Fixing the dryer

 One of the great carbon-wasters in our house is the dryer.  We can have a very efficient washer, but the dryer has been the same since the 60's.  The physics is just throwing in heated air, taking moisture from the clothes and ejecting it.  

And they are made exactly the same.  There are lots of sensors now, and a fancy computer, but the steel is the same.  That's a big drum, mounted on wheels and turned by a belt.  The motor sucks in air from the room and puts it out the vent.

There's nothing worse than those wheels.  They are all just sleeves on spikes, no bearings or anything.  After a few years, the dryer starts to scream as those sleeves get dirty.  So, it's time to take the dryer apart and clean it.

Every dryer has a trick to take off the top.  You have to go through about 10 utubes to find something that looks like yours.  My Samsung has the same body as the Kenmore of the 70's.  You put the screwdriver in the top gap and wrench it up.  Some tops need to be shifted.  Find the trick.

Then it's fun.  My top tilts back and flaps in the breeze.  You have to secure it with a wire.  Then you got a lot of screws to undo, and a lot of sensor connections.  Try to remember things, but you've always got the utube.  Putting it back together is the problem, and I must have reassembled and taken it apart 5 times.

As per the videos, you have to unhitch the belt, and that's like delivering a breech calf from the cow.  You put your arms all the way in, and fiddle with the belt until it comes off the motor, and then the idle wheel snaps on your hand -- ouch.  Take it apart and you are faced with the wheels.  The thing is filthy and you fill your vacuum a few times.  

I bought some new wheels, but these things never wear out without screaming.  These wheels are all standard, but the ones I got were a thousandth of an inch too small.  Damn!  And my dryer had 4 wheels instead of two.  So, I just cleaned the wheels and put white lithium grease on them.  

And then you put it back together.  You do the cow trick again, but I could not figure the loop.  I printed out a picture and put it right beside.  After you nearly kill yourself, you realize the belt is twisted.  More cow things.  Then more goes back together, and you have forgotten a connection.

Finally, it works, smooth as silk.  Good for a few more years.