DIY When You Can...

One of the things that I enjoy is Do It Yourself (DIY) projects.  Or maybe I shouldn't say I enjoy them so much as that I get great satisfaction out of taking a problem and fixing it without spending a ton of money.  I attribute this in part to my parents, who with a family of girls on the farm, taught my sisters and I some practical skills that I wouldn't trade for anything!

So...when my dryer wouldn't start spinning until I took half of the wet load out, I knew it was time to do something.  Having dealt with something like this years ago, Jim and I assumed it was a worn out belt.  I got some professional advice first, and then I googled the part I needed and ordered a replacement on Amazon.  (with free shipping because I ordered something for my Dad at the same time that put me over the free shipping amount!)

Yesterday afternoon I did some more research on good old Google, and set out to replace the belt.  In case you've never seen inside your dryer, this is what it looks like with the top open.  That black band that circles the drum about 3/4 of the way to the back, is the belt that turns the drum.  Sure enough, a section several inches long was damaged...

I cut the old belt, which was about to tear anyway, and pulled it out of the dryer...

Before I did that however, I stood on my head (almost) and looked inside, underneath the drum, to see how the belt was routed around the idler sprocket, etc.  It wouldn't do any good to have a new belt without a plan!

After a bit of trial and error, the new belt was in place...

I replaced the front panel (after cleaning out a whole lot of lint!!) closed the top, plugged it back in and pushed it back into place against the wall...

I turned on the power, and...wait for it...it sounded awful!

What a let down!  I didn't know what I had done wrong, but it was not even close to operable.  It was milking time though, and I was tired.  There was no way I was going to tackle it again before bed.

This morning, I put a call into a local appliance store, and talked to someone in the appliance repair department.  He without hesitation, suggested that I had perhaps not seated the drum properly on the gliders inside the front panel.  Of course he was right, and in about 20 minutes the dryer was running quietly!

This is not the first time that this man has helped talk us through a problem with a dryer, washer or dishwasher, in order to avoid a service call.  They know that happy customers are repeat customers!  Thanks to Ron at Martin's Appliance, another project was successfully completed!  Total cost? $6.00.  Total time?  Give or take 1 hour.  I'd say that was well worth it!

Oh wait...I found a quarter and a dime buried in the lint, so the total cost was only $5.65!