Dryer Lint Screen

Hi All
We have a Splendide WD802M washer/dryer in our bus that we have been using. In the manuals I see nothing that concerns a lint screen in the dryer exhaust. After seeing how many burned out RV's were in the RV salvage yard it got me to thinking how they happened. One possibility, especially in a brick & sticks, is keeping the lint out of the dryer exhaust hose. I see nothing in the bus machine. I even checked the outside vent and pulled out small pieces of lint but see no screen.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks

mudshark said:

Hi All
We have a Splendide WD802M washer/dryer in our bus that we have been using. In the manuals I see nothing that concerns a lint screen in the dryer exhaust. After seeing how many burned out RV's were in the RV salvage yard it got me to thinking how they happened. One possibility, especially in a brick & sticks, is keeping the lint out of the dryer exhaust hose. I see nothing in the bus machine. I even checked the outside vent and pulled out small pieces of lint but see no screen.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks

Click to expand...

IIRC, my owners manual for my w/d specifically states there is no screen. We have a 2007 Bounder 38N. We've read the manual several times to learn how to do different things with the w/d. Ours is a Splendide 2000??? I think.

In a home dryer there is often a LONG distance between teh dryer and the exhaust vent outside the house. Plus it can sit there for 10-20-30-40 or more years. So they screen to trap the lint before you get a big pile of it outside.

On an RV that tube is perhaps 4" long. and you move so it never piles up outiside either.

Our Splendide does not have a dryer lint screen.  Our friend had an older model that they accessed from the lower front.

ArdraF

After 10 years of slow drying, we discovered a screen behind the top of the machine. It was accessible by lifting the shelf above it. Greatly improved drying time. This was on a 2000 Dutchstar.

My Splentide vented model has a screen at the lower right hand front corner.>>>Dan

The screen behind the door in the lower right corner actually removes lint from the water.  My DW cleans it every 3 or 4 loads.  No actual lint screen in the dryer exhaust, but other than the lint that builds up in the louvers of the exhaust port, there isn't much in the tube.  As John said, it's only a few inches long.

Old_Crow said:

The screen behind the door in the lower right corner actually removes lint from the water.  My DW cleans it every 3 or 4 loads.  No actual lint screen in the dryer exhaust, but other than the lint that builds up in the louvers of the exhaust port, there isn't much in the tube.  As John said, it's only a few inches long.

Click to expand...

We have a Splendide model 2100XC and the manual says "Your Splendide removes lint automatically with the help of it's self cleaning pump, so there's no lint filter to clean".

Now there is a pump pre-chamber located behind the cover panel on the lower front of the washer. The pre-chamber  collects coins and buttons before they reach the pump. There is no regular maintenance required.

I bought my coach from a single Pryor owner that had not used to washer/dryer, after about a month of ownership I checked the washer over and discovered it had never been plugged in behind the unit. So with after plugging it in I decided to test run the darn thing..Never thinking to look into the barrel, I started pushing buttons and it filled with water and started to revolve,,everything looked normal until it began to BLEED SOAPY WATER EVERYWHERE!!. Out the filter, underneath, out the vent and down the outside of the coach!!,,,,, After getting it shut down and opened, I discovered a box of laundry soap and a box of bleach had been placed in the barrel by the manufacturer when new.  WHAT A MESS!!>>>Dan

Rene T said:

We have a Splendide model 2100XC and the manual says "Your Splendide removes lint automatically with the help of it's self cleaning pump, so there's no lint filter to clean".

Now there is a pump pre-chamber located behind the cover panel on the lower front of the washer. The pre-chamber  collects coins and buttons before they reach the pump. There is no regular maintenance required.

Click to expand...

Rene, we both have the older WD802M models.  Coins in mine tend to collect on the rubber gasket behind the door, although lighter stuff makes it to that screen.

Reminds me of when we ran our Splendide in a campground in Utah. If not used for a while the w/d tends to stink. I had tested it before we left on  the trip with no problems. Well, this time we were running it to flush it out. All was fine until water started running out the outside of the bus making a mess. Some water was inside on the floor but the slight tilt on the bus put most of the water running outside. Come to find out, the water filter screen had loosened from vibration and leaked. Tightened it up, no problems since.

>After 10 years of slow drying, we discovered a screen behind the top of the machine. It was accessible by lifting the shelf above it. Greatly improved drying time. This was on a 2000 Dutchstar.<

I should have mentioned, we ordered an outside vented model.

Come on, people.  mudshark specified a Splendide WD802M. 

I had a lint filter on my WD802M, and Dick Zeiter found the lint filter on his.  It's accessed via the back left corner of the top of the machine.  I had a shelf above my machine, but the RV manufacturer cut a hole in the shelf to get to the lint filter.  I could look through that hole and see the handle for the lint filter, which I would pull up on to remove the lint filter.  It caught a LOT of lint.

My manual didn't mention anything about it, and didn't picture it in any of the diagrams.  But it was there.

mudshark, if you looked in from the outside, you should have seen it because it's at the back of the machine, blocking the exhaust tube.  But maybe you didn't look far enough.

Are you the original owner?  At some point, Splendide's official line was to just remove the screen material from the plastic housing, re-insert the plastic housing, and let the lint fly.  A previous owner might have done that. 

The WD802M also has the lint filter that people are talking about that is in the lower right corner of the front of the machine.  That one has "wet" lint (water discharges through it).  The one on top is a regular dryer lint filter.

And a note to those who like their WD802M machines--baby it, and keep it going as long as you can.  Mine finally died after 15 years and several repairs, and I replaced it with a used 2000S.  I knew it wasn't going to be a "just twist the knob" machine like my WD802M, but hoped that getting an older one might mean it's not as "computerized" as the newer ones. 

I hate the new machine with a passion.  Starting with the idiotic "feature" that your clothes have to sit in the drum, wrinkling, for two minutes at the end of the dry cycle (not the wash cycle--the DRY cycle).  That can be overrridden with some mechanical tinkering, but that means the door can be opened at any time, including when the machine is full of water.  And during the dry cycle, the drum keeps spinning when you open the door.

And the dryer timer doesn't count down, so you can't glance up and see that your clothes have been drying for 30 minutes--all you see is the original amount of time you set.  And the dry cycle has to be "associated" with a given wash program--they're not separate.

And worst of all--in a machine that has constant complaints about wrinkling clothes, not only do they lock the dryer door after the dry cycle, they have a high-speed spin cycle in the middle of the "regular" dry cycle.  Yes, the dry cycle.  So the clothes that you fluffed up before starting to dry them, because you know about wrinkles, will become pasted to the sides of the machine during a high-speed spin.  And you can't just jump up when you hear it happening and advance the knob past that stupid spinning part because you can't manually advance the knob.

So your choice if you want to dry clothes is to pick the highest heat version, but it includes that spin, or go with a lower heat version that will take longer.  Some choice.

Thanks Trivet
I don't see anything on top of my w/d. Is it behind the white top cover? There is a linen cabinet over my machine. I can take the bar off that holds it in place and possibly pull the w/d out. How much hose is back there? Can I pull it forward enough to get at the filter without pulling the dryr hose off the vent?

This is from my Splendide Repair Manual (early 2000's):

"NOTE: The Optional Dryer Lint Filter should ONLY be used in installations with very long duct runs.  When this filter is installed, the end-user MUST have easy access to the rear of the machine to clean the filter regularly."

Mine has a very short run but the filter is installed.

mudshark said:

I don't see anything on top of my w/d. Is it behind the white top cover? There is a linen cabinet over my machine. I can take the bar off that holds it in place and possibly pull the w/d out. How much hose is back there? Can I pull it forward enough to get at the filter without pulling the dryr hose off the vent?

Click to expand...

The lint filter on mine was on the back of the machine where the hose connects to the machine.  There was a round plastic housing that was open on top where the hose connected, and that's where the lint filter was dropped in to, and the housing and handle on the filter closed off the top opening of the round plastic housing.

Like ELeland, I had a very short duct run but had the lint filter.  But it was accessible.  Not easily accessible, but it could be done, through the hole the RV manufacturer cut in the shelf that was over the washer/dryer.

In fact, it's through that hole that I can reconnect the duct when I take the machine out.  I'm not sure how you can reconnect the duct if you can't get to it from the top like I can, since the machine completely blocks the opening.  So pulling it out just to see if there's a vent might be asking for a lot of trouble.

I think you should try looking in from the outside again.  Use a strong flashlight to see if you see a screen or a huge mass of lint.  And maybe put your arm in the vent and see if you can put your hand into the duct past the machine, like into the machine.  On my machine, I wouldn't have been able to do that because the lint filter would have been in the way.

But that would probably require removing the outside vent.  You might try using a lint cleaning brush or something similar, and see how far you can insert it. 

Thanks Trivet
I will try going in from the outside.

mudshark said:

Thanks Trivet
I will try going in from the outside.

Click to expand...

I know it's been a while, but I've had my washer out a couple of times.  Once to fix the fusible link on the dryer and once looking for a stinky dead mouse.  No lint screen in the dryer outlet.
Mine had plenty of length on the water hoses and electric cord.  The dryer vent I pulled from the outside and was able to get the hose off the vent cover.  The drain line I was able to access through the inspection cover in the water closet. 
At one point, I actually put the drain line into the bathroom sink and was able to run a load with the washer sitting in the middle of the floor while troubleshooting a leak.

I haven't done anything yet.
I don't think there is a lint screen in mine. Other problems have grabbed my attention lately.
But I will revisit this soon.

OK, it has been a while but the dryer screen had taken backseat to another, more pressing problem.
In the last couple of times we have used it, water is seeping out from under the unit and making its way across the floor. It is not a big leak but I can see a slow but steady drip. I thought, at first, that it was coming from the water filter screen at the bottom of the front behind the little door. This was not the case. It is somewhere behind and above the hoses feeding the filter. Any ideas?