Dryer repairman?

[ThrowittoRoy]

My dryer isn't blowing hot air anymore, so isn't drying.

I'd appreciate any advice on a good / trustworthy dryer repairman.

thanks!

 

[brntorng]

Are you sure sparrows haven't plugged up the outside vent with a nest?

 

[ThrowittoRoy]

Pretty sure it's not sparrows, or even Jack Sparrow

 

[MilkmanDan]

You might try taking it apart and cleaning out any lint that's escaped the trap. I did that recently and it made a huge difference.

 

[baboso]

If it is electric, the heating element is easy to replace yourself.

 

[ThrowittoRoy]

cool, thanks for the suggestions, i'll try checking deeper in for lint.

Not sure if I want to mess with changing the element on my own. I'd hate to miss one little step and burn down the house. ( Electricity + Heat = not good stuff )

 

[A. BETTIK]

Same thing happened to us two weeks ago with a gas dryer. Guessing a $200 repair on fourth and long, we punted and got a new one over at one of those new-but-scratched-or-dented stores last night for a total of $650.

Major bonus points with the wife as her new dryer now plays a music box like little diddy when done.

 

[brntorng]

Check the exhaust line between the dryer and wall. Sometimes kinks in the line collect lint. While you have it apart, clean out all the lint you can reach in the duct and dryer. If you have a yard blower or shop vac that can blow, use that to force air through the duct and make sure it's clear to the outdoors. Turn on the dryer with it disconnected from the exhaust line and see if it blows warm air out the exhaust. If not, then it's something electrical, but don't assume it's the heating element. It could be the safety switch, timer switch, blower, etc. The repair cost on dryers isn't too bad because they're pretty simple appliances.

 

[chuychanga]

I just dealt with this.

No hot air. Called Oak Hill Appliance and they said it'd be a minimum of $80 for a guy to come out and diagnose it, plus more for the repair job, which could push the total cost closer to $200. They said it's almost always the heating coil and very easy to fix yourself.

I was skeptical, because I've never even seen the inside of a dryer before, but I figured, "What the hell." So they sold me a $12 heating coil and I did some googling to find out how to open up the dryer. Unscrewed a few screws, removed the belt and the tumbler and saw a very obviously broken heating coil. It all looked pretty simple at this point.

The coil is just a wire that heats up. The air blows across it and into the tumbler. Each end of the coil plugs into a ceramic terminal block. Just unplug the old one, pull it off and plug in the new one. No way can I **** this up. So I begin...

The old terminals are a little corroded and stuck in the ceramic block pretty well. The coils tabs plug in to the block and come out the other side. The excess tab is then bent to hold it snug. Well, I never could get a good grip on the tab to unbend it. So maybe if I just wiggle it around enough and pull hard enough it will come out anyway. It's in such a confined space that my pliers to fit in on that side of the block. So I tug harder and harder. Finally I grab it with some pliers and really yank on it. Ceramic terminal block breaks in half. ****.

Call the appliance place again. They don't sell terminal blocks by themselves. They only come with the entire heating element kit, which is much more than just the coil. The heating element kit is about $100 just for the part. And there's no guarantee that I won't **** that thing up too. So I went shopping and found an extra-large capacity 4 cycle dryer at Lowe's for $300.

Bottom line is that fixing it yourself should be easy and very cheap if you are just a tad more mechanically inclined than me, which is extremely likely. I'm the idiot that initially picks up a hammer to fix almost anything. But if you choose not to fix it yourself, the cost of a service call plus parts and repair will almost buy you a brand new dryer.

 

[chuychanga]

Other poster is right about cleaning out the exhaust really well. Not just the lint screen, but the duct that takes the hot air out of your house. Mine was full of lint that has gotten othru the screen over the years.

There are thermo switches in several places in there that will trip off the heater if it gets too hot in the exhaust, like when it's too plugged up It prevents your lint from catching on fire. Some of those switches reset automatically, some do not. But if your exhaust was clogged and you clean it out, that one should reset I think.

By googling dyer repair I was able to find a site with picures of the locations of all my dryers thermostats and switches. They were easily tested with a simpler voltmeter/ohmmeter.

Dryer runs, but no heat
My dryer won't heat

Finally, to answer you original question, even though Oak Hill Appliance didn't fix my dryer, they were very helpful to me and tried their best to save me some money. I would call them again.

 

[BigWill]

check the circuit breakers. Could be that simple.

there are two breakers for a dryer. If only one blew, it will still run but not heat.

 

[ThrowittoRoy]

Thank you everyone.

Chuy, that's precisely what I would end up doing. I've broken pieces off stuff trying to fix them before and I guess i'm now old enough to realize that I'm not the repairman for every job out there.

weird thing is, my dryer just started working perfectly again.
i just left on a 4 day trip to Oregon, came back and the sucker was working like a champ.