I complained before about my dryer deciding to quit being a Dryer in favor of a new career: Tumbler of Wet Clothes. Clearly it’s a much more lucrative profession to bandy clothes about without heating them or drying them or helping me out in any way. Stupid dryer.
Since the dryer is 11 years old (making it about 88 in dryer-years), and since I had to replace its mate last year at about this time, I thought I was going to have to replace the dryer. I looked up different dryer makes and models, compared sales, and pretty much decided on a Maytag that everyone says is comparable to the pretty, pretty LGs everyone likes because they come in pretty colors. Yes, I gave in to my dryer’s job action and called in a replacement…or at least I was going to until I mentioned it to my IO and he decided to step in.
The IO did some research. According to the Internets, the problem I was experiencing – intermittent heat that necessitated three or four cycles to dry anything – could be caused by a faulty thermostat. Or a broken heating element. Or a bunch of lint. He checked the air flow from the exhaust (which turns out to be on the roof, not on the side of the house like I told him. Whoops!), and there seemed to be a lot of hot air blowin’ out of the house (heh), so he ruled out air flow. He decided that I should order a thermostat since that was a $20 fix instead of the $60 for the heating element. Sold.
So, on Friday night, he replaced the thermostat and declared it the easiest fix in the history of dryer repairs – if it worked. All he had to do was pry open the top of the dryer and the thermostat was right there on top. Excellent. Or, it would have been if it had worked. Instead, what happened is that the dryer would heat, but only until I interrupted the load and opened the door to make sure it was heating. Then, when I closed the door, the dryer refused to heat up again. I know because I let some test loads cycle all the way through before I checked. Fine – so stop opening the door, right? Easy answer. False: the dryer only sometimes heated. Most of the time the clothes were still really wet. And cold. Stupid dryer.
After spending all.day.Saturday trying to get one single load of clothes to dry, I decided to check underneath the lint trap. My lint screen is held in place by a pretty narrow grid of plastic. That sucker was NOT moving enough to let me wiggle my hand in. Being the good tool-wielding human I am, I used my 18-inch plastic ruler, knitting needles, and my scissors to coax about a gallon of lint out of the teeny tiny space. The only problem? I could feel about a gajillion more pounds of lint cushioning the bottom of the dryer. So yesterday the IO pulled the dryer apart again, and this time he pulled the front of the dryer off, too. Guess what I found?
This:
And this…
(Okay, I’m not really posting the second one. It was enough to make me gag when I looked at the picture again and you guys might be eating breakfast.)
Yep. Two more bags of lint. The good news? I saved $60 on a heating element and $500 on a new dryer. Even better? I have dry clothes! WOOT! That totally makes up for showing the entire Internet my dirty laundry.
Tags: dryer, home repair, washer
March 30, 2010 at 7:30 am |
Oh my! That is pretty scary and not just scary looking. Good think it quit heating rather than set your house on fire. And WOOT, WOOT! Here’s to dry clothes without a new dryer.
March 30, 2010 at 7:52 am |
At least it was your lint.
I used to hate it when I had to use public “laundry room” dryers and the previous people didn’t clean the lint trap… Like I want to pull out a mouse-nest of someone elses bellybutton lint and discarded pubes. Bleah…
March 30, 2010 at 11:18 am |
ewwwww! you know i saw on some crafty show this lady who makes art out of dryer lint. i dont think it was THAT lint…i hope. i think it was the lint from the easier access lint screen, in the dryer.
March 30, 2010 at 12:33 pm |
I am soooo impressed! Way to go, kate!
March 30, 2010 at 2:03 pm |
Wow! This reminded me that a guy I used to work with had a dryer fire because of the lint that gets all around hidden inside the machine. I think I’d better check mine. I think we cleaned it all out about five years ago. Thanks for reminding me!
March 31, 2010 at 8:52 am |
Great job in fixing it. You never know what the real problem is and can spend hundreds of dollars just to get some guy to come over and clean your lint! LOL!
March 31, 2010 at 2:39 pm |
I think I may need to puke after reading @bluzdude’s comment, mostly because it conjured up some long ago repressed memories. *blech*
March 31, 2010 at 9:30 pm |
Any socks in there??? I’m glad you managed to find an answer didn’t require lots of cash!!
April 21, 2010 at 8:50 am |
You are lucky you did not catch your house on fire. Dryers are one of the leading causes of house fires. I had a good friend whose house burnt to the ground. She threw in a load of clothes put it on the maximum drying time because the dryer wasn’t working well and went to work.
I started doing research about dryers at that point. It is amazing what we have not been told about dryers. Not only do they cause a large percentages of fires they also use 10% of our residential energy use.
I now use clothes drying rack for all of my laundry. My house and family is safer and I am saving energy and money.