Whirlpool dryer power dropping resistor

[Chetlaham]

Aside from having actual delicate items, I can vouch for lower temps. I've never found any use drying things on high except on rare occasions when things are needed in a hurry. On high heat clothes come out feeling over-dried, something that Kenmore wrote in depth about to push their auto dry and sensor dry models. Personally, I do not believe the issues observed with North American clothes dryers comes from people using timed dry, rather the operating stat lets things get way, way to hot. In my experience clothes do not come out "cooked" on delicate or medium heat even when timed dry is inadvertently set to long for the load, but certainly do on high heat even with the slightest extra time be it timed dry or sensor dry. 

 

If Sean does not have 120 minutes of timed dry available on his Maytag, his only option would be the auto dry route.

 

[maytag85]

“Are you guys drying delicate lingerie or something?”

Not quite, but want to be able to dry shirts of mine without the vinyl decals cracking. Sure, I can hand them up to dry and that’s what I do from time to time, but unfortunately since the laundry room is right across from the kitchen and since cooking is being done for the holidays, clothes that are hanging up will smell like thanksgiving dinner afterwards.

Just trying to eliminate as much ‘guesswork’ as much as possible, along with prolonging the life of the machine and clothing. Also going to try to add a filter so incoming air is filtered, like the older ‘64 HOH’s.

 

[maytag85]

So here’s an update: installed the power dropping resistor, and..nothing. Powered up, no short circuits (thankfully), ran but wasn’t heating, everything was connected up properly.

Will probably have to tap into the cycling thermostat since the high limit wasn’t doing anything. Can’t complain since there’s a few bugs to be worked out.

 

[maytag85]

I think I am just going to put this idea to rest since it wasn’t doing anything, despite checking everything.

On the other hand, added an intake filter to the rear panel so things are dried in clean filtered air.

 

[Chetlaham]

Post pictures, I'm sure there is a way to get that circuit to work.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

I would think that adding an air filter would slow air flow and therefore raise the drying temperature.

 

[maytag85]

It would only slow the airflow down if it were an actual furnace filter with a high MERV rating. This is just a reusable foam filter that can be washed.

The older HOH’s from ‘58 to ‘64 had a filter on the rear panel. This is from the archives of a Maytag 641C with an intake filter on the rear panel.

 

[Chetlaham]

Honestly, I would just ditch the filters. Unless you've got condenser coils (which these obviously don't have) there is nothing that can become clogged causing a decline in efficiency with age. The biggest offender by far is anything down stream from the lint filter,  that can only be taken care of by manually cleaning the exterior vent and exhaust system every few years.

 

[maytag85]

It’s only to filter out the incoming air, not a lint filter. As long as it’s cleaned once a year, shouldn’t have any problems. Certainly will help filter out pollen during the spring and summer months.

 

[qsd-dan]

I personally think it's a good idea as long as it's regularly inspected and cleaned/replaced when needed. One of my early HOH's had a filter on it and it was pretty nasty.

I recently pulled the HDE808 out of service and did a complete tear down for cleaning/inspection since the last time I did that was 16 years ago. Those rear vents (including the vents on the lower belt access panel) that draw in air were 80-90% clogged with dust, probably reducing some efficiency. The filter will help keep the internals a little bit cleaner. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for dirt to show up the filter.

 

[maytag85]

It may take awhile, but earlier this week I had to remove the cabinet from the chassis since the small screws that cold the front panel on worked themselves loose and were making annoying rattling noises, some small nuts and bolts helped remedy that problem. Next, I oiled the blower wheel bearing since it was grumbling, no idea why the oil went missing in action since I oiled it throughly about 5 months ago. Have another blower wheel and may just remove the wicking and pack it with grease to see if that does anything. Anyways, I looked at the filter (was literally installed on the 1st) while I had it apart, already had a fine layer of dust on it after 7 loads of laundry. Just vacuumed the dust off (and the inside while I had it apart) which didn’t take long to do.

I’ll note, the ‘66 to early ‘76 HOH cabinets aren’t sealed as well as the pre ‘65 HOH’s. So if the filter became clogged or restricted, air would simply be pulled through the ends of the console.

 

[combo52]

Clothes, dryer intake, air filters

Could be a good idea, of course the course filter like that. Doesn't even get 2% of the pollen going through it, but it would help keep the inside of the dryer from being excessively filled with Linton dust, especially when a dryer was not vented outdoors or poorly vented.

If you care about pollen getting onto your clean, damp clothing as they dry, you should have a very good high-efficiency air filter to completely clean the room. The dryer is located in. My laundry room is in an area of the house where the main furnace air handler runs 24 hours a day witha high efficiency pleated filter in an electric static filter after that it's also wonderful because when you're folding laundry and everything, there's an intake vent in the laundry room so dust just never accumulates it sucked up and filtered out.

The big problem with this filter that Maytag used as it should've been on the back of the machine where it might've had a chance of being seen cleaned occasionally.

The other problem is only about 70 or 80% of the air comes in through those vents in the back, the rest is drawn in around gaps all around the cabinet control panel, etc. like any other clothes dryer so it doesn't offer a full hundred percent filtration anyway.

John

 

[maytag85]

So here’s an update: finally managed to track down the problem. Turns out, silly me installed a fan thermostat which opens up and lets the current through as opposed to cutting power once the temperature is reached.

The timer advances like it’s supposed to but here’s on thing I noticed: the timer motor seems to constantly be getting power, but only speeds up a little once the thermostat opens, slows back down a little once the thermostat closes. On the cool-down portions, timed drying, air fluff the timer motor runs at the speed it did as if the double throw switch thermostat was installed.

Next, will install the 808 console (currently a 806 console on at the moment) tomorrow. Definitely will get things dried fairly quickly once the adjustable cycling thermostat is set to 165F.

 

[maytag85]

Welp, I spoke too soon. For whatever reason, the timer motor gets power regardless even with the power dropping resistor. Wired up everything correctly, still not working as intended. Either got a defective power dropping resist, or these older dryers were never intended to be used with a power dropping resistor.

 

[Chetlaham]

Post pics of what you tapped, the wiring back up to the timer (you need a dedicated conductor between the stat and resistor and timer motor, the timer assembly itself, and the wiring diagram to the dryer.

 

As I understand it, you took a basic DE308 model and added a DE808 console to it?