30 SepToday I Am a Hero

I’ve never understood the amount of laundry we do at our house. My wife will proudly announce that she’s done “eight loads today.” She may announce this several times during the week. Do we really have that much laundry? I seem to remember hearing of other households having a laundry “day.” I can’t imagine doing as much laundry as my wife announces in one day. Whatever be the case, you can see the importance of a working washer and dryer in my home.

Recently the dryer quit heating. Everything else worked just fine. You could still put in wet clothes and the dryer would blow cold air on them until they were dry. It just took so much longer. With new dryers costing $600-$900 dollars, I thought I would see if I could fix this myself.

I got onto the Internet and quickly saw that the heating element was the most likely culprit. I found the serial number of my dryer and ordered a replacement element from Amazon. I paid a little more and got a fuse and thermostat thrown in even though I wouldn’t need them.

On YouTube I found a video of how to replace the heating element on my exact model of dryer. It looked like this was going to be pretty easy. It wouldn’t have been difficult if I didn’t have to lay on floor with all the lint bunnies, squeezing my hands and arms into a dark, tiny space to reach little screws that had no desire to come out. The contortions I had to go through while trying to “one-hand” tools at obtuse angles made this otherwise 15-minute job last over three hours. The “Forget it; I’ll just spend $800 for a new dryer” moment was just a breath away several times.

I did finally get the old heating element out. I looked at it closely. Other than looking used it had no breaks in the coil of wire that heated up. I shrugged and installed the new one. After once more going through all the painful contortions to screw everything back in, I turned on the dryer. No heat. Great.

I looked at the videos again and noticed that they used an ohm meter to check the heating element. They showed 0 ohms for a good element. Once again, I went through the contortions and pulled out the heating element. My ohm meter showed 9.8 ohms. Clearly, the heating element must bad. Not wanting to act too quickly I decided to check the thermostat. The videos had mentioned this. It was screwed into the heating element housing, and, yes, the screws were difficult to reach. After 30 minutes of more frustrating contortions, I got it out. The reading was 0 ohms. It was a good thermostat. I got ambitious and checked the fuse, too. It also was good. It had to be the heating element.

I ordered a new heating element from another provider. Because it was the weekend, we waited six days for it to come. The laundry was piling up. When the new heating element finally arrived, the first thing I did was check the resistance. It read 11 ohms. Great. That meant I wouldn’t get any different results from the other new element which didn’t work. It looked like we were going to have to find $800.

My wife asked if I would put the dryer back together so at least we could “cold-air” the clothes until dry in the meantime. I put the new element into the dryer hoping for a miracle. It turned on just fine, but still no heat.

In all my contortions on the laundry room floor I had noticed a second thermostat looking thing further back on the heating element housing. I had ignored it simply because it was back in the shadows where the light of my phone could hardly reach covered in nasty looking lint and dust. Also, none of the videos or help pages mentioned a second thermostat. The thought of trying to reach it gave me a headache. The videos had mentioned “continuity” being needed for the element to work. I finally had to admit to myself that if this mystery part was broken, perhaps it cut off the continuity.

With absolutely no enthusiasm, but being reluctant to quit, I began the new contortions to reach back and unscrew the “thing.” It took me an hour of perseverance, but I got it off. It did look like another, smaller thermostat, and it was wired in series with the other thermostat and heating element. I checked the resistance. No reading. It was bad. Reversing my *$%^ contortions I was able to put the replacement in (remember the extra parts I didn’t need?). I connected all the wires and turned the dryer on. Kneeling down and peering underneath, I saw the beautiful red glow of a hot heating element.

My dryer repair learning adventure had come to an end. Talk about a feeling of triumph. I thought about putting an announcement in the paper and organizing a parade for myself.

ARTSY TYPE MAN FIXES DRYER!

I didn’t summit Mt. Everest or win an Olympic gold medal for the 100-meter dash, but it sure feels like I did. Today, I am a hero.

__________________________________________________________________________________

These books by Tory Anderson are now available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback format: