People With Front Loaders: Talk To Me

Ok forgive the tiny image - I'm not motivated to search for a great one this morning. Here's the deal. Joe and I bought our first ever brand new washer/dryer set on Black Friday this year. It was/is awesome. We are still psyched, except for one detail that continues to plague us.


As usual, we were browsing at or near bottom-of-the-line. We can't afford the super awesome LG steam situation - so we decided to opt for the super basic until we can.
We ended up going with an Amana set that the salesman explained had the "old technology" meaning - it won't vibrate across the room or flip over on it's side like some of the latest models (a problem due to super high spin cycles).
Anyway - before we left the showroom, the salesman told us repeatedly not to use dryer sheets in front load dryers. He said that the repairman was always telling him that dryer sheets coat the inside of the dryer and block both the sensor and the lint filter and cause the machine to burn out quickly.
I wasn't psyched to hear that - because dryer sheets are the only thing that has ever successfully removed Bernie hair from our clothing. But I thought, I'll just figure something else out.
But guess what? I haven't figured something else out - because it turns out nothing else works to get the hair off. Several times now, I have washed something "dirty" e.i. covered in pug hair, only to have it come out just as dirty.
For the uninitiated - pugs shed year round. so the hair thing is no joke.
I have visited message boards where people with top of the line front loaders were discussing this very same thing - some women said that they scrubbed out their lint filter with a toothbrush regularly and that this solved the issue (I guess dryer sheets clog the holes of the filter so that it looks OK but actually can't function). Others said they cleaned both the lint filter AND the sensor - which as far as I know, I can't actually access in my machine. Anyone have any experience with this? It's so annoying.