Our clothes dryer has been making a lot of noise while running lately. I took off the cover today to figure out what exactly the problem was, and whether I could fix it easily.
It turns out the front "slide bearings" had been almost entirely worn away. Here's a photo of the new bearings on the left, and the remains of the old bearings on the right.
I replaced the bearings, cleaned out a crap-load of lint, and in the process discovered that several other plastic pieces look like they're about to fail, as well. It'll cost around $100 to buy replacements online. Sigh.
But wait! Once I verified that this took care of the squealing noise, I put the dryer's frame back together. In the process, I had to adjust the dashboard a little. There was a spark. The dryer no longer turned on. Facepalm.
I checked the circuit breaker and all the electrical connections. Heck, I even did a conductivity test on every wire. I have no idea what could have caused a short. Everything checked out. Only explanation is that some internal component got fried. Based on the location of the spark, the most likely component to be "burnt out" is the timer, which would cost at least $100 to replace.
So I've got $100 worth of components ready to fail in the near future, and a $100 component to replace just in hopes of getting it running again. $200 (not to mention the $36 sunk cost of replacing the bearings) just to keep an old dryer around for a few more years.
I think it's time for a new dryer. Brianna is actually pretty pleased with the idea of getting a new appliance.
It turns out the front "slide bearings" had been almost entirely worn away. Here's a photo of the new bearings on the left, and the remains of the old bearings on the right.
I replaced the bearings, cleaned out a crap-load of lint, and in the process discovered that several other plastic pieces look like they're about to fail, as well. It'll cost around $100 to buy replacements online. Sigh.
But wait! Once I verified that this took care of the squealing noise, I put the dryer's frame back together. In the process, I had to adjust the dashboard a little. There was a spark. The dryer no longer turned on. Facepalm.
I checked the circuit breaker and all the electrical connections. Heck, I even did a conductivity test on every wire. I have no idea what could have caused a short. Everything checked out. Only explanation is that some internal component got fried. Based on the location of the spark, the most likely component to be "burnt out" is the timer, which would cost at least $100 to replace.
So I've got $100 worth of components ready to fail in the near future, and a $100 component to replace just in hopes of getting it running again. $200 (not to mention the $36 sunk cost of replacing the bearings) just to keep an old dryer around for a few more years.
I think it's time for a new dryer. Brianna is actually pretty pleased with the idea of getting a new appliance.
No comments:
Post a Comment