Whirlpool dryer design

[Cybrvanr]

I have seen several of the whirlpool dryers that don't seem to have the best airflow design through the drum. On my mother's G.E., the heated air comes into the drum in the back, and the moist air leaves the dryer at the front. The lint screen is just below the door. The Maytags at the College are the same way. Whirlpool's design however seems a little flawed. The rear panel of the drum is stationary, with the hot air coming in on the left hand side, and the moist air leaving on the right.

The problem with this is that laundry that is in the front of the drum never really gets all that much heat, while laundry at the back of the drum gets over-dryed. In my compact Whirlpool, after about 20 minutes of drying time, I need to stop the dryer , and "turn over" the load, so the stuff in the front is pushed to the back and vice-versa so that everything gets dried.

I noticed in the gallery pictures here that the turquoise 1967 model is made exactly like my 1999 model. The earlier 1960 model seems to have a better flow-thru design. I've always wondered why they stick with this design, even after all these years, because it seems to not be the best to evenly dry the clothes.

 

[kenmore1978]

air flow

I've alwasy thought WP's design was sort of strange, too. But, it doesn't seem to affect the drying of the clothes, at least not if it's not overloaded. And they kept the design for a LONG time, I would've thought they'd change it if it turned out not to be satisfactory.

 

[coldspot66]

It is a unique design, and better, IMHO because the airflow is horseshoe shaped. In other words, air is drawn over the heat source, which is the perforations on the left side of the backless drum, then mixes with the clothes and exits on the right side of the drum. Since the drum revolves counterclockwise, the clothing hits the airstream twice; once on the way up and once on the way down. The compact dryer has a much smaller drum, but the same principal applies. You could have a blocked exhaust. Is the lint filter inside the drum? I do like the fact that the heat source is further from the tumbling clothing. Dryers with heat in the center of the drum seem too close to the heat source. Can you tell that I am a big fan of W/P style dryers? They do have a stronger airflow and do not clog internally as much as other designs that flow air back to front.
Except for the early GE dryers, W/P has had this design since the mid '60's, and most others have followed suit quite awhile after. Maytag, Magic chef come to mind that use a "backless drum". Ge and Frigidaire still use heat from the center of the drum. GM 1-18 dryers also used the backess drum, but W/P was well before that.

 

[partscounterman]

The cast-iron dryer

I have nothing but the deepest respect for the Whirlpool dryer design. I don't know what the official name for this machines is-I refer to it as the "top-filter" machine. These machines seem to last a good long time and are super easy to fix. I've compared drying ability with other dryers and I thing the "horseshoe" airflow does just as good a job as the "axial" airflow machines.

I know others may have a different opinion

 

[alr2903]

Yes it does horseshoe

IMHO, let that ken,wp,ka run 5 minutes the Left side of the door is warm to touch, to me that proves the air moves to the front of the drum. May be just me, but i never cared for a GE or norgetag type machine with that accumulation of lint at the filter and around the door. With the KA, all that mess is in the filter at the back, and you do not have to pull your clean stuff across a lint acculmulation. Also i think the filter in the back is ALOT bigger. Coldspot66, I am a big fan of the whirly design too. alr2903

 

[scott55405]

On older GE dryers, there is sort of a metal guard on top of that lint screen to prevent your clothes being dragged through lint.

The top screen Sears type machines are good, and I don't know how they differ but I really like my new style Sears with the higher drum and lint screen inside the door. The top screen ones tend to spew dust all over the top of the dryer (and presumably into the room). I would always keep a towel or something over the top so I could still fold on it.

 

[Cybrvanr]

Hey, I didn't even think about the fact that the clothes are going to carry the heat towards the front. Drying clothes in it is usually not that bad, but if I dry sheets, that's when I notice the front to rear difference. Mine's got the lint screen in the back. Luckily, with my dryer mounted up high at eye level, it's easy to get to. I like those full-size dryers with the lint filters on top though. As far as durablitity and design simplicity, the Whirlpool design is definitely the best!

I had always wondered if any manufacturer has ever installed a 2-speed motor in a dryer? High for regular stuff, and a "gentle" low speed for more fragile things.

 

[appnut]

cybrvanr, Whirlpool did have a two speed tumbling dryer in the early to mid-1960s. Experts here can elaborate on what else happened with the blower and such on those different speeds.

 

[alr2903]

Hi Bob, Must of just missed ya.

Yep they sure did have a lever to the right on the console, that changed how fast it tossed the load around. One of the cousins had this in the harvest gold color. I don't remember if it was belts and pulleys or a 2 speed motor, but your right.

 

[DADoES]

Whirlpool had two different things going for dryer speed. The original design involved two blower speeds (and in some cases possibly higher/lower wattage heating element and/or gas burner). The blower belt was shifted on the pulley for higher or lower air flow (Delicate or Super drying speed). When they switched to a direct-drive blower design, obviously the speed couldn't change, but perhaps there was a damper door in the air duct to change airflow volume . . . if there was even still a drying speed control at that point in time.

The TOL Imperial did have multi-speed tumbling via a lever on the edge of the control panel. Again, this was accomplished by shifting the drive belt along a graduated-diameter pulley. The original design had three tumble speeds, then it was reduced to two, then the feature was eliminated in the early 1970s. As far as I am aware, Kenmore never had multi-speed tumbling, this feature was unique to Whirlpool in the WP/KM family.