Shared Knowledge
“Clothes Washer and Dry
Appliance Repairs”
13 September 2005
Clothes washers and
dryers are relatively simply devices and if you have any repair experience at
all, are not afraid to work around high voltage and have a volt meter and other
tools, you should not be afraid of tackling some washer and\or dryer repairs
yourself. Over the years, I have worked
on both washers and dryers and have only once had to give in and buy a new
washer because something had broken in the transmission of the washer.
I have never owned a natural gas clothes dryer so what I present here may or may not be applicable to a natural gas clothes dryer. Dryers are simple devices. They use a timer to basically turn on a heating element and a motor, which rotates a drum, which holds the damp clothes. If your dryer drum rotates but the dryer is not heating, there could be 2 causes: (1) The heating element has burned out or (2) A over temperature fuse somewhere in the system has blown. If your dryer is not heating, the first thing you need to do is unplug it from the 220 volt outlet it is plugged into and remove the back of the dryer, exposing various electrical components. As the heating coil protrudes out of the heating duct, you should be able to plug in the dry, start it and place your voltmeter on the 2 terminals of the heating coil to see if it is getting power. It the coils are getting power then the heating element is burned out and you need to unplug the dryer from the wall outlet, remove the heating coil from the dryer and take it, along with the make, model and serial number of your dryer to a local appliance store. If the heating coil is not getting any power then one of the thermal fuses has blown somewhere in the path of the high voltage and you will have to use the electrical diagram on the back of the rear panel to trace current flow to identify the offending component. Here, again, you plug in the unit and turn it on and starting at component closest to the electricity source, determine if power is coming into the element but not out. Once you have located a component which is blown, turn off the power, remove the component and take it along with the make, model and serial number of your dryer to your local appliance parts store. If the blown component is a high temperature fuse, you really need to check for reasons why it blew to start with. Over the years, lint can collect inside various components of the dryer and with the power removed; you should use a vacuum to get as much lint out of the system as possible. Although your lint collection screen might appear clean, it is advisable to periodically take the lint collection screen and actually wash it in hot soapy water. Fabric softeners tend to cover the screen with an invisible coating, which restricts airflow. If the drum of your dryer is not turning, it is probably the motor but if you can hear the motor turning but the drum is not turning, then it is probably the belt which goes all the way around the drum and which is hooked to the motor. Again, although it might seem like a bit much, replacement of the motor and\or belt is not a major problem. First of all you have to remove the front of the dry which probably has 2 sheet metal screws at the top but which uses tabs at the bottom which has the bottom front panel latched into the side panels. So with the top 2 screws removed, you lift up on the front panel to remove it. Now the drum will tend to sag down, as part of what holds it in place is the front panel. Immediately you will see if the belt around the drum is broken or not. As the drum just sits inside the dry, held in place by a lip on the back of the dryer and the front panel, you can simply reach under the drum and unhook the belt from the motor and remove the drum. Then if the more is bad, remove it and take it with your make, model and serial number to your local parts store. If the belt is bad, same thing. Make, model and serial number and actual broken belt to appliance store. I suggest that if your motor is gone and you already have the dryer apart, replace the belt at the same time. Finally, I have never had the case where the large timer unit on the front of the dryer has gone bad. The first time I worked on a dryer, I was sure the timer was the problem but the timer is a very simply clock device and rarely goes bad so do not look there first for dry malfunction problems.
Clothes Washer
I have never had too many problems with the clothes washers we have owned so have less experience in repairing them than I do with dryers. Unfortunately, unlike a clothes dryer, which has a few owner replaceable components, a clothes washer really is a timer, water inlet control valves and one giant motor transmission combination. If your transmission goes in that the motor turns but nothing happens with the agitator, I would suggest junking the unit and buying a new one. Washer transmissions are expensive to replace. But I have had to replace the water inlet control solenoids as well as the upper agitator dogs, which make the upper agitator move. If your washer will not fill with water, then it is probably the water inlet solenoid unit. Basically this unit is an electrically operated valve, which is normally closed but opens to let water into the washer when the washer is to be filled with either hot or cold or both water. The values or the solenoids can fail not allowing water to flow into the washer. In this case, again, you remove power from the washer and taking the back cover off the washer look to where the water hoses connect to the washer. Now turn off the valves, which allow water to flow to the washer and then carefully unscrew the hose, connects to the solenoid value component on the washer. Some water will flow out of the hoses as you unconnect them. Remove the solenoid unit and take it along with the make, model and serial number of your washer to your local appliance store. The other thing I have had to replace is the “agitator dogs” inside the upper agitator. The lower and main agitator is connected directly to the transmission of the washer but the upper agitator turns by the way of a sort of ratchet mechanism where inside the agitator there are teeth on the walls but in the center is a disk holding this “dogs” which catch the teeth in the side of the agitator walls and hold in place until the next turn of the main agitator below. Well these “dogs” become warn on the ends and eventually will no longer catch the edges of the side wall. In this case, I removed the one bolt holding the upper agitator to the lower, main agitator and removed the upper agitator. Then I took the whole upper unit to my appliance store with the make, model and serial number of my washer. All I needed was new “dogs”.
Finally, if you look around the Internet, you can usually find a complete parts diagram from the specific washer or dryer you own and also be aware than some appliance repair stores stock repair manuals for specific brands of washers and dryers. Also, if you do not have an appliance parts store local to you, there are many Internet sites selling appliance parts.