Early in the week, my wife discovered that the dryer wasn’t doing its job. After hours of spinning around, the clothes were still wet, without any sign of drying going on.
Immediately, I had a sinking feeling in my gut. After my previous success with our washer, I was on the hook to fix the dryer. But with a busy week ahead, I was dreading the task.
And there was another wrinkle–this was a gas dryer. Worst thing I could do with an electric dryer was curl my hair a bit, but a gas dryer? I could blow up the house. With fear and trepidation, I made the decision to punt on the task.
“Hon, call the repair guy.” I said. And she did. Next Tuesday was the earliest that he could come, and it was $65 for him to walk in the door. Ouch.
So my wife and the boys rigged an extensive set of clothes lines in the basement, and every load of wash had to be dried overnight.
After surviving the week, I woke up on Saturday with not much on my plate. The day was clear with only a few things to accomplish. And then the thought popped into my head, “What if it’s something simple…”
So I went back to applianceaid.com and took a look. (BTW, Kudos to the guys who built that site. It isn’t the prettiest on the ‘net, but it has just about all the information you need to repair your appliances–all different brands and models.) It didn’t look that bad to trouble shoot the dryer, so I took a shot.
Turned out to be a blown thermal fuse, which basically opens up when it gets too hot. A quick run to the appliance part store (real quick–I made it minutes before they closed for the day), and $17 later, I had a new fuse.
And we were back up and running…with heat even.
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- Thermal fuse
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- Close up of the thermal fuse
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- Back of the dryer
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- Dryer guts
I don’t know if this sound ridiculous or not, but after fixing the dryer, I felt like I had slayed a dragon, like the hero at the end of the story (and that’s how my wife treated me).
And it felt really good to call the repair guy and cancel the appointment. I’m gonna keep my $65+, thank you very much!
