Found out the hard way that a butter knife can save your butt on a stuck dryer drum

Had a customer call me last week about a dryer that was making this awful grinding noise and wouldn't spin. Figured it was the drum rollers or belt, maybe the motor. Took the whole thing apart, checked everything, nothing looked wrong. Put it back together and it still wouldn't move. I was about to tell her she needed a new machine when I remembered an old tip from a guy I met at a parts counter in Tulsa. He said sometimes the drum just gets wedged against the front panel from lint buildup. So I grabbed a butter knife from her kitchen, slid it between the drum and the front, and gently pried it loose. Thing spun free after that. Felt like an idiot for wasting 2 hours but hey, it worked. Ever had a fix that felt too stupid to try but actually worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

robertb473d ago

Man, that is such a classic move. I had a similar thing happen with my own dryer a few years back. It started making this horrible squealing noise and just stopped mid-cycle. I was ready to drop like 400 bucks on a new one, but my neighbor came over and said "hold on, lemme try something." He just took a wooden spoon, wedged it between the drum and the front, and gave it a little push. The thing started spinning again like nothing ever happened. I felt so dumb for not trying that first but hey, it saved me a whole lot of money and hassle. Sometimes the simplest fixes are the ones you overlook because you think it has to be something big and complicated.

the_lucas2d ago

So you're saying it's a good thing that your neighbor just happened to know this random trick and saved you a bunch of money? When does the good luck run out, though? It's basically gambling with your appliances every time you try something like that instead of just calling someone who actually knows what they're doing. That wooden spoon trick probably only worked because something was just barely stuck, not because it's some kind of magical fix. If the belt was actually gone or the motor was shot, you would have been out the repair fee on top of the wasted time. Sometimes saving a few bucks upfront just means you end up spending more later when it finally breaks for real and you've got a wet pile of clothes.