Meet my new friend- Whirlpool WED8300SW Electric Dryer

I had really wanted an HE washer and dryer for quite some time, and I finally decided to get it. After much review reading and price researching, we ended up with the Whirlpool Duet Sport Electric Dryer (Model # WED8300SW) along with the washer and pedestals for $1,400.

I have really been enjoying this dyer a lot- having a busy, active family, and having king sized bedding, large coats, and coveralls that my old washer and dryer could not handle really prompted this purchase.


Specifications:

With the pedestal, the dryer measures about 50 inches tall, 27 inches wide, and 25 inches deep. We were able to fit it in our laundry room side by side just fine, but you can also install these under a cabinet, or stack them. It weighs 127 lbs.

The color of this is white with grey accents, but I believe this set is available in black as well. It is a front loading dryer, whose door opens and swings to the right, and the interior capacity is 6.7 cubic feet, and it has a one year limited warranty.

Can you use dryer sheets with this dryer? Yes, but the manual suggest you use no more than 2 at a time. Also for upkeep, the directions say to clean the lint filter before each load. Also, you should wash the lint screen with soap, water, and a nylon brush every 6 months to clean fabric softener and dyer sheet build up.

Setup:

I must say here that the instruction booklet that comes with this machine is very details, has plenty of diagrams, and is easy to understand. We had ours professionally installed, but I think you could do it on your own as well.

Anyway, as for the ventilation on this, you will need to use a rigid metal vent is recommended. The directions will show you how to connect it and which way it should be pointing for different types of setups. Do note when installing, you will need to ground the dryer, so it will be permanently wired. We have a 3 wire receptacle ourselves, but you can also do a 4 wire as well.

Dryer Use:

The whole panel of the dryer is electric, and you’ll see green glowing LCD lights everywhere. It is located on the very front of the machine above where it is loaded. It does have a main switch where you can choose the cycles, and then there will be push buttons for the other functions.

On the far left, you’ll see a little display with the words sensing, wet, damp, cool down, cycle complete, and wrinkle shield. There will be a little green LCD dot that lights up beside the words to let you know at what point the cycle is.

This dryer is special in that it has the capability for you to just stick laundry in there, and turn on the dyer and it does the rest. It will sense how dry or wet the items are, and adjust the timer based on that.

On the right of the panel on the other side of the knob where you can select the cycles, you’ll see several other buttons you can adjust- there is a timing button, where you can adjust the amount of time something is dried, and since the actual timer is in LCD form, the timer adjust buttons are just plus and minus.

There is a temperature adjust button, where you can select from high, medium, low, extra low, and air only.

There is a dryness selection button where you can choose normal, more dry, and less dry. To be honest, I just use the normal function and stuff comes out just as dry as it needs to be.

You can also select to turn the buzzer at the end of the drying cycle on or off. That button is right by the dryness button.

Then, the start and cancel buttons are on the far right as well.



Cycles:

Now then, based on the normal dryness selection, the dryer has these cycles to choose from (Auto Cycles):

Normal- which is 35 minutes on medium heat
Heavy Duty- 40 minutes on high heat
Casual- 35 minutes on low
Delicate- 30 minutes on low
Super Delicate- 25 minutes on extra low
Damp Dry- 20 minutes on low

Now, to change the heat temperature, you can’t just push the temperature button, you’ll need to push the dryness selection button and it will adjust the heat accordingly.

But, with these following cycles, you can choose the heat and time to your own specifications:

Touch Up
Quick Dry
Timed Dry

If you use the Auto Selection Cycle on it though, and you have it set on normal dryness, Touch Up runs 20 minutes on medium, Quick Dry goes 27 minutes on medium and with timed dry, you can just set it any way you want it.



Well, do Auto Cycles work?:

I must say I was pretty skeptical myself when I first got this, I mean, how could the dryer know how wet or dry my laundry was? But, this dryer has made me a believer. I find it does adjust the timer to the load. For example, I had to wash a really fuzzy scarf, mittens, and hat set all by itself and I knew it had to be dried alone or else it would have shed fuzz all over everything else. So, I put it in the dryer alone and just put it on casual and hit start- and the timer first said 35 minutes. But, after drying it 5 minutes, the timer then said 12 minutes, and after those 12 minutes, it was dry. The instruction manual says that if a wet item is not detected within 5 minutes, then the dryer will switch to damp mode.

Also, I found that the dyer will add on minutes as well in the Auto Cycles. I had a quilted comforter that I put in there and put on Casual, and after 5 minutes it added 5 minutes to its cycle. I have found when using the Auto Cycles, it really does get things dried and I don’t find myself going back and forth checking on something because it’s slightly damp. I haven’t had a problem with the Auto Cycles being wrong at all, all my laundry has come out just right.

Wrinkle Shield:

I forgot to mention the Wrinkle Shield function available on this dryer. There’s a little button with a shirt icon on it that is on the right of the panel, and when you select it, it will provide 90 minutes of heat free, periodic tumbling at the end of the cycle, so in case you can’t get to your load right away, this will prevent it from becoming wrinkled in the dryer.

What about drying time?:

Well, I find that this dryer can dry my stuff in about half the time- really. My old dryer- well, you had to about cook everything in it. Towels especially took the longest time- 70+ minutes on high, so if this dryer could cut down on just towels, I’d be happy. It does- a full load of towels only takes 40 minutes on high with this dryer- and they are completely dry!

Another problem I had with my old dryer was king sized sheets. No matter how long I dried them, they always had this one huge wet spot in the middle, and I would just eventually give up and fold up the sheet with the wet spot facing outward so it could air dry. But with this dryer, it can get all areas of the king sized sheet dry, and they don’t come out in a huge wrinkled wad or all twisted up either.

As for jeans, I find you can dry a whole weeks worth (about 10-12 pair) in 35 minutes as well. Socks can get dried in that amount of time as well.

I find I mostly use the medium setting, the only thing I like to dry on the high setting are towels, and coveralls, which can get dry in 40 minutes on high as well.

Overall:

Well, here we are about 3 weeks into the purchase of this, and I must say I am completely pleased with this dryer. I absolutely have no complaints about this at all. It dries clothes in less time than my old dryer, gets clothes completely dry, and I love the Auto Cycles, you can just stick clothes in and turn it on and the dryer does the rest. No problems whatsoever with this dryer, and I would whole heartedly recommend it.