Whirlpool 240 volt Combo announced

[combo52]

Combos That Heat While In Full Spin Speed

In the US some of our early combos did this, the 1961 WP & KMs did, the early Norge, Westinghouse, easy and GEs all did this to help heat things up for drying and boost water extraction.

This was an easy feature to employ as it was just programing.

John

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thank you, Mike!  Now about the fans in the combos, how were they kept free of lint?  In the US, the WP-made combos filled through the blower chamber to flush lint away. the fans in your pics don't show any water sourcing. How did they combat lint buildup?

 

Thanks,

Tom

 

[henene4]

Passive filtering

First, a fan spins, thus less buildup there.

Next, the less then optimal airflow path mentioned that a lot of lint is cought by the tub, drum and doorseal.

But, most of all, the water cooling filters out most of the lint.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hot humid air carries wet lint dust which is bad about sticking to surfaces. I have read reports from service people who work on the 24" combos that were sold in this country and they often mention how the fins of the little circulator fans clog with lint dust that frequently has to be cleaned away.

Maytag combos directed an atomized stream of water into the spinning fan in the condensing chambers of their combos and condensing dryers.
I have portable space heaters where dust collects on all surfaces inside the heaters, especially on the leading edges of the fan blades.

 

[foraloysius]

Don't know about the other brands, but Miele has a program for rinsing out the machine.

A friend of mine in England has a Bosch washer-dryer combo. Never heard him complain about lint building up.

 

[mrboilwash]

For a short period of time in the 90`s I had a Siemens washer-drier. It had all the bells and whistles, a program to rinse out residual fluff from the drying process included.
IIRC it filled to a high 1/3 up the door water level then it went into a distribution spin with all the water for a minute or so and then it just drained with a static drum.
This was useful to clean out the drum of lint but it didn`t do anything to the water cooled condenser chamber or the fan. In fact the fan was never an issue but the condenser chamber frequently clogged up with lint to a point where proper airflow got inhibited.
The combination of heat, lint and Munich hard water is not a good one, the result is tons of baked on lint as hard as concrete.
Apart from the usual disadvantages of combos it wasn`t much fun to dismantle and clean out so I sold it on quickly.

 

[logixx]

Here's a page dedicated to fishing lint from an LG combo.

https://sites.google.com/site/lgventless/step5

 

[henene4]

Hot moist air

Yes, moist air can transport lint.

As the water condenses out, the lint is carried away with that.

The heater and fan are the areas of highest airflow and temperature, so the least subjected to depositing issues.

 

[combo52]

Lint Build-Ups In Combos

The heater and fan are the areas of highest airflow and temperature, so the least subjected to depositing issues, Really ?

 

The fan is usually ahead of the heater, it is in the coolest area of the combos air system, Fans in combos and even many separate dryers often get very clogged with lint, I have never seen a European combo that attempts to flush the fan of excess lint.

 

Yes the electric heaters are usually not a problem as they will burn lint off the elements.

 

John

 

[henene4]

I really don't see how something spinning at an excess of 1500rpm and that is the highest airflow area will clogg..

The area right before it, yeah, the fan itself? No way...

 

[tomturbomatic]

The leading edge of a fan blade cuts into the air and at least some of whatever is in that air gets pushed onto the blade or fin of the fan. As the fan spins through moisture and lint dust-laden air, more and more deposits build up on the blades or fins. You don't even need that much moisture to make particulate matter stick to a fan blade. Have you ever seen the fan in a dirty-fan vacuum? I remember when Hoover would hold repair clinics at department stores. The fans in the machines that were in the stream of air before it went into the bag, the old "convertibles" or dirty-fan machines would get caked with dirt to the point where the Hoover rep would have to use the blade of a screwdriver to scrape off the dirt to get down to the metal of the fan blade to clean it. We would see the condition of the machines some people would bring in and figure that they had no shame and must have had filthy houses. Some of those vacuums should have been put in plastic garbage bags before being taken out in public, just like some people's children.

 

[logixx]

Another LG. Cleaning starts at 3:30. Reminds me of the inside of other dryers where humid air and lint passes through.

 

[henene4]

Sure there is residue on that blade.

Our Whirlpool dryer back home has its fan at the front and sure there is residue on there.

"Clogged" is most certainly something else.

 

[mrboilwash]

All the cleaning we see in the LG video is kind of pointless IMO because it`s the condenser chamber where most of the lint collects, at least if hard water has been involved. I don`t think the small amount of lint build up we see there on the fan and in the heating chamber would do much harm.
Of course it`s a lot more work to take the condenser duct out for proper cleaning than poking and flushing a little bit from the top.

 

[combo52]

Clogged Fans In European Combos

Hi Henrik, You can sit in front of your computer all day and come up with all kinds of theories as to how you think things will work, but the reality is the squirrel cage fans in combos not only get heavy lint build-ups but they clog completely to the point where no air circulates and the thermal cut-outs on the heaters trip.

 

We have seen it many times on many of the Italian built combos that made it here, as well as the Askos etc.

 

We also see regular clothes dryers with heavily clogged fans every week, also anyone that works on vacuum cleaners can also tell you just how dirty and clogged the fan-impellers can get, the fact that the fan is spinning at 1000-3000 RPMs makes difference.

 

John