For many months now, we have been dealing with our dryer not drying. We discovered the ancient art of hanging our clothes out to dry. But because of our schedule and various weather conditions, sometimes that’s not practical and a dryer is needed. One thing I hate about hanging our towels out to dry is that they end up stiff as a board. I do like the benefit of saving on electricity and by doing things the old fashioned way. But I still want a dryer that dries for those times when I don’t have time to wait.
My husband finally ordered a kit so that we could replace the heating element and all of the thermostats, which is a common problem on our model. This was another opportunity for me to learn, so I did the replacing as my husband walked me through everything. I had no idea that a dryer even had multiple thermostats. I never even thought about how a heating element worked so I was glad to learn something new.
Old and new thermostats. There was a little bit of a difference.
After making sure to unplug the dryer, the first thing I needed to do was to take off the back panel on the dryer using a ratchet and socket. I have not had a lot of experience using one and didn’t even realize there was a switch for when you are screwing and unscrewing the bolts. I learned that the hard way.
I then needed to disconnect the heating element and the thermostats. We took pictures to make sure that we would connect everything back the right way. We replaced three thermostats. When I pulled out the heating element, I was able to see that half of it looked burned. I could see the big difference between it and the new one.
The old and new heating elements side by side
Once I got everything replaced and connected, it was back to putting the panel back in place and screwing in the many bolts. I felt a good sense of accomplishment and I was excited to see a positive result. But after all the work, the dryer would not work. We eventually figured out that the fuse was tripped. Even after all that, our clothes still would not dry. It was such a disappointment for me. I was ready to have a great sense of accomplishment because I fixed my own dryer.
My husband was ready to source another dryer, but I really want us to fix it. It is a hassle to find something that we can afford and then we would still have to dispose of the old one. I told him that I want us to still try to fix it. He says the it will be fixed by replacing the control switch.
I am really all about learning everything I can about the dryer and the different appliances around the homestead. In the past I was content to let my husband fix everything around the house and do all our vehicle maintenance. Now I get a bit of a rush from learning and doing some of these things on my own.
Photos property of the Faithful Homesteader.
