Ever CLEANED your Dryer?

rodney eppes

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2010
Location
Mt.Holly NC 28120
My drive belt on my Kenmore Dryer, broke, after 14 years. Sheezz! Well, I turned to the Net, to be sure How to replace it. That in turn gets you all these Repair videos, on You Tube. I already had the back off, & my dryer looked clean. I Always clean the trap out, & my exhaust tube is about 5 ft. long, but does run up at a 45 degree angle. After watching two belt replace videos, I looked at "Cleaning Your Dryer". They showing some Scary Stuff! Learning how Easy it is to remove the lint duck, or plenum, I figured I'd better check. Being that I have run my shop vac down that tube, about 15", [far as it will fit] I WAS surprised, How much lint, was in the bottom, & on the fan blade! It wasn't Terrible, but it Did need cleaning. My 14 year old machine, is again as clean as new! If I get another 14 years from it, I might buy a new one.
All I need to do is clean the exhaust tube; I run out of steam, before I got to that.
No Wonder them Things, catch on fire! When was the last time, you cleaned your's? Don't wait 14 years!
 
My heater element died in my 4 yr old top if the line (at least then) dryer. Be glad you lasted 14 yrs. Repair shop will be here Friday afternoon. Glad I forked out for extended warranty.
 
They don't last worth a damn now. We're hanging on to our 12yo pair as long as possible.
 
We have a 14 year old Whirlpool (Roper) brand dryer that started making some really funny sounds, weird thumps and squeaks. The heating and rolling still worked so I was hoping it wasn't anything major. I got the $13 repair/maintenance kit and decided to do it myself. Got everything apart and it was a bad bearing on a roller for the barrel. When I had everything apart and my wife(kind of a clean freak) saw it, she about freaked out at how dirty it was. Gave it a good cleaning and put everything back together, now it is quiet, clean and hopefully last another 14 years.
 
Just tore our 15 year old GE down about a month ago because a squeak was driving the wife and kids nut during the day when in use...I put it off(being a man) cause I am usually at work and don't hear the squeakin and fussing...LOL. So after 8 or 9 months of this squeaking I spent about 70 bucks online for a bearing, some glides and felt strip and a few other pieces, all factory GE stuff too. I think I filled up the shop vac with all the lint and crap that was inside that thing!! Make sure to get around the element and the back of the drum, where it is perforated as it is real close to the element. Mine had a large removable panel to let me vacuum all the crap out of there.
Thing runs just as good as new now. Clothes get dried quicker too.

Best part is that the wife is off my ass for at least a little while...:rockon:
 
Damn. Our 4 year old dryer just went out. After some research, we found out it was the Thermal fuse. These are supposedly required in all dryers made in the last 20 years to prevent exhaust duct fires. We had to clean all the crap out of the duct and replace the fuse. Works like a champ again!
 
Ours is a Roper too. It squeaks for the first 30s or so. Y'all keep this up, you're going to make me want to fix it.
 
One of the services at my work is dryer vent cleaning. Before I worked here I did not think there was such a need, let me say I have saw some crazy amounts of lint and now clean my own twice a year.
Its mind blowing how much lint builds up in the exhaust over time. Especially if its a long run with any turns, and for sure dirty if its the crappy flexible stuff.
Number one reason people call me is their dryer quit working or takes multiple cycles to dry clothes. I even clean some that have wet lint and water from the build up and humidity. All of the above over heats the element and cause it to fail early, along with fuses. I take the back off and clean all of it while I'm there.
There is over 15000 dryer vent fires each year.
 
This is only half of what I got our of a 3 foot dryer vent pipe.

I hope this thread will make some people realize how bad it can get and that its dangerous.
 

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8 yr old Roper here. So far, no issues. Doesn't get extend use since I am drying by the woodstove now, and just tumble my cloths with a fabric sheet for about 20 mins.
But like Shawn said, kinda making me wanna pull it apart!
 
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