So, earlier this week Mrs. Drang called me at the Salt Mines and asked if I'd noticed anything odd when doing my laundry last week. The dryer wasn't drying; it was tumbling, but at ambient temperature.
Long story short, the vent hose got crimped and the dryer overheated, tripping a protective switch.
Good news, the switch is resettable, not a fuse requiring replacement.
Bad news, it's inside the machine, and we had no literature indicating that, so appliance repair man to the rescue again. (This makes the second or third time this year, must be warranty expiration time...) Anyway, he was kind enough to show me how to remove the back and top (!) panels so I could access the switch if this happens again, and we also traced the problem with the hose.
Anyway, the non-Executive Summary version is that when we had the house remodeled before moving in, the sub-contractor who installed the washer dryer combo stack* probably recognized that the hole in the wall for the vent was not aligned with the new dryer, and rather than re-cut the hole, used an angle joint and flex hose, and did not trim the hose to length. The hose was pinched, eventually lint built up, and eventually dryer overheated. Having that hole-for-the-vent thing fixed is now on the list, but not the budget for now.
What led to the conclusion in the post title is that I was trying to figure out a way to check the alignment of the hose and hole combination (for reasons too tedious to list, we can't go with an entirely hard duct) and was pondering the arrangement of inspection mirrors that would be necessary...
...When it occurred to me that one could use a cell phone on a selfie-stick instead of an inspection mirror.
Long story short, the vent hose got crimped and the dryer overheated, tripping a protective switch.
Good news, the switch is resettable, not a fuse requiring replacement.
Bad news, it's inside the machine, and we had no literature indicating that, so appliance repair man to the rescue again. (This makes the second or third time this year, must be warranty expiration time...) Anyway, he was kind enough to show me how to remove the back and top (!) panels so I could access the switch if this happens again, and we also traced the problem with the hose.
Anyway, the non-Executive Summary version is that when we had the house remodeled before moving in, the sub-contractor who installed the washer dryer combo stack* probably recognized that the hole in the wall for the vent was not aligned with the new dryer, and rather than re-cut the hole, used an angle joint and flex hose, and did not trim the hose to length. The hose was pinched, eventually lint built up, and eventually dryer overheated. Having that hole-for-the-vent thing fixed is now on the list, but not the budget for now.
What led to the conclusion in the post title is that I was trying to figure out a way to check the alignment of the hose and hole combination (for reasons too tedious to list, we can't go with an entirely hard duct) and was pondering the arrangement of inspection mirrors that would be necessary...
...When it occurred to me that one could use a cell phone on a selfie-stick instead of an inspection mirror.
***
*"Washer/dryer stack": Due to limited square footage, we got stackable full-size front loading washer and dryer. The top of the dryer is even with my head, but Mrs. Drang can reach the controls. But the repair man had to boost me up to the top of the dryer to be able to see behind the stack to check the hose condition.
1 comment:
I thought about getting one of the remote inspection cameras they have at Harbor Freight, but the cheapest one is ~$90.
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