Happily fixed my dryer…and the vent…

[RetiriusMinimus]

Had a 16 y/o Maytag dryer. Motor worked, but no heat. Dryers are simple machines and the interweb/YouTube have great resources to diagnose and test. After spending 2-3 hours taking apart and testing, found issue with blown temp switch. Unfortunately part no longer made…the magic store called ePray supplied me with a used part $15…. Voila she works! Saved me $1K for a new dryer…

Also finally cleaned the dryer vent after 16 years. Please everyone check your vents. Amazed how much stuff can get in there…plus clean vents means faster drying and less energy!

 

[Jerry1]

I cleaned my vent after about 5 years in the new house. Not too bad, but I think I’ll start doing it every other year from now on. Note, I have a very short run and all smooth mental vent pipe. Still, there was an accumulation and I feel better with it out if there - especially with a gas dryer.

As for finding the used part and doing the work to get your dryer working again, good for you. I’ve always found repairs like that very satisfying.

My story - one time my dishwasher wasn’t working and I diagnosed the problem and found the part. It was at a shop right down town near to where I worked. So I went there and picked up the part. Unfortunately, while in the shop, my car was stolen (downtown in a Detroit neighborhood). That took most of the joy away from fixing the dishwasher myself, but hey, I saved a couple hundred bucks and it only cost me my car. Actually, financially, I did fine. They paid the car off at market value but I bought it using an employee discount. Anyway, that dishwasher worked until we sold the house a couple years later.

 

[MC Rider]

Appliances can sometimes be easier to fix than you might think.
Have fixed a dryer and a washer, both required removing the whole exterior case.
Which may sound difficult or intimidating, but really was not that hard.
Replacing the washer lid switch yourself, save a bunch of money.

 

[disneysteve]

Great job.


A few years ago, our dryer stopped working. Some online trouble shooting led to my diagnosis of a broken belt. I found the belt for $7 at Lowe's, took apart the dryer, replaced the belt (following a YouTube walk through), and it worked like a charm. I also took that opportunity to give the innards a thorough cleaning. Not only the vent itself but the huge amount of lint that built up everywhere else that didn't make it into the vent.


About a year later, the washer stopped working. That time I determined the door switch assembly was bad. I could have ordered the part online for $13 but the local parts store had it in stock for $24. I splurged, got it right away rather than waiting a few days, and we were back in business that afternoon.


Few things compare to the satisfaction of a successful DIY repair job, especially if you're not generally the handyman/handywoman type.

 

[MC Rider]

.............Few things compare to the satisfaction of a successful DIY repair job, especially if you're not generally the handyman/handywoman type.

True. But, go down in flames a time or 3 you might start to think what are my limits here?

 

[disneysteve]

True. But, go down in flames a time or 3 you might start to think what are my limits here?

I always wonder if professional repair folks love or hate YouTube. They probably lose a fair number of jobs because of it but it might be balanced out by the number of jobs they get to fix what the DIY people screwed up.

 

[MC Rider]

I always wonder if professional repair folks love or hate YouTube. They probably lose a fair number of jobs because of it but it might be balanced out by the number of jobs they get to fix what the DIY people screwed up.

I'm just a half fast diy guy. Try to know my limits. I suspect the pros hate those jobs that someone messed up, and now needs fixing.

 

[Bamaman]

There's probably a Maytag repairman out there that's going to be very, very disappointed that you repaired your clothes dryer. You know they're the loneliest people in town.

Me? I dumped my Maytag Neptune front loader and replaced it with a pair of Speed Queens.

 

[RetiriusMinimus]

We bought a Speed Queen washer 3 years ago. Was going to get the model with coin box as a joke…wife didn’t appreciate that…

There's probably a Maytag repairman out there that's going to be very, very disappointed that you repaired your clothes dryer. You know they're the loneliest people in town.

Me? I dumped my Maytag Neptune front loader and replaced it with a pair of Speed Queens.

 

[RetiriusMinimus]

Some things are fairly easy. Eg, my oil burner bearing is wearing away so I won’t plan on fixing that as it’s a finicky beast to tune.

I’m fairly handy…and enjoy the diversion at times.. a snow blower rebuild and valve job, outboard motor lower unit and valve cover, numerous carb rebuilds, some auto related tasks (plugs, etc) are easy for me and I’ve easily saved $3-5k, plus I like doing it…

True. But, go down in flames a time or 3 you might start to think what are my limits here?

 

[donheff]

I turned to the pros. My dryer vent started to fall apart. I bought one of those flimsy stretchable vents to connect from the dryer to the wall vent outlet. What a PITA. Whoever designed these things was insane. Then I read about ho important it is to clean these vents and realized there was no way I would get it done right from the wall, though a crawl space 15 feet over to the outside wall. I hired a pro who vacuumed out a massive amount of lint and installed a proper vent from the machine to the wall.

Unfortunately soon after this the machine started pounding like hell. The rollers were giving out. Another pro fixed that. After he pulled the drum he pointed out that the bottom of the machine was packed with lint. I could see burnt up pieces sitting on top of the heater. It could easily have started a fire.

I plan to clear the vents every year or two from now on.

 

[mystang52]

I'm now a semi-retired DIY-er. I still do the easy things, and a couple of harder things as long as I'm confident I can't F&*$ it up worse...or danger of injuring myself. Taking apart a dryer qualifies, to me, the former. Bravo to OP!

 

[frayne]

DIY projects are fun if you have the proper tools, know how and time. And yes, you tube has been a gift for just about any DIYer project and in some cases changed my mind about tackling something that was above my skill or physical ability level. Being 70, with two fused vertebrae, a man has to know his limits.

 

[jazz4cash]

I was just starting to get that uneasy feeling about our 20 year old dryer vent. It’s a 30 ft run of metal tube that’ll have to be disassembled in a couple of places to clean, I guess. After reading this thread I won’t be able to rest until I clean it out. Thanks everybody.

 

[homestead]

How about air compressor or leaf blower to clean out the vent?

 

[Surewhitey]

Must be the year for dryers. I just had to replace the heating element on our free dryer we scored when moving back from afar.

$20 bucks & back in business for a few more years... YouTube & Amazon all the way.

 

[RetiriusMinimus]

depends on routing of vent pipe, but i used a $6 vent brush and fishing rod to get about 9' down and it cleared a sheet load of lint. run dryer on air mode as you do it, wear goggles mask and old clothes as you'll create a plume of fine lint dust....

doing that doubled air flow (eyeball guess).. i have about a 18' run with only 1 90 degree turn. 8 feet of that run is inside and that is all new vent pipe i replaced 2 weeks before dryer broke.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Appliances can sometimes be easier to fix than you might think.
Have fixed a dryer and a washer, both required removing the whole exterior case.
Which may sound difficult or intimidating, but really was not that hard.
Replacing the washer lid switch yourself, save a bunch of money.

Yep, I had a dryer belt break, and that's a fairly easy fix, as you can easily see where it should go once it's open. My problem was that I forgot that sheet metal can have a very sharp edge, and I nicked my finger on the dryer case and got a few bloody fingerprints on the nice white case before I noticed it.

 

[pb4uski]

Admittedly a perceptive glimpse of the obvious, but the key to successful DIY is knowing when you are in over your head and need to call in a pro before you are in over your head and need to call in a pro.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Had a 16 y/o Maytag dryer. Motor worked, but no heat. Dryers are simple machines and the interweb/YouTube have great resources to diagnose and test. After spending 2-3 hours taking apart and testing, found issue with blown temp switch. Unfortunately part no longer made…the magic store called ePray supplied me with a used part $15…. Voila she works! Saved me $1K for a new dryer…

Nice work.

I've got (at least) a 29 year old Maytag, which came with the house when I bought it. Over the years I've replaced the belt twice and also installed a new set of rollers. I was amazed at the simplicity of these things--essentially a giant tumbler drum, a heating element, a fan, a motor to spin the drum, and a timer.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I was just starting to get that uneasy feeling about our 20 year old dryer vent. It’s a 30 ft run of metal tube that’ll have to be disassembled in a couple of places to clean, I guess. After reading this thread I won’t be able to rest until I clean it out. Thanks everybody.

You might not need to disassemble the duct/tube. Take a look at this:

https://www.amazon.com/Holikme-Clea...ywords=dryer+vent+brush&qid=1642177640&sr=8-5

I bought it and it works great! Cheap and pretty easy to use. Highly effective in my 20' duct that includes a 90 degree turn.

 

[Jerry1]

You might not need to disassemble the duct/tube. Take a look at this:

https://www.amazon.com/Holikme-Clea...ywords=dryer+vent+brush&qid=1642177640&sr=8-5

I bought it and it works great! Cheap and pretty easy to use. Highly effective in my 20' duct that includes a 90 degree turn.

That’s exactly the one I bought/used. My run wasn’t very long, but it had some elbows in it. The brush worked very good. Finished it off by sticking my battery operated leaf blower I the end in the house and blew all the dust and fine stuff out. Not a hard job at all.

 

[Bamaman]

We have a fairly nice kitchen, and yesterday the glass top glass electric cooktop was loose. The entire burner unit fell into our base unit. Come to find out, the glass was only held on by a high temperature silicone adhesive. That's poor quality.

In looking online, a replacement is $1454.00. And it's out of warranty @ 18 months old approximately. It's General Electric's most expensive line of appliances.

Now we'll see if my wife's Home Warranty will step up and solve the problem. I'd hate to think how much a set of Kitchenaid double convection wall ovens would cost--$4,500?

 

[sweetana3]

I love Youtube. Who knew that a lift chair that is not working should be unplugged for over 2 minutes and then plugged in again. Voila, chair is rebooted and works fine.

 

[CaptTom]

Good the see there are other DIY'ers on here. That's always been a big part of my personality. It's probably what allowed me to RE without the level of FI so many here enjoy.