ATTENTION!

IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP COMING UP-

This is how I spent my day yesterday-

Why you ask?

Our dryer has been working strangely lately. It gets really hot and stays hot long after the cycle is over. I have fixed our dryer a few times before, and decided to try it out again before we have an unfortunate fire.

I started by taking off the back of the dryer. I knew right away what the problem probably was.

There was (and I'm not even exagerating here) about five inches of lint across the bottom and up the sides of the machine. I don't know how it got there, but there it was. The lint is supposed to go through the holes on the right of the picture below into the lint screen.

Then the lint screen is removed, cleaned and replaced - ready to catch the lint of the next load. Somehow some of the lint has been bypassing the lint screen and going into the innerds of the machine.

This is only about two-thirds of the lint I removed. The rest is in the vacuum.
Apparently, when the dryer was used, the heat built up in the lint and stayed there - kindof what insulation is supposed to do in your attic. Anyway, Mike ran the dryer for about five minutes just to remove wrinkles from a shirt and the dryer was still hot to the touch about an hour and a half later. I walked in there to get something and could smell the heat - that's how I knew we had a big problem.

While I was cleaning out the machine, I noticed that most of the holes for the lint to go out of (in the above picture) were clogged. When the lint goes out and some catches in the holes, then the next load is put in, then the moisture from the load makes the lint moist. Then it gets dried with the clothes and becomes hardened. After awhile, the hole is closed over with hardened lint. I had to clean every hole (there are 130 of them in my dryer) by scraping them out. Good times, good times.

Please Please Please check your dryers to make sure you don't have lint building up where it shouldn't be. It's easy. Just undo the screws and remove the back panel (make sure you unplug the machine first). If you don't know how to work a screwdriver, call me or a neighbor or someone. I would hate for anyone to have a fire because of this problem when it is such an easy fix.

AND - you can also clean out all the assorted stuff that makes it's way into the laundry and into your machine.

This is what I got-

2 rubber bands

1 bandaid

1 receipt - dated April 30, 2008

4 beads

2 seashells

1 button

1 ponytail holder

1 hooks (from hook and eye enclosures)

1 play money nickel

3 paper clips

2 necklaces

56 cents - 5 dimes, six pennies

1 staple

3 nails

1 small screw

1 allen wrench

1 barbie tiera

If you are wondering what I'm doing with the wires in the picture above, I had to fix those because when I opened the top to clean around the drum I didn't support the top properly and it fell. It pulled out some of the wires so I had to figure out how to put them back where they belonged. Luckily, the wires were marked P1 and the slot where it belonged was marked P1, etc. so I lucked out.

Have a great day!