Dryer Repair for Dummies

Commercial clothes dryer

Whether or not they're white, household appliances are mysterious black boxes to the average homeowner. So we can easily picture Mr. or Ms. Homeowner googling the symptoms of misbehaving labor-saving devices like dishwashers, washers and dryers. eHow.com understood that, too, which is why their stable of crack freelancers had many, many, many appliance-related questions to answer (at something like fifteen bucks a pop). The problem, of course, was that the people answering the question often had no more idea what was wrong with the appliance than the person asking it. Such a case is repeat dumbass Nicole Papagiorgio, who collected her stipend for "telling" everyone what to do if your "Kenmore Dryer Buzzes And Won't Start When the Start Button Is Pressed"¹ - sort of...

Apparently, Nicole was not all that familiar with fixing dryers, dryers in general, and -- for that matter -- Kenmore. The first line of her introduction gave that away:  "Kenmore is a clothes dryer manufacturer that makes both electric and gas models." No, Nicole, Kenmore is the brand name of appliances sold by Sears (though the company has the brand name up for sale). The manufacturer of those many appliances differs with the model, but may include Maytag, Whirlpool, GE, Frigidaire, KitchenAid, and others. In other words, your credibility is shot by the sixth word.

Nicole went on to tell us why the dryer is buzzing, simply that the drum isn't turning. She then explained two possible reasons: the door isn't closed and there's something wedged in the frame preventing the drum from turning. Both are possible, both are easily checked. Her final answer was to perform a hard reset, which she told us can be accomplished by

"Simply switch[ing] off the dryer at the main home circuit breaker for 30 minutes, then turn it back on."

We think she meant "switch off the dryer circuit at the breaker panel," though we have to wonder why she didn't simply instruct people to unplug the dryer. We do, however, have to give her props for not instructing the owner to verify that the power is on: unlike some eHowians, she seemed conscious enough to figure out that the buzzer requires power (at least this time)... 

Be that as it may, Nicole's chief problem was that she didn't go all the way through the troubleshooting process: a likely cause of the problem is a broken or slipped drive belt, a condition she didn't mention at all. It's fairly easy for a competent DIYer to fix, and almost anyone can call a repairman.  So why didn't Ms Papagiorgio mention it? We're left to assume that 1) it's because her "references" didn't mention it and 2) she hadn't the faintest idea how dryers work. Answering questions for which you don't know the answers yourself? That's one of the Antisocial Network's most important criteria when it comes to naming our Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was ehow.com/how_7917784_kenmore-start-start-button-pressed.html

copyright © 2015-2022 scmrak

SE - APPLIANCES