Whirlpool Washer Brush Lint Filter

[launderess]

This takes me back!

Mama's first Whrilpool we had growing up used one of these, except the one on her machine was all chrome and glass. Hated cleaning the thing (can you say *ewwwww gross*), would use a small baby's comb to get the gunk out otherwise it would be ages picking the stuff out with fingers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Whirlpool-dryer...332?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5641aa8f6c

 

[thomasortega]

It was always very easy to clean. It doesn't take more than 10 seconds.

Just shake it under a very strong water jet from a fully open faucet and at the same time spin it back and forth almost 180 degrees as fast as you can.
the water plus the centrifugal force make the lint be washed away.

After that, get the lint in the drain and throw it away.

 

[autowasherfreak]

Our first Whirlpool in 72 or 73 had that filter.  We had no sink in the basement laundry room so I would run it up to the bathroom after every or every other load to clean it.  

 

 

[toploader55]

Dryer Lint Trap Brush

This guy must also post on CL.

I have one of these. They seem quite effective

 

[launderess]

Yeah Dat Do Be It! The ":Magic Mix" Filter

Aside from being a pain to clean (at least to my childhood self), the brush lint filters were very effective. IIRC, Mama's had some sort of "whirlpool" logo or such on the glass or chrome. Maybe to back up the sort of whirlpool action seen through the glass as water swirled around.

Remember from the directions on the machine one could place detergent into the filer and it would "mix" with water to be dispensed.

My Whirlpool portable has the bed of nails filter, and it does a decent enough job, and is much eaiser to clean. Slap on to a hard surface, scrap up the discharged lint/much, replace filter. No muss, no fuss.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Aaaah, but hard to keep 'em down on the farm, after they've upgraded to a MAGIC-CLEAN!!!!

-- Dave ("A cleaner, less fussy arrangement can be found in the better Whirlpool and Sears Kenmore washers." -- CK)

 

[pierreandreply4]

i had this kind of filter as well in the inglis whirlpool washer of my youth thank you for the trip down memory lane tho washer in this pic to be precise and my grandmother old inglis liberaator had this type of filter as well

 

[frigilux]

My sister had a '60s Whirlpool washer with this type of filter. She used a comb to clean it and also used it as a detergent dispenser.

By the way....what's wrong with this picture, kids?

 

[combo52]

WP MAGICMIX LINT FILTERS

 

These weren't to hard if you just used an old

comb and brushed the lint off under running water and let the lint go down the drain. The purpose of lint filters on washers was not to keep lint out of the plumbing but instead have less on the clothing as it emerged from the washer, this was much more important before dryers became so common place. Any washing method puts a lot of lint down the drain, even using a wash board in the laundry tub.

 

By far the most effective filters ever used on automatic washers were the various self-cleaning filters used on WP & KM belt drive washers. These removed large amounts of lint and flushed it harmlessly down the drain as the machine started the drain cycle. Probably the least effective filter was the filter in the MT Power-fin agitators, however the earlier SS mesh filters in the bakelit agitators did work a lot better as they had a rubber gasket at the bottom to keep most of the lint from just washing past the screen. The 2nd worst and highly overrated were the GE filter flow plastic pan filters. Unlike the MT filters that people never bothered to clean after not seeing any real lint collected when the washer was new, the GE owners often didn't even bother using it at all I would see it sitting on a shelf in the laundry room covered with dust. On the GE FF you can weight a hand full of dryer lint and put it in the filter pan and after a full wash cycle and you can let it dry and reweigh it and you will usually have even less lint tan you started with. The large diameter of the filter pan and its rapid movement makes the filter act like a sifter and just works most of the lint through the pan. The earlier GE FF with the metal pans did work much better as the pan floated on the agitator during agitation so it did end up trapping more lint. As with many things often the first designs are the best and they get cheapened as time goes on, Even the later basket mounted self-cleaning filters used on WP & KM BD & DD washers were largely infective.

 

[yogitunes]

although wether they worked or not.....waterfall filters were fun to watch

 

[pierreandreply4]

What brand is the washer?

whats the brand of the washer pictures in post 505351 reply#9 because the agi in the washer kinds of remaind me of my grandmother 's old push to start inglis whirlpool liberator washer

 

[yogitunes]

its a 1962 Whirlpool......standard capacity, 2 cycle, one water level, 2 temp...basic machine

 

[tomturbomatic]

But if you had a septic tank, you did not want the lint to go down the drain because of the danger of clogging the holes in the pipes of the leaching field with lint.

When the little rubber nubs on the GE Activator collar wore down, the metal filter pan was not held in place and when agitation started, the pan tipped back from the force of the FilterFlo stream hitting it. Much of the water flowed over the edge of the pan right back into the tub.

 

[yogitunes]

Toms right!...as usual....hugs.....

but when I went several times to buy a machine, the saleman would ask if I had a septic tank or city sewer..........

if you had septic, he strongly recommended the GE FF......

one thing that puzzles me, is so many people are concerned with cleaning the lint filter of the washer, and designers came up with self-cleaning types.....yet....in all of the years, DRYERS still have a lint filter you have to manually clean....never self cleaning....or built without one.....and we know the effects of the fine lint that gets past these filters and clog the air lines......and you mean to tell me with todays technology they can't create a machine that doen't need one!.....a coating inside the dryer and vent lines that retract, like non-stick interiors, from lint building up, instead of units that attrack lint!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Martin, you are just too young to remember dryers without lint filters! If you look at an old Sears Roebuck catalog, in the accessories section for washers and dryers, you will see lint filter boxes that could be added to the backs of dryers at the exhaust port. Early WH dryers needed these and while the slant front machines eventually got that little hatch on top to house the lint filter, the old Space Mates dryers with the window in the door never had a filter. There are probably others. The WH-made combo that Wards sold was the vented machine, but it lacked a lint screen. It just spewed lint outside, giving a year-round flocked effect to any vegetation near the vent. Maybe it helped people keep Christmas in their hearts all through the year.

We have had posts here about the Kenmore dryers with the lint storage systems. They used a little paper bag like a vacuum cleaner bag with a window in it to store the lint that was separated out of the exhaust air stream by a centrifugal separator. Whirlpool is big on centrifugal separators. They used one for dryer lint in the first 29" combos, in the Power Clean dishwasher module and more recently in the lint storage dryer they brought back briefly, but people thought you only had to empty the lint every 100 days or something stupid because of the logo on the dryer. When they discontinued it, they said it was because it was too noisy, but really it was because most people are too stupid to cope with lint unless they see it. One of the good things about GE's up front lint filter is that people are forced to deal with it or they get lint all over their clothes as they drag them out of the dryer.

Our hamsters and gerbils loved dryer lint for making cozy nests. Mom would not put it in their cages, but she would save it for us to add.

 

[combo52]

LINT IN SEPTIC TANKS

I highly drought that lint would clog a septic system. For one lint is heaver than water and would in the calm water of the main tank just sink to the bottom where it would rot along other solids. Two 90% of lint is cotton and is very biodegradable so even if it gets out of the tank intact it would rot in the drain field. And as I said in the earlier post all clothes washing produces a lot of lint and even the best filter system won't catch even 1/2 of the lint so you have a lot of lint going down the drain anyway.

 

[yogitunes]

I beg to differ with you on that one John.....

I know 2 people who have a seperate septic for the washer only, and after about 20 years they are so clogged with lint, they don't function anymore, a new one has to be dug and repiped.......so both of them now just have the water pumped out the basement window, onto the ground.....it was actually also to kill wisteria bushes on the side of the house, figuring the bleach and detergent, not a chance.....they flourished like no tommorow, I am forever going over and helping him trim these bushes down below the roofline, in only a few months to grow back bigger and thicker, one day were just going to pull them out of the ground....

 

[combo52]

LINT IN SEPTIC TANKS

If the laundry water had gone into the regular tank the bacteria would eat the lint. It is always a good idea to add as much food and sh.. to a septic system to keep it healthy, do minimize grease and chlorine bleach as these will hamper a septic tanks health. Maybe your friends wear too much polyester clothing LOl.

 

[yogitunes]

The new rule in Jersey.......you can't have a garbage disposal if you have a septic tank......we had to remove ours.....I mis that thing something terrible....once your used to having it, its hard to go without....

I don't see the problem with it.....

only one washer, a FLer goes into my septic, the rest go outside on the ground....

 

[mrb627]

Yogi...

I love that simple 1962 Whirlpool.  And it is in AWESOME shape.  My Grandma had a Kenmore version of that except it was a single cycle, single wl, three temp machine.  Had a bakelite straight vane agitator. 

 

Malcolm

 

[ingliscanada]

Our Inglis

We had an early 60s Inglis set, and the washer had that brush lint filter with the chrome-framed window. Our house used to be on a septic tank, which is why we got a suds-saver model, like many of our neighbours did for that same reason. This way, not as much laundry waste exited into the septic system. The suds were stored in the laundry tub, and the drain discharged into the sump pump.

Gary

 

[re563]

Yogi:

The pic you posted of the BOL Whirlpool is the machine I Grew up with. My Mom had that exact machine until 1972 when she bought yet another whirpool with still the brush lint filter. I asked her why she didn't get one with a self-cleaning filter and she said "those don't work".

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Lint filters and septic tanks

Hey everyone,

I am just getting into this thread as I've been out of pocket for the last week or so.

I may be jinxing this by saying, but my folks have been in their current home for 24 years on the same untouched septic system. My mother cooks a lot and repeatedly uses her garbage disposal (no bones or egg shells though) and her Kenmore w/self cleaning filter has been dumping lint into the system since day 1.

I am going to differ with John on the comment about the WP/KM basket mounted disk filters, but only for one very good reason. I would have said hands-down the same thing that these are nowhere near as effective as the previous recirculating manual filters OR the pump flushed self-cleaners, BUT last summer one accidental test I did proved otherwise:

If we are having a dry spell in the summer, I often rig a washer in the garage to do my laundry and discharge the water through a 25 foot long 4-inch pipe that I put out onto various spots on the lawn. It is a great way to double-use the water. One weekend I used three different machines, one with the Kenmore tub-mounted self-cleaning filter, one with a manual waterfall filter, and the other with a basket mounted disk. Keep in mind I used to think the disks were next to worthless.

When I moved the hose after each load, I noticed a huge wad of gray lint from the tub-mount self cleaner, then NOTHING from the manual clean, which makes sense, right? Well, after the disk filter machine was run, there was nearly as much built-up lint in the grass with it as the tub-mount. I was stunned. The main difference between the two is that the older self-cleaners discharge their lint fairly immediately upon pump-out in a big 'up chuck' mass, whereas the basket mounted ones let little volleys of lint come off all throughout the drain period, so the overall volume is not as noticeable unless you catch it all somehow with a strainer, ie. my lawn.

After saying this now my folk's septic will probably fail, but it's been unserviced and fine for 24 years, lint and food disposal and all.

Gordon

 

[mickeyd]

Bed of snails

 

 

 

I have the same WP Convertible that Launderess has, and when I first got it, I kept the filter out!!! First, because I liked watching the captivating stream of water flushing out the spigot. Second, it took too long to pick the lint out of the bed of nails. This is nuts, I thought. Who has the time or patience to nit pick all this lint. Having no manual for the machine, I was obviously clueless.

 

Then one day, after having had the filter where it is supposed to be, I pulled it out after a load of towels, and the filter slipped out of my hand and slammed against the counter. Shocked to see all the lint removed effortlessly, I had that eureka moment, and then how dumb could I have been, etc. After that it was a slam dunk.

 

For the general discussion, I have both the old and the new self-cleaners, and I really can't see the difference in performance; they both do very well.

 

What a fun and interesting thread.

 

[launderess]

Whacking A Lint Filter

Long as the lint is still wet, yes it should come out of that bed of nails filter easily with a good thump against a hard surface. However mind how you go, that plastic while strong can break.

Find the bed of nails filter works better as more "gunk" is caught acting as a trap for what is to follow. Would rather have it than that darn brush filter.

By the way, someone really should inform that eBay seller he probably would move his items if they were properly listed. Dryer filter they aren't! *LOL*