We bought our Maytag washer and dryer when we moved out to Colorado the summer of 1995. They are not fancy at all--only dials, no electric controls--but they have been real workhorses. They hold a ton of laundry, and they have never before needed a repair. I went through a period of time maybe 7 or 8 years ago when I was so envious of those spiffy new front-loading washers and dryers. I was even sort of hoping our old ones would break so we could get shiny new ones! But then I started hearing some reports about those new appliances that made me change my mind--mold around the door seal, they don't get clothes very clean because they don't use enough water, lots of repairs, etc. So I changed my mind and started praying my faithful appliances would never break!
Over the past few months, however, our dryer started making some funny noises. It had sounded for awhile like there were rocks in it, tumbling around, but then it started sounding a lot more serious. Last Thursday I put a light load in there of a few clothes and a car seat cover, since Drew could NOT make it home from picking up the girls at basketball practice, as it turned out, and it really sounded bad. I stopped it, took everything out, and Bob took the poor thing apart.
The first thing he did, once he got the front and top off, was to take off the three paddle triangular paddle things inside the dryer. In one of them we found the source of the "rock" noise: $1.58. The interesting thing was seeing how coins look after being in a rock tumbler for years on end! The pennies all shrank terribly, and you can see the zinc underside very clearly. It looks like a rim around the pennies. Also, poor Abe Lincoln is pretty much worn clean off on the ones who have been in there the longest! I put a brand new 2015 penny from our change tub on the far right so you could see the size difference. The dimes and quarters aren't quite as intriguing, but all the ridges are completely worn off the edges, and you can see the copper under the nickel outer coating.
After all that excitement, Bob found the actual source of the problem: this wheel that holds up the dryer. The bolt holding it in had gotten loose, so the wheel shimmied around. Compared to the wheel on the other side, this one looked terrible! Parts on the front had come clean off, and the black rim had really worn down.
Bob found the model number of our dryer and was able to figure out what part we needed on an appliance repair website, so he ordered it. The part finally came in Monday, and he was able to install it last night. I am thrilled to say that not only is the dryer working again, it is practically silent! Our dryer has been reborn! Now maybe it will last 21 more years! Still--one repair in 21 years is a pretty good record, I think. And yay for handy husbands!! Bob is such a blessing!
I am so happy to have it working again. I did 2 loads of laundry Friday, and I brought a huge laundry basket of wet clothes over to the L's house so we could use their dryer during Bible study! It will be nice to show up over there this Friday with just ourselves, lol.
1 comment:
Bob very few things are as manly (and caring) as repairing things around the home , especially complex appliances! Way to go!!!
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