“The Maytag MEDB755DW is an affordable electric dryer with some fantastic premium features, like Rapid Dry.”
- Steam refresh works well
- Static setting keeps items from clinging together
- Can dry a few items at a time fairly quickly
- Sensing technology occasionally left certain items with damp spots
Maytag has a reputation for building durable, reliable appliances, with fairly utilitarian designs. In that regard, its dryer with Rapid Dry cycle doesn’t disappoint. Its rapid dry feature is a life-saver when you need that one pair of jeans to be dried fast, so you can wear them immediately. As you’ll se in our Maytag MEDB755DW dryer review, it has options, such as steam refresh, that mean its non-nonsense appearance belies a sophisticated appliance.
Utilitarian Style
This white Maytag dryer is a departure from models that come in different colors and with more settings than you need. It looks exactly like what it is: a basic dryer. While it won’t spruce up a laundry room, it won’t make it feel shabby either. Its fairly straightforward design — lint screen holder on top of the machine and a big square white door – has a hint of style thanks to the control panel. The dryer features a brushed metal backing (that remains fairly smudge free), a large silver settings nob, digital timer, and a touchpad for making adjustments. The far right column of the panel has cycle status lights (sensing, steam, done, and check lint screen) that illuminate to let you know where the appliance is in the drying cycle.
Measuring 41 by 28.15 by 29 inches (height, depth, width) it fits nicely alongside Maytag top loader machines. The door opens left to right, in case you’re pairing this model with a front-load washer. However, there is an option to reverse the door swing, depending on your laundry room setup. The dryer features a 7.0-cubic-feet bin, so you’ll have no trouble fitting in heavy bedding items. Since this model features Maytag commercial technology it uses commercial-grade components, so it’s built to last.
Settings Next to Settings
This dryer only has nine cycles, but they are the ones you likely use most often. Cycles include bedding, delicates, heavy duty, rapid dry, sanitize, steam refresh, timed dry, and wrinkle control. Once you select a cycle, you can customize it quite a bit by pressing the touchpad to adjust the temperature or add static reduce or wrinkle prevent with steam.
This dryer has nine cycles, but there are lots of ways to customize.
The temperature settings are a bit odd, with five options ranging from air only to high, because there’s both an extra low and a low setting. It’s not a huge deal, but the Whirlpool Cabrio has same five-setting temperature gage simply labeled with “no heat” at one end and “high” on the other, without “low” added confusingly in the middle. If the extra-low setting was labeled instead of the low one, it would have made the range more intuitive.
One nice feature is that the dryer doesn’t let you make choices that might damage your clothes. You can’t put the cycle on delicates and then crank the temperature up to high, for example.
Start the machine by pressing the power button. When the machine turns on, a sound emits that is similar to something you’d hear in a sci-fi film. Select a cycle and your settings. You can also add or detract time from any cycle. We should note that the time that appears in the digital display is an estimate and is not exactly accurate. That’s because the dryer uses moisture sensors to tell when clothes are still wet; it will keep drying if they are or shut off if they’re not – regardless of how long the cycle is supposed to run.
If you’re not a fan of static and don’t like to adding dryer sheets to your load, select static reduce. This adds about eight minutes to a cycle, but it definitely works. Socks didn’t stick to other clothing items when we took them out of the dryer. (A perk if you don’t use fabric softener or dryer sheets .)
If you won’t be able to remove the load when it’s done, select wrinkle prevent with steam to periodically tumble your load for up to 150 minutes after the cycle is complete. The steam part of that setting kicks in after 60 minutes and runs a short steam cycle. Note: This is no replacement for an iron or dry cleaning; it just helps your clothes maintain that light wrinkle feel they get when they first come out of the dryer. There’s also a steam refresh setting that can help get out some odors. The sanitization setting kills bacteria but can be hard on fabrics, due to its high temperatures, so it’s best used for sheets and towels. Both steam and sanitize options are often found on pricier models you might see in a color-coordinated laundry room or a walk-in closet, so it’s great to see them on an dryer we’ve seen selling for as low as $600.
Warm and Cozy
When you’re ready to start a load press and hold the Start button (it’s got an icon of the play button) and the cycle starts. You can always add another item to the load by pressing and holding the same button (it’s also got the pause icon). Once the cycle stops, open the door and add that extra item.
The temperature gauge isn’t as straightforward as it could be.
We ran a variety of loads over a couple of months and were happy with the results overall. The sensing mechanism in the dryer did a great job at not overheating clothes, which means items didn’t shrink and our fabrics were still in good shape. We should note that some heavier items such as bulky jackets and sweatpants still had some damp spots after a normal load. We ran that particular load on Normal, medium temperature, normal dry level, and static release. That said, we were definitely impressed with the rapid dry setting. This option is meant for just a few items or one or two bulky items. We put damp jeans, a top, and the not completely dry jacket in the bin with the Rapid Dry setting and all were completely dry after 15 minutes.
Warranty information
This model comes with a 10-year limited warranty. Parts and labor are covered for the first year. The second through the tenth year of the warranty covers the drum motor and stainless steel or powder coated paint drum. Labor is not included.
Our Take
We love it when high-end features come to more budget-friendly models, and that’s what we like about the Maytag MEDB755DW. We occasionally had some issues with damp spots, but the tradeoff is that it doesn’t overheat and damage fabric.
What are the alternatives?
The aforementioned Whirlpool Cabrio is a very similar model for about the same price. If you’re looking for slightly more capacity and another color option, the GE GFD45ESSKWW also has steam and sanitize, though it’s $200 more. The MEDB755DW holds less clothes than one of our picks for best dryers , the Maytag MEDB855DW, but that’s also a pricier model.
How long will it last?
Dryers from Maytag are tested to last 10 years and with the commercial-grade parts found in the MEDB755DW and proper treatment it could last longer.
Should you buy it?
Despite a couple of quibbles, this is a good dryer that performs well and has some nice features for the price. If you’ve been looking for steam and sanitize features and find the dryer on sale for about $600, you should snap it up.
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