PSA, clean your clothes dryer.

[NightShade]

Ok, so I sold my old dryer not too long ago because I was able to upgrade to something a little newer that had one part bad on it that cost me five bucks to replace. And I want to say thank you to whomever it may have been that failed to do a tiny bit of maintenance to allow me such a nice upgrade even if they are not a member here. And I want to remind everyone else here that they can save themselves a lot of money by doing this one little thing every so often.

So the dryer was set out to be thrown away and being an industrious person I decided to toss it in the back of my truck figuring at the very least I could use some parts and sell the rest for scrap. After doing a little digging I figured what was probably wrong and grabbed my multi meter. Here was the culprit I first found:



Yep they didn't clean it out so all that lint, a business card and some change was in the discharge section of the dryer preventing it from doing it's job. The filter wouldn't even sit in place all the way it was so packed full.



So a quick test and I found out that the thermal fuse was blown, it's literally a five dollar part and when it's blown a dryer quits (especially and electric one.) To test my theory I pulled a working one I had and dropped it in place. The dryer fired right up and worked like a charm so I ordered the correct one and after replacing it I was able to upgrade from a 2 cu ft frigidaire to a 2.5 cu ft maytag.



So learn from some other derp's mistake and clean your dryer out people. Plus you may even prevent a fire and save your home.

 

[TerryMiller]

My wife does that on a fairly regular basis, largely because of some buildup, but also for the fire hazard reason. We also found out recently that she can use an air hose to blow lint out through the outside duct port.

The fire hazard issue is great because we live in a 38 1/2-foot fifth wheel, which if fire happens will burn up fairly quickly.

 

[dennishoddy]

My son in the Dallas area is about ready to quit his full time job. He started getting on craigslist and facebook in that area with people wanting to give them away as they don't work, fixing them like you did for resale, and is bringing in just about as much money as his day job. Dryers are simple to troubleshoot and repair.

 

[p238shooter]

Great information, and I would like to add the problem may not only in the dryer exhaust internally/ If you have some type of exhaust vent pipe if your dryer is not vented at an outside wall. Mine vents down into the crawl space and through a 10' piece of about 4 inch plastic pipe to exhaust to the outside. I have to pull that piece of pipe out and clean it about once a year. I have seen dryers that vent upwards, and they can be even worse.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mos Eisley]

Food for thought when buying a used washer or dryer: When I left Austin I listed mine on Craigslist. A porn movie studio bought them. I guess you could make an argument who got the worse deal, them or whoever purchases after them. I'm going with the next guy.

 

[NightShade]

LOL, yeah. You never know what has happened before or what will happen after.

My old one went to a woman in OKC. I brought it over, put the cord on and set it in place for her. She had bad knees and was basically hobbling around straight legged. The old dryer was not hooked up to vent properly and at some point her washer leaked and the dryer side was rotted out and leaning. In a way I felt bad for my old dryer as I knew it was going to it's last home and would die there. But before it went I made sure to clean it out and check everything that needed checked.

 

[elwoodtrix]

Use a leaf blower to blow out your vent screen entrance.