Dryer

My dryer has been acting up for quite awhile. It had begun to squeak while in operation about 6 months ago and I knew I was going to have to fix it at some point, but it wasn't that urgent and I always have a million other things to do so I let it be. That is until this past Thursday. The squeak turned into this really, really loud squealing/grinding noise and I was convinced that if I continued to use it as is I was going to blow up the house. Plus, the noise could be heard throughout the house and it was not at all conducive to peaceful living. And considering that I had just put a load of wet clothes in the dryer and I had another wet load waiting, I needed to fix the dryer immediately. So school got put on hold for most of the day (except for Ellie's independent work) so that I could work on the dryer. Nothing like the urgent to waylay the important. Although you could argue that having a functional dryer is important. :-)

I had previously done some Internet research to try to figure out what might possibly be causing the noise and I was pretty sure it was the rear drum rollers. So I began to take the dryer apart. Wow was the dryer ever dusty inside. Of course, since it hadn't been vacuumed ever and the dryer is somewhere around 17-20 years old, there should be a lot of dust. I managed to get the drum of the dryer out and got a good look at the drum rollers. They were worn and I suspected they were the culprit since that was about where I could hear the noise coming from. I also noticed the belt was cracking in several spots so I figured I might as well replace that at the same time.

I went to the appliance repair shop and picked up the parts I needed. I didn't have much trouble removing the first drum roller; however, the second drum roller gave me more trouble. The problem was that the wrench, although only around 7 inches, was too long to reach the nut that held the drum roller in place. I could get the wrench around the nut, but then I couldn't move it. And considering how long it had been in place there was no hope of me removing it with just my fingers. I finally undid the screws to the side of the dryer and had Ellie pull it away from the drum roller so that I could maneuver the wrench. I couldn't take the whole side off because the side is one continuous piece that is connected to the back and the other side. And I would have had to dismantle more of the dryer than I cared to since several things were anchored to the back of the dryer and to the bottom.

Now it was time to put the new belt on and put the dryer back together. I put the belt on where I thought it went and screwed the dryer back together. Then I started the dryer. The smell of burning rubber permeated the room and I perceived that I didn't have the belt in the right place. I know. I have a keen sense of the obvious. So I took a few screws out and looked at the drum to figure out where the belt really should go--not in the groove as I though but around the wider part of the drum where there was a black line the size of the belt. :-)

I put the screws back in and started it up. No burnt rubber smell and no squeaking!! Now it was time to test it with a load of clothes. No problems there either. It is still working and now whenever I take Natalie with me to put a load of clothes in the dryer, she says, "Mommy, you fix the dryer? It doesn't squeak anymore?"