Dryer Repair Round Three

We use our dryer a lot so the fact that we are on to our third major repair is not exactly surprising. Laundry happens on Wednesday and Sunday and although I don't usually do the full set myself I think there is typically at least three loads each time. We dry a few things on the line in the summer and most shirts get hung to dry. On top of that there is the usual bedding and special events like me getting muddy in the garden or the shop. 

The first repair happened during Covid and involved the replacement of one of the drum rollers. At the time it happened out of necessity. There weren't any options for repair people to come and so it made sense to see what I could do. Since I knew it was something physical I figured I'd at least be able to confirm what it was. In the end there was a single roller damaged and although I wanted to replace them all while I was in there, I could only source a single roller due to supply chain issues. Everything went back together fine.

The second major repair was the heater. A dryer that doesn't heat up isn't very useful. When it broke this time I figured I didn't have the tools to diagnose so we had someone come in. The irritating thing about getting an appliance fixed that isn't under warranty is that there is usually two visits and you pay for each. One to diagnose and one to come back with the part. Gone are the days when repair people only had to repair a few models and had a stash of parts in their truck. 

This time the issue was the rollers again. With no supply chain issues and an Amazon account, I quickly discovered that there were many options for parts online and it was easy to look up the one for our model. It arrived the next day. I decided this was a good father-son project and had Carter help me take the machine apart and put it back together. Everything came apart with a Phillips screwdriver with the exception of the rollers themselves that required a wrench.

Once we had the machine apart, it was very easy to see that the problem was what I expected and we had everything back together in one day. This time I replaced all the parts that involve spinning including the rollers, tensioner and the drive belt. They come as a kit and are considered 'wear' parts. Although mildly intimidating, the physical aspects of the dryer are something most anyone could do. We kept track of the steps it took to take it apart and then did the reverse to put it back together. Along the way I realized that replacing the heater wouldn't have been that difficult either. It's a whole module. My only issue would have been that I wouldn't have known it was the problem vs the control panel. Maybe I will try to pick that skill up next time. We did have one minor hiccup. When we take our dryer out I have to move the washer at the same time and when I did that it dislodged the drain hose. This sent a whole wash cycle into the crawl space. It was a good test of our water sensors though and dried out quickly.