By Staff Writer
You know, sometimes I feel as if my gas dryer is one my very best friends. Who else would help me to get those mounds of laundry all fluffy and dry each week? True, my dryer doesn't help me fold and put the laundry away, but I digress. You're here to find out how to know whether or not your gas dryer can be repaired so it can serve you well for even more years of worry-free drying bliss.
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Dryer Repair Companies in
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How did I know when I needed gas dryer repair? My Whirlpool gas dryer had been acting a bit ornery for several days, and I suspected a problem. Finally, when I opened the door of the dryer to take out my clothes, I wasn't greeted with that lovely odor of freshly dried clothes. Instead, I could discern an odor of dampness. Sure enough, my laundry was nowhere near dry. With a sigh, I closed the door and ran the dryer for another cycle, but it did no good. The clothes were still damp – wet, in fact.
My partner was quick to tell me to call a repair person. So, I did! I chose one from the phone book, dialed the number, and described my dryer's symptoms. The man who answered the phone immediately reeled off a list of parts he knew would need replacing on my gas dryer, and then announced the estimate to repair it would be $350 PLUS the needed parts!
After I got over my shock, I decided it was time to be a do-it-yourself repair person. Fortunately, I knew what to do in order to get things started. I went online and did a search to discover what was wrong, and figured out why my dryer was not heating. Web sites are quite useful, especially when they have diagrams of your gas dryer, and tell you what to do so you can find out why your dryer isn't giving out any heat.
The problem was the dryer's gas valve coils. Once I had taken the top and front off the dryer, I could see this for myself. When turned on, the ignitor would get hot and turn a glowing orange color, but what was supposed to happen did not. There was a click, but no flame appeared, so the ignitor went out, its glow slowly fading away. That was all the proof I needed – that web site was absolutely correct!
Going online again, I returned to the web site and followed their recommendations as to where to go on the web to purchase a set of these valves. Yes, I could have gotten by with repairing just one of them, but to avoid any farther heating trouble, I did as the web site had suggested to me. I had the part in my hands after about three days, and with the simple instructions I had found online, was able to pop the valve coils into place. Soon, my gas dryer was humming along, drying a load of clothes and heating up beautifully!
I'll admit it – I was lucky that time to have such a simple fix for my dryer. There have been times when the problem was a little harder to accomplish. The amount of time it took was a factor, or the part that needed replacement was in a much more awkward spot to reach. And, there have been times when the needed repair was super easy, like the time I just needed to replace a fuse to get my dryer to work.
I've replaced the door switch on my dryer after learning online that a gas dryer won't come on if this switch is at all defective. Replacing the timer on my dryer was a bit more involved. The driver belt that turns the drum of the dryer so the clothes can tumble was probably my quickest repair. And, the largest part I've ever replaced on my dryer has to be a motor. Hands down, that one was cinch from start to finish!
How am I able to do all of these repairs? Did I secretly sneak out nights and attended appliance repair classes so I could dazzle my partner with the prowess I had obtained? Not at all! I simply went to a web site that was able to tell me just what to do, and just what to buy in order to fix the problem myself. I've saved myself quite a bit of money over the years by doing my own repairs on various appliances, too. The needed parts are quite easy to obtain online, and finding the information you need is not at all difficult.
I'll give you an example. Let's say you have a gas dryer that all of a sudden has begun to act rather peculiar. It seems to run just fine – the problem is, it won't run for long before it just stops working. If you let it sit awhile and try again, eventually it will start back up, only to have the exact same thing happen. To repair this yourself, you need to find out what is causing the problem. Simply do a web search for “dryer turns itself off then won't restart”. You'll get at least a couple of result pages back on this phrase, and one of them is going to give you the answer you seek!
A bit of reading later, you discover that a dryer can act like this for two reasons. Either the motor has worn out, or there is a lot of lint in the blower housing, somewhere between the housing and the blower wheel. This lint build-up is causing the motor to be blocked. You're advised to try and turn the motor by hand. If it turns, then you don't have a lint jam, but a bad motor. If it won't turn, check your dryer vent out, as it could probably stand a good cleaning.
If you're lucky, you find a lot of lint in the housing, and once it has been cleaned out, your dryer works just fine! Cost to you – a little time. Compare that cost to what a repair person would charge, and you can see why being your own handyman with the help of the Internet makes good sense.