I used to go to the laundromat.

Those huge dryers, that you would feed with quarters, and you could stick two wash loads in one dryer.
 
I love my Filtrator

The lint you saw was in the outer container of the dryer and not the inside of the cabinet. I clean the outer container in mine out about twice a year and it stays line free and dries as it should.

I love this dryer, by the first of October I'll start using it again through April. It makes for the softest clothes ever without needing fabric softener. I have never had anything scorch, but I never overload any appliance anyways. I use Med heat for sheets and towels and low heat for regular clothes.

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Forgive my ignorance....

... but I can't seem to figure out how this dryer actually functions. I see the belt and pulley arrangement so it's pretty obvious how the drum turns.  What I can't understand is how the air circulation works. It seems as if the dryer drum is open to the inside of the cabinet with openings outside the cabinet; which would preclude having any sort of closed air path as with most dryers.  Is there forced airflow or does the radiant heat from the element just "bake" the moisture out of the clothes?

 

Again sorry for a newby question.
 
The Control Tower moves in!

So, one of the To-Do's for this weekend was to get the DI-57 into active service.

I wound up moving the '51 Frigidaire out to the garage temporarily to make a space for the "new" dryer. Note the mismatch with the 57 Kenmore washer. A Control Tower washer must now be found... LOL

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How did it do??

Just fine, thank you!

Test-load was about 10 permanent-press shirts - 40 minutes on Medium heat seemed to work just fine. I do love how a Filtrator leaves permanent press items so wrinkle-free!

The shirts were washed in the '57 GE, using slow spin speed. They were supposed to be dried in the '57 GE dryer... I've got more about that in the thread about that accursed Clothes Conditioner of mine!!

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I recognize those 3 machines!!

Nice job on the dryer, I am taken by the fact that in my ‘57 when I cleaned it I only got a sandwich bag full of lint out of it from the original owner I concluded she must have only dried undies on Sundays with it. They do dry nicely when the thermostat is working properly, I think this dryer will need a electronic upgrade some day to keep going.
 

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