who made the worst dryer

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Funny that you all have had such bad experiences with the old GE's and Hotpoints. I've used 2 of them and didn't think they took that long to dry, in fact I thought they were very hot dryers. I do favor Whirlpools more tho.

The worst dryer I've used was a Frigidaire stack dryer my grandparents had. It took forever to dry, my grandma used to break the washer load into 2 or more dryer loads and each would take an hour or more to dry. I think it was because there were 3 vanes in the drum and I think it spun so fast the clothes just stuck to the drum when it turned.
 
Dark, Dreary Dryer Drums:

Well, it might be easier to say which ones AREN'T dark and dreary...

Even with a drum light, the speckled Hotpoint, GE, and early Maytag drums can be a real gloomy place, to put your laundry in...

The newer, white drums in later dryers are a lot more pleasant to look at...

-- Dave
 
To be fair, the dark drums probably have one advantage for some people. I've seen white drums that have a sort of bluish stain. I think I've heard it's dye from drying blue jeans. A dark drum probably wouldn't show that stain so readily.
 
My late model Cabrio dryer has a white drum and the bulkhead has a lot of bluing on it. It appeared rapidly after the purchase of a couple new pairs of Duluth Trading jeans. They appear to use a LOT of dye. Good jeans though, they LAST and the extra gusset in the crotch is nice.
 
My parent's Kenmore dryer has the blue tint also. I don't recall their old wheat colored Kenmore doing that, it was more of a beige colored drum though.
 
Hotpoint Dry times

Why did they take so long to dry? Was it air flow restriction? Thermostat cutoff early? I know when I run my Whirlpool built Maytag on delicate heat it takes well over an hour to dry anything.
 
two I remember

When I moved out on my own we had a beat to crap whirlpool washer that step dad had done way too many barnyard fixes and no dryer.
Friend sold me a crappy GE? which he admitted was junk but still barely worked. It sounded like a jet engine, filled the laundry/bathroom with steam, and blew lint everywhere. It finally tried to catch the lint on fire and found out most of the vent pipe internally was gone or rusted out.
Then we were offered a Hotpoint builder grade new full set for dirt cheap. Called a few repair shops for opinions and they all agreed they were low grade but functional and no worse then any other cheap starter set.
The washer lasted 10 years till the transmission finally leaked out and ate itself, the dryer lasted a few months longer and the drum bearings and belt were shot.
The shop I called was amazed either lasted so long as they usually broke just past warranty for most folks and ours were the longest he'd ever hear of lasting.
Replaced them with Whirlpool/Kenmore used rebuilt DD washer and similar vintage early 90's dryer, only issue ever with the dryer was blowing the overheat protection diodes when the hose or vent got blocked, a very easy and cheap fix.
Just replaced it with a new Kenmore/Whirlpool 8.8 cf 68132 eco auto dry dryer that is huge and quiet. Needed a new start switch which I took apart and fixed and I'll give it to my mom.
 
My first pair: White-Westinghouse 1988 pair

Bought them at Price Club (merged with Costco in the 1990s, but often regarded as the original company because Price Club opened in 1976, before the pre-merger Costco did), back when they would carry one model of everything: one dishwasher, one fridge, one laundry pair. I was moving to a newly-built home from an apartment, and Price Club sold the pair for $600. A middle-aged colleague at work had purchased them and said they worked reasonably well, so I figured it was a safe choice, plus I didn't have to shell out $1000 at a time when money was tight.

The dryer worked reasonably well for nine years. Did not have a moisture sensor, all the cycles worked on a timer so sometimes it would stop short of a fully dry load, if it were heavy. It did have three temp settings that worked, at a time when most BOL models offered two or sometimes just one temp setting.

The washer was another issue, however. Thank goodness major appliances came with three year warranties in those days. The washer had an infinite water level control, rather than "small" "medium" or "large" loads. The water level sensor in the washer was poorly designed and I had to have it repaired twice under warranty. Otherwise the washer would continue to fill and then overflow.

The factory-authorized repairman said the switch was problematic and he commonly had to make repairs on them. California's lemon law was already in place and quite possibly I could have demanded a replacement machine, but I didn't know my rights in those days.

The sensor broke again a year or two after end of warranty. I paid roughly $150 to have it fixed again. At that point I realized that were it to happen again, 2 x $150 would nearly equal the original $325 price of the washer, at which point it might make more sense to buy a new one. The third replacement sensor held out until 1997, when it broke again. It was possible to wash by remaining near the washer until water level hit desired level and then turning the knob back toward the "small" end of the dial, but you had to repeat this process for the rinse, and the process certainly wasn't "fully automatic".

I replaced them with a MOL GE pair which were ok, but the washer tub seals broke down by 2006 and could not be repaired. The washer went off to Salvation Army. I gave the gas dryer to my neighbor, who had an electric model and wished to change to gas (much cheaper to operate where we live). I bought a new Frigidaire 2140 FL with matching dryer. The Frig pair is working perfectly at my neighbor's, who inherited that set when I bought a new Electrolux pair last November (60 series FL). The Frigidaires have never had a service call.
 
Worst dryer

In all that I've had I'll tell you my favorite, and my one that I hated most.

My first dryer was a 1964 Kenmore 800. Which paired with my 1965 Kenmore 800 washer. It worked well enough, but I found an even more mint dryer.. I "HAD" to have.

2. 1966 Lady Kenmore. That one ended up having fairly weird sensor issues where the metal fingers rode the drum...and.. I got tried of it taking forever to dry..

3. It was replaced by a Maytag 806 set with an electric dryer. It was a halo of heat model, and I hated the rear filter. Otherwise MEH....

4. Shortly later, in the breezeway of the house I had, my partner then and I put in a 1-18 set in white. All I can remember about that set, and the dryer was that I liked it better and it seemed to dry a shade faster than the Maytag. I left them and the Maytag's when we broke up, or maybe The Maytags were already gone at that point... But I took the White-Westinghouse Spacemates when I left... the less I remember of those years, the better....LOL

5. I ended up somewhere in that "time frame" with the aforementioned Westinghouse Stackable set that we kept in the upstairs garage apartment. I loved that set. Like really loved it. In fact that set stayed with me a LONG time till 2005. I never had any issues whatsoever with that dryer. It was an early WCI dryer, but It never gave me a lick of issue, and was pretty reliable...The washer however, was a floor wetter...and eventually it became too much to deal with. Sooo....

6. When I moved to Ann Arbor in the fall of 2005, I traded in the Westhinghouses, and got a reconditioned 2003 Frigidaire (rear-controls)set with that reversa-tumble dryer. That was by far the dryer I hated MOST. I had that apart so many times It's not even funny. Belts, and the rollers, and the FAN...Jesus I hated that MFin thing....

7. In 2011, I got a reconditioned Kitchen Aid All Pushbutton set that had a gas dryer. IT was an AWESOME dryer. In fact looking back I really regret getting rid of it. BUT I cant handle un-matched sets. It's my parrallel line disorder... It was probably the best one out of the bunch.

8. My second to current dryer was a gas Maytag DG408? That was the slowest EVER. I got totally sick of that after a month, and found a matching electric dryer to the washer...

9. Now- an electric Maytag DE406-8?, a side knob early 80's model is just as good as my Kitchen aid was...but not quite... and the electric just whizzes along and no issues. Soo...

Worst- WCI Fridigidaire Revsa-Tumble POS, Second Place-Maytag Gas dryer.

Fair- Maytag Electric, Halo of Heat, Second Place WCI Westhinghouse

Best- KitchenAid Gas Pushbutton Electronic dryer....

Chad
 

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