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Old 08-20-19, 05:20 PM   #1
Geo NR Gee
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Default Bought a used Heat Pump Dryer for cheap and here's why.

This model is a Whirlpool Model number WED7990FW and is labeled a Hybrid series. It retailed new for about $1500.
https://www.whirlpool.com/laundry/dr...wed7990fw.html

The craigslist ad said that the family is moving and it won't fit where they are going. The rest of the story wasn't until I got there. It goes something like this... My wife says it takes too long for the clothes to dry. She just doesn't like how long it takes to dry.

He added that the unit was very expensive and he would transfer the warranty over to me. It's an extended warranty from Lowe's until 2022. He was selling if for $250 which he reduced a few times from the original ad. He even threw in a mini refrigerator. Not sure what I got myself into.....

After I got it home and help with unloading it, I took a flashlight out for a better look. You will see why it didn't work very well.











Most of the dryer unit was taken apart, vacuumed, air blasted, washed and reassembled. It was just put to the test about 2 hours ago. It is a bit louder than a regular dryer, but not by much. The unit is not vented and I noticed the laundry room was a bit warmer. I like that it is not vented because it's just another way to remove conditioned air from the house!

I am not sure if the problem with the lint is from a bad design, poor maintenance, or poor assembly practices at the factory. I found one foam seal not in the factory position and a metal heat shield out of alignment.

I suspect these units are going to be popping up more often on Craigslist now that I have had a chance to see how long it takes to get one apart, cleaned and reassembled. The techs are probably going to say it's broke or not worth fixing.

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Old 08-20-19, 08:42 PM   #2
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Doesn't look like much more lint than the regular electric clothes dryer collects in 5-8 years usage. Unfortunately, by design, the heat pump system requires cooling fins that become clogged when the lint builds up, forming the issue you saw. I've actually taken apart dehumidifiers that looked similarly clogged inside.

Some routine maintenance should keep you in business with that system for quite some time to come...
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Old 08-21-19, 10:08 PM   #3
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Sweet deal!

How long does it take to dry a load?
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Old 09-07-19, 11:08 AM   #4
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I noticed 2 things, Home Depot sells that dryer for$697.00, and it is discontinued.
I have the Miele set and the drier uses a 15a 120v circuit. The secret to having low heat driers goes back to the fifties. The washer need to have a high spin speed so the drier has less work to do. The Miele washer has a 1400 rpm drum speed. My old set was is 25 years old and it wasn’t heat pump, the washer had a max 1200 rpm the dryer was 240v 15a still far less than others at the time.
My daughter is still using the old set and loves them. Never been worked on.
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Old 09-14-19, 10:54 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aircommuter View Post
I noticed 2 things, Home Depot sells that dryer for$697.00, and it is discontinued.
I have the Miele set and the drier uses a 15a 120v circuit. The secret to having low heat driers goes back to the fifties. The washer need to have a high spin speed so the drier has less work to do. The Miele washer has a 1400 rpm drum speed. My old set was is 25 years old and it wasn’t heat pump, the washer had a max 1200 rpm the dryer was 240v 15a still far less than others at the time.
My daughter is still using the old set and loves them. Never been worked on.
That 697 was most likely the final clearance price to get rid of the purple and pink units. I see the new model on the floor once in a while, priced about double that.
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Old 09-08-19, 10:03 PM   #6
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I've always wanted one of these. exhausting 400cfm of air I paid to heat twice in the winter for an hour seems a bit wasteful.
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Old 09-08-19, 10:27 PM   #7
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Default Heat pump drier

That is so true, like heating your house with a window open.

The whole story for me on driers and washers goes back to when I got married, my sister who was 10 years older, gave me her set which were Frigidaire, GM at the time. They were 1957 models and the drier was ventless. It had a big drawer underneath that was full of tubes that condensed the moisture which dripped into an evaporation pan. The washer was called jet action, it was a top loader and the washing action was vertical and it really cleaned. Then for spin it ran the drum at full motor speed which was 1140 rpm. The drum only had holes at the very top. Sometimes the clothes would be too out of balance for the high speed and you would have to open it and rearrange the clothes and try it again. They were very heavy and well built but after a while I couldn’t get parts anymore.
Now with inverter technology heat pumps are efficient and we enter a new era.
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Old 09-08-19, 11:26 PM   #8
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I had the next generation of Whirlpool duet hybridcare dryer from the OP. They really are worth it. Drying time depends on the load and mode. As well as the normal dryer settings, the one I had had an eco setting right smack dab on the middle of the face . Settings were something like fast, somewhat eco, and super eco. With a huge load of towels and on super dry super eco, the unit took like 150 minutes to dry out the load.

I will look up the model number and such when I get home. WED99HEDW0.

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Old 09-11-19, 04:25 AM   #9
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We have only ran a few loads that are mostly towels because there is still nice sunny weather and we can hang dry our clothes for now. It shows like 88 minutes when you start it up, but never has it went that long. There are a couple of sensors to determine when the clothes are dry and so far the clothes come out dry.

We plan on cleaning both filters each time before we dry a load to make sure that it doesn't plug up like with the previous owner.

We have a central vacuum in the garage and near the laundry room and will install a Vroom wall unit to take care of the lint a little easier. My appliance repairman neighbor had one installed after his wife plugged up his regular dryer.

https://www.vroomyourroom.com/WBA/Co.../laundry-rooms

My appliance repairman neighbor has only ever serviced a couple of these heat pump dryers and said that the problem with both were from the lack of cleaning the secondary filter. He said the company upgraded or updated the secondary filter to capture more of the lint.
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Old 09-12-19, 04:31 AM   #10
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I bought the unit on FB marketplace from the original owner, who considered it broken, for under 100 bucks. It had been used daily for a family of five and never been opened. It had close to the same lint buildup in the heat exchanger surfaces as the previous pics. The refrigerant loop resembled a window air conditioner or dehumidifier: high side larger than the low side, capillary tube metered. I would guess that the system was around 3/4 ton, judging from the compressor size. It had a rotary compressor in it and used r134a. Also had a small resistance heating element in it.

The air path resembled the classic Whirlpool dryers with the lint filter in the top, with the hot air port up high on the back wall. The resistive heater had its own limit thermostat and the heat pump had a few temperature sensors next to it. The air went from under the front door, through the lint filter and into the main blower. It then went through the heat pump section to the rear of the drum. Then it went up through the resistive heater and back into the drum. The gimmick here is that the heat from the drum wasn't directly exhausted into the room with the moisture; the unit has a secondary condenser that isn't in the drum airflow path. When the unit decided it was time, an auxillary exhaust fan sucked ambient air through the second condenser to both cool the compressor and condenser. This little guy didn't run all of the time. I imagine it ran on low speed while the heat pump was active, which subcooled the refrigerant on its way to the cap tube. On cool down, it ran at high speed.

I had downloaded the service manual from the interwebs to verify operation and to get into the secret service modes. It really had nothing wrong with it besides the lint buildup, so I didn't really do much to it besides clean everything. The unit had an extra lint filter for the evaporator which only needed cleaning once a week or every five or so cycles, and a filter on the auxiliary fan that needed to be vacuumed off every few months. I believe the service manual said the heat pump cleaning schedule was every two or three years for optimum performance.

Anyway I kept the dryer over the winter and ran a whole lot of loads through it. Surprisingly, it wouldn't keep the garage warm! The other electric dryers I had out there got to carry that load on the cold days. I sold it for around 300 bucks.
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