Rant: That $80 part I replaced 3 times before figuring out the real problem

I wasted 4 hours and $240 on a Kenmore dryer heating element (part 3387134) before I realized the vent was clogged with lint from the roof down. A friend told me to check the outside vent first, but I didn't listen. Has anyone else thrown money at a part when the real fix was something simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_foster9216d ago

Did you end up pulling the whole vent apart from the outside or did you just stick a leaf blower in there? Because I had a similar situation with a vent that had a big kink right where it went through the wall, and no amount of blowing from the dryer side would fix it since the pipe was basically pinched shut. Once you got the roof vent cleared out, did you notice any other buildup further down the line that might have been the real choke point?

scott.drew16d ago

Ngl, that hurts to read. I've been there myself with a similar issue on a gas furnace. Did you actually check the vent before you started swapping parts, or did you just assume it was the heating element based on the symptoms? I'm asking because it's so easy to get tunnel vision when you're staring at a broken machine. After the second replacement, what finally made you stop and question the vent? Because that's the real key, getting yourself to pause and think outside the box.

john65016d ago

Have you checked if your house has an unusually long or twisted vent path that rats or birds might have nested in? That's what got me on a similar issue where the blockage was deep enough that blowing air from inside didn't show it. It's a nasty surprise when the builder took a shortcut with the duct routing.