Kenmore Gas Dryers Are Great!
Written: Feb 28 '04
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Pros: Wonderful features that we will actually use!
Cons: None!
The Bottom Line: This dryer has all the features you'll use at an affordable price.
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| Prepoia's Full Review: Kenmore 72802 Gas Dryer |
The reasons I had for purchasing a new washer and dryer were explained in my Kenmore washer review. I will repeat the reasons here because I purchased them as a pair and at the same time.
After twenty-three years, the old washer and dryer bit the dust. Actually they had been “biting the dust” for all those years. Since both were still marginally working, they were retired to the “take it with you” process rather than “the appliance graveyard in the sky.” I think it remarkable enough to mention that these two appliances worked hard and worked well for the first eighteen years (the washer for the last five years has been ignoring one of the spin cycles and the dryer for the past six months has required packaging tape to hold the door closed) and that those years included the ones when the family was growing up; but, enough nostalgia for old, faithful appliances. As the salespersons all assured me while purchasing new ones, “Don’t expect any appliance sold today to last the way your old ones did.” So, I won’t expect that but I still expect an appliance that will last. I think I’ve found them.
While the washer had one disadvantage, the deep tub that makes it difficult to reach to the bottom for shorter people, the dryer has none. This is a completely happy purchaser writing this review for the Kenmore 72802 gas dryer.
The Dryer
The dryer that I bought is white on white. I panicked when the delivery people were bringing it into the house because there was a blue, filmy color covering the top part where the control panels are located. This can be removed (but it is not easy to do.) Non-the-less, the machine is white.
It is a front-loading dryer. The door is on a hinge that opens downward and is a much bigger opening than my old dryer. That is GOOD! It is easy to throw in the clothes and the door holds some of the load until you push it in on this wide, shelf-like door.
It is a 9-cycle dryer. Once again, I who hate bells and whistles, purchased a model that has many functions that I probably won’t end up using on a continual basis. But, it is nice to have them and I do tend to use more dryer options than washing options. There is a large dial knob that displays the drying options.
There is a Timed Dry mode and you can dry clothes from 10 to 70 minutes by setting the dial on this manual option. I have used this for when I use dry cleaning bags and products because it lets you control the length of time.
There is also an Air Dry mode and you can set this for 10-30 minutes. I have used this as a clothes refresher mode many times to get mild odors or mustiness out of stored linens and clothing.
And the final mode is Auto Moisture Sensing mode. This has three main choices: Less Dry, Normal Dry, and More Dry. The Auto Moisture Sensing is a wonderful feature of this dryer model. It automatically will shut off when the clothes become dry to help prevent wrinkling. It has a built in sensor that monitors the dampness of the drying garments and when the moisture is gone, the dryer shuts off. (This is my understanding of the process and my explanation.) I usually set this mode to normal (which covers most fabrics) but if I have washed a load of delicates, I set it to Less Dry and then if they are a bit damp, I can choose to let them air-dry for the rest of the cycle or take them out and let them hang or laid out dry by themselves.
A second dial setting knob is the Fabric Temperature Dial. This smaller knob lets you set the temperature of the drying air. Not all dryers let you have these options and I think that it is a great feature. Most dryers only use hot air. With this feature, you can choose from three main air temperatures. Delicate which is low heat and is good for drying your delicate fabrics.
Normal/Permanent Press which is medium high heat and dries most of your normal clothing fabrics and is the heat setting I most often use.
Cotton is the third setting and is also labeled Hi because this is the kind of fabric that requires a hotter heat than the rest to get dry.
One thing that I hadn’t considered when I went to Sears to order this pair was the size. My laundry room is upstairs on the third level and is quite small. One wall of it is the laundry sink, the washer, and the dryer. I then began to worry whether this pair would fit. Luckily (even though I did the measurements after and not before, the way they should have been measured, both fit in snugly. The dimensions of the dryer, (according to the specifications) is 28 inches Deep, 43.3 inches High, and 29 inches Wide. Please remember to measure the openings before you purchase to make sure.
The third knob on the dryer is the Start button. To begin a load, push this in. The Start mode gives you options too! You may choose either to have the buzzer go off when a load is complete or you may choose the silent mode. What a great thing! Now, when I put in a load just before bed (I tend to forget to get them out of the washer and into the dryer) there is no buzzer to buzz and wake us up when the load is finished. During the day, I can set it to buzz because often times I don’t hear it when it stops since it is upstairs and I’m on the main house level. The buzzer is loud, by the way.
This dryer is a Super Capacity model. That means that you can fit in all sorts of large items. King-sized bedding fits in with other items and you still have room left over. It is also a Heavy Duty model. I guess (and hope) that means that it will take a lot of clothes and dry them over many years. Another great feature is that it is a Quiet Pak model. This dryer really is quiet when in use. That is extremely helpful for those overnight loads that I dry. Not only doesn’t a buzzer wake us up, but, neither does the noise of the dryer.
The only glitch when purchasing this dryer is that our original dryer was installed 23 years ago. There are all kinds of new restrictions about cut off valves to a gas dryer. The cut off valve must be located next to the dryer and not downstairs or in another room. Therefore, the store sold me a kit for the deliverers to use to set this one up but the deliverers said they don’t do that kind of work. That meant a delay while we had a plumber (yes plumbers or electricians do this job) come out and fix the connections. That also added another hundred dollars to our overall expenditure. Once that ten-minute job was completed, we were set to have the delivery people return and set up our new appliances and take away (another thirty dollars) our old. It was both good and bad. Bad that we had to pay the extra unexpected fees but good to know that our old set lasted so long that upgrades needed to be made.
I definitely recommend this dryer to anyone looking for a new and relatively inexpensive gas dryer. The basic purchase price was $419.00. Gas dryers are inevitably more than the electric ones but tend to use very little power so the savings is in the gas bill. If you want a dryer that has wonderful features, this is the one for you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 419
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Prepoia
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I Love My Family, Teaching, Reading, the Internet, and Travel (and Epinions of Course)!
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