My husband and I just ordered a set of state-of-the-art front-loading washer and dryer. They are very cool, highly technical, smart, and very expensive. We were disappointed, however, to find that the lint trap on the dryer utilizes basically the same design as those we've all seen in plenty of older models: a fine, mesh, removable piece near the front of the opened dryer door, which pulls up and out of its slot. As we all know, plenty of lint remains in the slot after pulling the piece out for cleaning, and human fingers do not easily fit into the slot for retrieving any leftover lint. Sure, vacuums and tools may help, but it's a pain.
After all the advancements in laundry technology, this is the best they could come up with? Please.
Don and I very easily imagined a very simple, yet much more effective design. The panel between the mesh piece (when in place in the dryer slot) and the inside of the dryer just needs to be hinged with the capability to swing it open into the dryer cavity, for easy access into the slot. The mesh piece can still be removed and replaced for cleaning over a trash bin, but it need not slide out of a narrow opening.
That's it.-- XSarenkaX, May 27 2004 Top Loading Lint Trap http://www.repaircl....asp?RccPartID=2712Dryer door opens at front, but lint trap pulls out from top of dryer [csea, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] I have a high end Maytag dryer with the lint trap as you describe. I haven't been aware of the lint left behind and I've had my dryer ripped to bits once. Now I'm going to have to check more closely to see what you're referring to.-- Gromit, May 27 2004 Should have checked the lint trap before purchase - caveat emptor, as they say.-- DrCurry, May 27 2004 I don't have a dryer. [+]-- yabba do yabba dabba, May 27 2004 [Gromit]: We all have that lint trap - lol. Anyway, because the mesh part is usually vertically pulled out of a skinny slot, the lint layer that forms on it can sometimes get caught on the way out, especially if it's thicker in some areas, and may get left behind in the slot. Take a look in there and see if you have any lint trapped in there.
[DrCurry]: We DID check it before purchase. There don't seem to be alternatives to the design.-- XSarenkaX, May 27 2004 They have controlled burn off for the soot particles in Diesel exhaust filters. They also have self cleaning ovens that just get very hot to burn off an food residue. I wonder if the principle could be applied to dryers too. Make them real hot and burn off the lint.
<imagining>Gas dryer, blows nice air/gas mix into drum - ignites - boom - no more lint - neighborhood knows that you keep your dryer clean</i>-- kbecker, May 27 2004 Definitely.
Did you know that lint burns REALLY well?
It is very useful for starting campfires. It burns for a fairly long time.
I'm a bit of a pyromaniac.-- DesertFox, May 27 2004 [DF] It burnes even better if you dust it with finely ground nitrate, just not as long.-- kbecker, May 27 2004 Baked. My GE dryer has a filter that pulls out from the top. I think this is a better design than the "inside the door" type. See [link]-- csea, May 27 2004 Yep, there's some lint down in there, but it doesn't look like it's falling out of the trap. It's hanging on obstacles before it gets there. It looks like with a bit of whittling, polishing and void filling I could eliminate the places that it's catching on.
The long GE trap that pulls out of the top doesn't give any more access to clean out the surrounding area. In fact, the long curved chamber into which it slides is even more restrictive in terms of accesibility. I've had one of those also. They are great in that they have a huge surface area.-- Gromit, May 27 2004 The top-mount type are slightly concave downward (airflow is top to bottom, lint collects on the top surface), so as the trap is removed, at least gravity is not working to empty it out prematurely. If you clean it after every couple of loads, lint is not likely become lost in the innards.-- csea, May 27 2004 Sorry, [csea], but you fail to understand that the lint trap design you mention, the one that slides up out the top of the unit, does not at all solve the problem at hand. I, too, have owned such a design, but it's just as bad if not worse than the ones in the door.
This idea is baked if, and only if, you can prove that there is a lint trap that is accessible not by sliding motion, but rather by hinged, swing-open or removal motion, like a door. Just because it is a different design does not mean it is baked.-- XSarenkaX, May 28 2004 random, halfbakery