28 October, 2010

Where's The Heat?

Can a dryer bite the dust, or would it be biting lint instead? It took me a while to figure out that the heating element on this appliance was toast, after I hit the repeat button on a load of towels a few times I finally stuck my hand in there to check. No heat, none. Then I realized what was going on, I'm quick that way. Luckily, my resident handy-man came to the rescue. He suspects that too much lint got through the screen, clogged the vent hose and burned out the element. I don't know how to avoid that happening again, I carefully clean the screen every load. The needed part was in stock and we're operating at full heat again; the dryer is doing what it's supposed to, not coolly tossing around wet clothes anymore. There's only two adults living in this house, and piles of laundry to catch up on after two day's time. How does that happen? We don't own that many clothes, do we? And if we do, how come it seems that I never have anything to wear?

Life is Good!

11 comments:

Pat said...

Every once in a great while, I take the really narrow extension thingie on my vacuum cleaner and suck out the lint from the interior workings of the dryer. And yes, I need to take the bottom kick-plate off the dryer to do it. It's a PIA, but it keeps that linty burn-out from happening.

Mary Lou Casada said...

Mrs. G! You have a resident handyman!?! How cool is that! LOL My not-so-resident (he's deployed :-D) man is NOT handy! Luckily I have a friend from church who is, and all manner of appliance things get done by him. He warned me of just such a linty problem because I have a "flexible" hose to the outside. He warned of FIRE! So yeah, glad you've not gone up in smoke! LOL
Blessings,
Mary Lou

Quiltdivajulie said...

Laundry proliferates quicker than those pesky dust bunnies . . . happens at our house, too!

Libby said...

I am fastidious with cleaning the lint trap, too. Now I'm off to see if there is more accumulating elsewhere. Thanks for the tip!

Aliene said...

Been there, done that! Thank the Lord you had a handy man to fix it.

LizA. said...

Check out these two videos to see what can accumulate in the hose:
http://www.nwlink.com/~pkrogh/dvc.html
or this on how to do it yourself:
http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-a-Clothes-Dryer-Vent

You are very lucky it didn't cause a fire.

leigh anna said...

i'm not sure if it has ever come up, but i can't clean the lint trap thing-a-ma-jig. i just can't handle the way it feels or sounds. just thinking about it makes me cringe. i will however shake the thing and let the lint fall off of it, but to touch the thing to get it out of the dryer vent place is about all i can do without getting nauseous! (which might be why out laundry room is a little on the dusty side!)
kyle gets so mad at me when i don't clean it, i have no excuses for why i don't, other than he knows i hate the thing!
oh and it DRIVES me crazy when he cleans it off that he insist on running his finger nails all over it to get it off. the sound is HORRIBLE!
you know, if i wasn't incubating a baby right now, i think i would need a nice glass of wine to get my mind off of this horrible subject!
:/

Paula, the quilter said...

Now I need to go clean ours. Your post reminded me that I haven't done so in a while. I bought some of those lint brushes for dryers so I can get down into the guts of the things.

Karen Newman Fridy said...

When we had our HVAC ductwork cleaned a few years ago i had him do the dryer vent too...from the lint trap all the way to the exterior of the house. I was shocked at how much stuff was in there. I too clean my trap every time!

Not keeping it cleaned out is a fire hazzard...

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

I had that problem, but it had to do with the fuse. There was some electricity going in, so it was working, but not enough for the heat to come on. I'm glad you figured it out.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

For LeighAnna, she doesn't have a profile so I can't reach her directly. I disliked touching it either. I like using the used dryer sheet to protect my hands while taking off the lint.