Whirlpool/Kenmore lint screens

[supersurgilator]

I got to thinking, why does Whirlpool use the door over their lint screens, yet on Kenmore versions its the built in handle to the screen? Personal preference I guess, but I always found it more annoying to open the door to remove the lint screen rather than just pulling it out.

 

[murando531]

I believe all Whirlpool built dryers with the lint filter at the back/top are now built designed with the handle integrated also as a cover. They've been doing this since at least the early 2000s if I'm not mistaken. We actually had a Kenmore dryer for almost my entire childhood that had that design, with the hamper-style door, and it had the hinged door cover over the lint filter opening as well, so I think for a time that particular design was across all WP/KM/KA dryers for a while. I can't remember what series our Kenmore was, but it was when they were still using the dark brown control panel scheme, with the faux wood-grain top, but the timer dial was to the left, rather than in the center like the older Lady Kenmore style machines. My mom always hated that flap cover, so she took it off and the entire time we had it, it just had a rectangle hole in the top with the handle peeking out, but it never affected anything.

 

[murando531]

I may stand corrected. Now that I'm looking at pictures, I think it was actually the handle-cover that disappeared because for a time we had to use a coat hanger to pull the lint filter out, then when my parents bought a replacement lint filter, they got the one designed for a Whirlpool that was just the handle molded with the filter, but didn't have a cover. My mom still hated the older design that had the cover built on, why I don't know, but she liked what we ended up with. This dryer below is the one we had, though ours was white.

Still, I'm still sure that Whirlpool did away with the covers and went to the integrated handle style filter by at least the late 90's/early 2000s. The WP DirectDrive set that was in my first apartment was a bit dated but had that style handle.

 

[ponchoguy]

I have the one in your photo

The one in your photo is the style I'm most familiar with. I still have some spare lint screens taken from machines of yore that were WLP or Sears Kenmore made by WLP. I know that when you buy a maintenance kit for the dryer, WLP says on the package to go by the lint screen design and location as to which kit to buy.