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Vaughn McMillan

Vaughn McMillan

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ABQ NM
I called home after setting up the band gear last Saturday afternoon, and LOML was nearly in tears. She'd not been having a great day, and then to top things off, the clothes dryer had stopped working. She said she noticed a weird smell and then heard a loud noise, and then it just stopped working. Knowing it was likely a belt or motor issue, I told her it was probably a relatively easy fix and not to worry about it. When I got home, I powered up the dryer. The front panel lit up, so I was pretty sure it wasn't the control board. (Whew!) Then I hit Start and could see the drum was not turning but I could hear the motor running. (Another bullet dodged.) I got online and found a local appliance part supplier that sells to the public, but they wouldn't be open until Monday. I reassured LOML that I was confident it was a broken belt and I'd replaced one years ago...it would be an easy fix.

Then I hopped on YouTube and within 7 or 8 minutes, I was basically a professional dryer repairman. :rofl: I found a guy replacing the belt on a similar model of Samsung dryer, and although it was a lot more complicated than the Kenmore I'd repaired 30 years ago, it still looked doable. On the old Kenmore, all I had to do was remove the back, fish a belt around the drum, feed it through the idler pulley, and bam...it was done. On the newfangled Samsung, I had to remove the vent port and some of the screws on on the back, remove the top, remove a heat shield, remove the control panel, and remove the front, install the belt from the front, and then feed it through the idler pulley through hole where the vent port was in the back.

After getting the top off, I tried to pull the broken belt off the drum but it was stuck somewhere under the drum. Once I got everything else taken apart, I realized that the idler pulley was not spinning and the friction from the belt had actually melted the plastic pulley wheel. The belt was wedged in the idler pulley to where it couldn't move. (It wasn't actually broken until I tugged on it.) So now I needed not only a new belt, but a new idler pulley assembly. It went from a $40 repair to a $100 repair. :doh: Still a lot less expensive than calling someone out to fix it for me. Fortunately, the local parts shop had both parts in stock, so after a trip there this afternoon, I got the new pulley and belt in place and put the dryer back together. I also spent a lot of time cleaning 10 years worth of dust bunnies and fallen socks and other junk from behind both the washer and dryer. I'm happy, mama's happy, and all is right in the world again. :thumb:

Here's the in-progress pic:
Dryer 1 - 800.jpg

Here it is all buttoned back up:
Dryer 2 - 800.jpg

And here's the melted idler pulley that caused the whole problem. The surface where the belt rides is supposed to be solid (like on the left of the photo), not see-through, lol:
Dryer 3 - 800.jpg

This dryer also has a steam feature for removing wrinkles, so it's supposed to also be connected to a cold water line. Since we've only used that feature maybe 6 times in the past 13 years, I decided to not even hook up the water line. I figure it was just another potential point of failure, and I'd rather not deal with a flooded house if something were to break. If I want to un-wrinkle clothes, I'll just use a spray bottle like everybody else does. :)
 
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Last time I took our drier apart I didn't youtube it first and guessed the screws wrong.. and took out the obvious ones that should have removed the back.. but didn't and instead dropped the whole drum :doh:

I still got it back together and fixed it (can't even remember what was wrong now.. I think it was a fuse maybe..) but it cost me an extra hour fussing around with that.
 
I had to replace the rollers on ours a couple years ago due to a squealing wheel, wasn’t a terrible job, and did the trick.

My wife aunt called a few weeks back, they were having a hard time finding the right sized dryer to fit the space and get through the exterior door. Went over after work and tested a few switches and sensors, turned out to be a bad door switch, $7 replacement came the next afternoon and had it running that evening. The new dryer they had found was $800 and was going to be a $150 delivery fee.
 
Jonathan Shively said:
Got home Saturday and Lou said, "garage freezer light is working but everything is mushy". Dang it, just put a half a hog in there along with a bunch of beef. Friday the trash man gets to empty that mess into his truck. Life isn't always fair, but it is eventful!
Click to expand...
we just just got an audible alarm for our freezer. We bought the one from thermoworks which is about $35, and shows/stores the duration of the low temp alarm even if the condition recovers.

Seemed worth it.
 
Jonathan Shively said:
Got home Saturday and Lou said, "garage freezer light is working but everything is mushy". Dang it, just put a half a hog in there along with a bunch of beef. Friday the trash man gets to empty that mess into his truck. Life isn't always fair, but it is eventful!
Click to expand...
I know it's too late to save all that meat this time, but in the future, if you can catch it while still safely cold, it can be ground, cooked and pressure canned in quart jars that have a several year shelf life. Lots of work, but meat ain't cheap, even if you grow it yourself.
 
David Johnson said:
Appliances are handy but can sure be a pain when they decide to revolt.
David
Click to expand...
This dryer is almost 14 years old and this is the first repair. I have no complaints. My sis and BIL had their 2 year old fridge repaired 3 times this year trying to get a control board that'll last longer than a few months. The store (Lowe's, I think) finally replaced it completely. One of the guys in my shooting club just went through a similar situation with his washer. The store had to deliver 4 different machines before he got one that actually worked. :rolleyes:
 
My son and family go through driers and washers like they were candy. Bought Samsung set and had to replace them 3 times in about 3 years. However they have 4 kids to wash and dry for and they do a LOT of laundry.
David
 
David Johnson said:
...they have 4 kids to wash and dry for and they do a LOT of laundry..
Click to expand...
You'd think we have four kids if you saw the number of times per week my wife washes a load or two (or four). We both do our own laundry, and then she is usually the person who washes our sheets (because apparently I can't be trusted to do it right, lol). I do a two or three large loads every couple of weeks, but she does little micro loads constantly. Her dirty clothes hamper is literally a small bathroom trash can, so her typical laundry load is about two pairs of socks, some underwear, and a blouse. :bang: When I moved back to NM, she stayed behind in CA for a while. I had bought the washer and dryer about a week before I moved. Not long after I arrived here, she was having trouble with the washer not wanting to run complete cycles, so she called a tech out to check things out. After checking things out thoroughly and finding nothing wrong, he asked her to run a typical load of laundry so he could see the washer in action. She loaded it up and pretty soon after that the washer signaled that it was done. Turns out the problem was she wasn't loading enough clothes in the washer for it to even sense there was anything in it, so it was shutting down early. :rolleyes:
 
When we moved from Las Cruces we sold our washer and dryer, to a Spanish couple. They brought the washer back saying "not working" Hooked it up and it ran fine. Took it back and then repeated the cycle. Find out he was hooking it up outside to a cold water hose and that was all. Figured out machine needed hot and cold hooked up. Las Cruces has very hard water and clogged up everything so we didn't want to take those units with us.
David
 
some of you guys are lucky you have the ability or willingness to fix an appliance. thats territory like mount everest for me, Im never gonna do it or even contemplate an attempt.the only thing Ive done that I felt was an accomplishment, I once stitched up the finger of the deli owner across the street from my store after he cut his finger open on a deli meat slicer. he did not want to go to emergency room, and begged me for help, it was late on a winter saturday night at closing. I did a fine job, so I guess I have a little talent for something.
 
I guess it’s appliance week everywhere.

We decided to finally replace our 1981 GE portable dishwasher, which had been saved by simple repairs a couple of times over the years. It looked bad, all rusty across the bottom panel and had started leaking a bit, so it was time.
I found a discontinued, fairly basic, floor model ( we don’t need our dishwasher going on the internet🙄) at our favourite local furniture store and two able young fellows delivered it in short order.
I decided to save a couple of hundred $ and do the install myself. How hard can plumbing be? Plumbers do it every day!😀
Well that beast fought me every step of the way and I overshot the standard three trips to the hardware store by at least a dozen!! I actually lost count. I wasn’t going to confess the whole incident on this forum, but, humility is supposed to be good for the soul.
It’s all in now and working great with no leaks, so all’s good.
 
Peter Rideout said:
we don’t need our dishwasher going on the internet🙄
Click to expand...
Boy and howdy! Nice to find one that doesn't have all of the ridiculous bit :)

Peter Rideout said:
It’s all in now and working great with no leaks, so all’s good.
Click to expand...
Alls well that ends well at least!

allen levine said:
some of you guys are lucky you have the ability or willingness to fix an appliance. thats territory like mount everest for me, Im never gonna do it or even contemplate an attempt.
Click to expand...

You know, the way I think of it is that it's almost never worth paying someone to fix the thing versus replacing it anymore so the worst case scenario is pretty much that it's still broken. Once I figured that out it was kind of freeing to go ahead and make a bunch more mistakes :D
 
We live in a replace a product, don't repair. That is the mentality of the manufacturing people.
LOML went to get cell phone looked at. They put in new sim card from a floor model ,did not fix. So just buy a new one. In checking the card from the floor model was bad. Needless to say we did not buy new one. Just forced the sales person to install new card, which worked. But pressure was high to just buy a new phone.
David
 
I learned not to mess with things I don't understand when I was 15
My late mother-in-law a woman I loved dearly had a leak in the bathroom faucet
I had watched my dad replace a washer a few times so I told her I will fix it
I went to the hardware store and purchase the rubber washer
The only thing was I forgot to turn the water off below the sink
And so there was a geyser of hot water shot up and some wall paper came off
She laughed and I never offered to fix anything again
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I called home after setting up the band gear last Saturday afternoon, and LOML was nearly in tears. She'd not been having a great day, and then to top things off, the clothes dryer had stopped working. She said she noticed a weird smell and then heard a loud noise, and then it just stopped working. Knowing it was likely a belt or motor issue, I told her it was probably a relatively easy fix and not to worry about it. When I got home, I powered up the dryer. The front panel lit up, so I was pretty sure it wasn't the control board. (Whew!) Then I hit Start and could see the drum was not turning but I could hear the motor running. (Another bullet dodged.) I got online and found a local appliance part supplier that sells to the public, but they wouldn't be open until Monday. I reassured LOML that I was confident it was a broken belt and I'd replaced one years ago...it would be an easy fix.

Then I hopped on YouTube and within 7 or 8 minutes, I was basically a professional dryer repairman. :rofl: I found a guy replacing the belt on a similar model of Samsung dryer, and although it was a lot more complicated than the Kenmore I'd repaired 30 years ago, it still looked doable. On the old Kenmore, all I had to do was remove the back, fish a belt around the drum, feed it through the idler pulley, and bam...it was done. On the newfangled Samsung, I had to remove the vent port and some of the screws on on the back, remove the top, remove a heat shield, remove the control panel, and remove the front, install the belt from the front, and then feed it through the idler pulley through hole where the vent port was in the back.

After getting the top off, I tried to pull the broken belt off the drum but it was stuck somewhere under the drum. Once I got everything else taken apart, I realized that the idler pulley was not spinning and the friction from the belt had actually melted the plastic pulley wheel. The belt was wedged in the idler pulley to where it couldn't move. (It wasn't actually broken until I tugged on it.) So now I needed not only a new belt, but a new idler pulley assembly. It went from a $40 repair to a $100 repair. :doh: Still a lot less expensive than calling someone out to fix it for me. Fortunately, the local parts shop had both parts in stock, so after a trip there this afternoon, I got the new pulley and belt in place and put the dryer back together. I also spent a lot of time cleaning 10 years worth of dust bunnies and fallen socks and other junk from behind both the washer and dryer. I'm happy, mama's happy, and all is right in the world again. :thumb:

Here's the in-progress pic:
View attachment 132119

Here it is all buttoned back up:
View attachment 132120

And here's the melted idler pulley that caused the whole problem. The surface where the belt rides is supposed to be solid (like on the left of the photo), not see-through, lol:
View attachment 132121

This dryer also has a steam feature for removing wrinkles, so it's supposed to also be connected to a cold water line. Since we've only used that feature maybe 6 times in the past 13 years, I decided to not even hook up the water line. I figure it was just another potential point of failure, and I'd rather not deal with a flooded house if something were to break. If I want to un-wrinkle clothes, I'll just use a spray bottle like everybody else does. :)
Click to expand...
I had to tear our dryer apart like this a few months ago due to the bearings being worn out. Replaced all the wheels, pulleys and belt and it's as good as new, except for the control panel screen displaying pure gibberish. Fortunately, that doesn't affect it's performance.
 
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