Fix Your Own Appliance

Our dryer was starting to make a strange noise. We did what any morons would do, and ignored it. It wasn't long before it made it's final sound. I didn't want to fork over any money to a repair man. I certainly didn't want to replace the machine...okay I wanted to, but it wasn't in our budget.

So I googled. I love Google. I found this video (actually it's the first in a series of how-to videos).

Leon and I took our dryer apart, checked the belt and rollers, and determined that we needed to replace the motor. I found a motor reasonably priced on Amazon. British James suggested replacing the blower fan as well, so I ordered that too. I'm glad I did. He was right, our blower fan was fused to the motor and we had to cut it away with the drill.

Dryer motor: $50
Blower fan: $11
Satisfaction that comes from doing something yourself: priceless.

It wasn't an "easy" fix, we made several rooky mistakes that we had to go back in to fix (like dropping a screw down the lint shaft...we'll leave the culprit nameless). Our dryer works as good as new.