To repair or not to repair?

[CloudWatcher]

29. Don't trust me, I'm a computer software guy

I don't do this for a living, and I don't normally fix stuff like this, but .. I happened to tackle a few problems with our dryer over the years and was able to fix them all with only a set of sore knees and scraped fingers. Beer helps. Enough disclaimers yet?

If you want to keep the dryer, I'd suggest two repairs:

- The main belt. It wraps around spring-loaded pulleys by the main motor and then goes all around the drum. If it has stretched then it's likely slipped to a new (incorrect) position on the drum and is pulling on the drum at a funny angle. Hence the loud noises It's a cheap part ($20?) but takes some contortions (and a skilled set of hands) to replace. Especially if you go in from the wrong side like I did (learn from my mistakes, go in from the back to get easy access to the belt path). The noise of this thing slipping can be impressive.

- The blower fan. It's another cheap part ($20 or so), it breaks because it's cheap plastic and gets brittle and fails. It's got a "D" hole in the center that's supposed to keep the fan turning as the motor turns. If the D has worn (or broken) to look more like a circle, the fan's not going to turn as the motor shaft turns. Mine knocked as the drive shaft slipped and caught and slipped and caught. When it completely stops turning the lack of air flow kept the clothes from drying.

Between the two of these issues there was no shortage of noise. I seriously doubt your drum needs replacing, but note the disclaimers I started this off with!

I also had the main motor fail, a more expensive part but I was able to replace it without too much lost hair or electrical fires. Not something I'd suggest to anyone to repair without some decent electronics background. The symptoms of this was the dryer electricals just refused to even try to start the drum turning. Really quiet. Again the youtube videos were enough to figure it out.

Also -- make sure your exhaust path isn't blocked. If it's full of lint you won't get any air flow and the clothes won't dry. But given the noise, I don't think this is what you're seeing. But fyi and something to keep clean and check while you're looking at things.

Humor: trying to get mine repaired was not an option. I couldn't find anyone willing to come up to the mountains to fix a moderately cheap machine. So it was repair it myself or buy new.

Bottom lines:

1) if you have no shortage of time, patience and beer, you can successfully spend less money by fixing it yourself. The YouTube tutorials were enough for this old software guy to figure things out. But it took its toll on my knees and beer budget.

2) if you have a repairman you trust, get both the belt and the blower fan replaced. The failures are common and you should get them to show up with the parts needed for the repair. You could ask about replacing the rollers the drum sits on, but I certainly didn't need to repair those (ofc, your experience may vary).

3) if you want a quick and certain outcome, get a new one. At least it'll be shiny and quiet!

Good luck!