Dries the clothes that are wet, and does a good job, you bet!

Well my article title was a little poetic, but there is nothing funny about this 9400 Gas Dryer. As I explained in my earlier review of the Whirlpool Washer, we replaced our washer and dryer after 22 years. Finally dumped the two of them and started fresh! "She who must be obeyed", also known as my wife, insisted that she wanted a top loading washer and a front load dryer. So we purchased this Whirlpool combo.

I work part-time in a local electronics/appliance store, so I immediately walked over to the appliance section to ask the experts there what to get. My wife's requirements were nothing complicated and very large capacity. Their first thought was to recommend BOSCH, one of the best in the business, but we could not have a matching set, so we moved to this Whirlpool. It has a large capacity and can fit a very large comforter with no problem at all. For anyone interested, the dryer has a 7 cubic foot capacity, quite large. I guess that's why Whirlpool calls this their Super Capacity Plus Dryer!

The washer and dryer are both in the Bisque color, to match our laundry room floor. Unlike a reviewer had with her combo, both our washer and dryer matched in color. They don't exactly match in style, but it is after all a laundry room and not a showplace!

The dryer, just like our washer, has a basic knob, (you remember them, something you turn, before the invention of push buttons).It makes my wife happy because she can just set the dryer up with the one knob, press POWER and START, and off it goes. What makes this dryer design interesting is that you can modify the existing settings with the use of a few pushbuttons on the control panel. The pushbuttons, or secondary controls allow you to control such functions as TEMPERATURE, DRYNESS LEVEL, DAMP DRY CYCLE SIGNAL, CYCLE SIGNAL AND BUTTON SOUND. In plain English, here's what they mean:

TEMPERATURE-Controls the drying temperature of the dryer. You can set it for HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, EXTRA LOW OR AIR ONLY.

DRYNESS LEVEL-Choose from MORE, NORMAL or LESS, the dryness of the clothes when the dryer finishes its cycle.

DAMP DRY CYCLE SIGNAL-This was a new one on me! The dryer has a sensor in the cavity of the dryer itself. With this sensor it can tell how wet/or dry the clothes are, and informs you on a front panel display. It starts with, WET, goes to DAMP, etc. The idea behind this DAMP DRY CYCLE SIGNAL is that the machine will BEEP when it senses the clothes are just damp, and no longer wet! This is to allow you to remove all or some of the contents to avoid wrinkles, I guess. I'm not the laundry expert, but my wife knew right away what it does! Thank goodness for wives & mothers, they don't get nearly enough credit!

CYCLE SIGNAL-This control simply turns on a BEEP when the dryer is finished. The LED display on the dryer always shows you TIME REMAINING until finished, but if you walk away, the BEEP will tell you it's done. One negative thing about this is the BEEP will sound once. It will not continue in case you forgot about the dryer or were out of earshot. They should have had this BEEP sound for a longer period of time instead of turning off right after it sounds.

BUTTON SOUND-This is a control like the one found on many phones or cell phones. It simply makes a sound when any button on the machine is pressed. It controls how loud the button sound is with LOUD, SOFT and OFF settings. We find that hearing the button sound is a nice confirmation that is has been pushed and the dryer senses it.

The door to this dryer looks like a port-hole on a ship. Round glass recessed into the door frame. Looks okay; but won't win any major style awards! The door pulls open on the left, so be aware of that when you order this dryer. The hinge is on the right side. Make sure this configuration will work for your location. There is a kit available that will allow you to reverse the door, but I don't know how complicated that is.

We have found thus far that the machine is very easy to use, is fairly quiet, and doesn't vibrate even when spinning heavy loads.It dries well and does a good job on the NORMAL level. We haven't used the HEAVY setting as yet.

All in all, I believe it is a good dryer. There are some things to take into consideration prior to ordering it however:

1-The unit is large:
Depth: 31 1/2 in.
Width: 27 in.
Maximum Height: 38 in.

Make sure it will fit.

2-The door swing is from left to right, hinge on the right, so make sure this will work in your configuration.

3-The gas line is pretty low down, so if like us, you have a gas pipe that sticks up any more that about 4", you may have to install an elbow to shorten the pipe height to allow the dryer to be pushed back.

4-Make sure all 4 legs are level, as this will hold back the vibration when spinning.

For anyone who wants a little more information on this machine, here is a description from the Whirlpool site:

Features

AccelerCare™ Drying System
10 Automatic Cycles

Bulky Items Cycle

Damp Dry Cycle

Quick Dry Cycle

Adjustable End-of-Cycle Signal

Wrinkle Shield™ Plus Feature (140 Minutes)

5 Temperature Selections

Quiet Dry Plus Noise Reduction

Easy View Dryer Door Window

Reversible Side-Swing Door

Electronic Controls

Front-Mounted Lint Screen
Interior Drum Light

4-Way Venting

Audio Feedback

Instructional Controls

Optional Storage Pedestals

Optional Laundry Tower

Optional Laundry Worksurface

Flexible Installation with Matching Washer


So there you have it. A good dryer that works. Now if we can only get another 22 years out of it!!!

------------------UPDATE----------------------------------

I was reading the specs that Whirlpool posts on its web site, and it says Reversible Door Style. Now I do not know if that means you just reverse the swing of the door, or you have to purchase the optional kit, but I thought I should point it out!