Under-the-tub lint filters

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rinso

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Does anyone know if the WP/KM lint filters that resided in the outer tub, just below the bottom of the inner tub, were very effective or were they there for a placebo effect and marketing? Of course they would have been self-cleaning just by default. I had a 1976 TOL washer.
 
When phosphates were removed from powder detergents, lint filters started clogging with lint and minerals. People who did not take care of the lint filters began to notice the crusty mess and, possibly the lack of filtering. WP moved the filters under the tub so that they would not be seen, but the machine could still be said to have a lint filter. They often got pretty crappy in areas with harder water.
 
Passive wash basket mounted lit filter filters

These were probably less effective than the filters where the water was actually pumped through a filter, by far the most effective filters ever in the top load automatic washers were the self cleaning back flush filters that whirlpool used in their belt drive machines.

Whirlpool went to the basket, mounted ones because they were less costly but most of all it made the machine much more reliable because the back flush filters could be ruined by hard water and no phosphate detergent so it reduced service calls quite a bit.

Gordon, Kenmore 64 claims at the basket mounted filters on belt drive machines actually worked quite well. I was always a little skeptical, but he claims to have proven that they really did catch a lot of lint that would be thrown off when it went into spin and drain.

Of course the little tiny filters that may tag dependable care and later whirlpool direct drive top loaders used were absolutely useless and were really just there so that they could claim that it had a lint filter. Speed Queen also had a passive filter under the basket which looked absolutely useless, as did many WCI top letters.

John L
 
Under basket mounted WP/KM washer lint filters….

So I am hugely impressed that Combo John remembered my many years ago comments about the basket mounted filters. The comments surprised even me at the time, which I will explain here how that all came about.

For the last 42 years, I have lived in Charlotte, NC. City water here is pretty decent overall. It is reasonably soft, does not leave behind a lot of minerals, at least not before the recent push toward cold water washes, and for me, yields good results in dish washing and laundry.

So my story about the basket mounted filters starts this way. From 1990 to 1999 or so, I rebuilt/refurbished well over 100 belt drive washers. I did this not so much as a side hustle, but because I thoroughly enjoyed the work. The machines varied from mid 1960s models to some of the last belt drives built from 1983-1986. Most of the machines were saved from Sears’ compactor as haul-aways. I do not recall how many basket filter models passed through my hands, but I never saw the goop/muck/nastiness that has been found by others, probably because the machines were still relatively newish, and were used on city water.

One particular machine, which is the inspiration of the comments I made that John remembers, is a 1986 Kenmore 23721. In 1995 I refurbed this machine and repaired a damaged basket drive. I always installed a new 383727 tub seal and sometimes a tub outlet hose, if it was showing signs of leakage. This machine had no signs of Schmutz build-up on the basket mounted filter. I put it back in service just down the street from my home, and the young couple who bought it used it from ‘95 to 2009 (possibly 2008). They contacted me and asked it I wanted it back when buying a new set.

Upon second refurb, after joining AW.org, I replaced the center post seals, and solved the inappropriate water flow but not before the transmission was thorough fouled with “oil” that reminded me of a jar of chocolate cake frosting, less the nice smell. I decided to clean and rebuild the gear case, then add the washer to my collection to test the new seals, and most importantly the gear case to see if it would withstand repeated use after being so badly water fouled.

So in the initial testing, post refurb #2, I ran the machine several times in my garage, using a garden hose for water supply, and a drain hose long enough to carry the wash and rinse water out in my yard to water the grass.

Having a lot of memories, albeit old memories, of using my Mom’s 61 Kenmore with the manual filter, then newer memories of the self cleaner in our 74 Kenmore, I can say those two machines belched up a lot of lint! It always went down the drain from the 74 immediately upon the machine entering drain. I used to catch it with a strainer.

We left the 74 in Denver when we moved to Charlotte, I wasn’t happy…but we did get a new 1981 model KM 21721 in Dec 82. That model started out as the original engineering model with a tub mount, self cleaning backflushed Filter. Our model was made at the end of 1982, and as the second engineering change, was equipped with the passive basket disk filter as a running engineering change.

We never had any linting complaints from Mom’s machine OR in my ‘86 23701 KM which I bought to finish college with after my folks temporarily moved out of town.

I never figured the basket filter would be very effective, but it certainly, as John mentioned, saved a lot of cost.

So, back to my explanation…when running this refurbed KM, the discharge water was going out into my lawn. Suffice it to say the grass acted as a filter of its own and retained the lint. It did not come out in a big wad almost all at once, as the 74 had done, but as little balls of lint that came out throughout drain and spin, especially after a spray rinse.

It is hard to argue with what was left in my lawn, so ever since I have held the basket filter in decent regard as an effective item that lessened the cost and complexity of the machines they were equipped in.

This of course is from a machine that was never crapped up with minerals and other grosssness in that filter. Some of the things I have seen in more recent AW refurbs of similar models present some of the challenges in cleaning up these machines that their older cousins did not have to face.

Thanks John, and yes, I do respect the basket mounted fileters! They do require good laundry habits with good water and good / sufficient detergent.

Gordon
 

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