Tag Archives: appliance maintenance

A full load of laundry should dry in 45 to 55 minutes on a standard cycle. If yours is taking 90 minutes, two cycles, or coming out still damp, something is wrong. The good news is that the most common cause costs nothing to fix. Start there before assuming the dryer needs a part. Our Halifax dryer repair team sees this every week, and the diagnosis usually takes about five minutes on site.

The most common cause (and it is free to fix)

About 60 percent of slow dryer calls come back to the same thing: a lint trap that has not been cleaned recently. Most people know to clean it after every load. But here is what most people miss: dryer sheets leave a nearly invisible waxy film on the mesh screen over time. You can clean the lint off every cycle and still end up with a screen that is about 30 to 40 percent blocked.

Test it now: pull out the lint trap and run it under water. If water pools on the mesh instead of running straight through, the screen has a wax buildup. Wash it with warm soapy water and a soft brush, let it dry completely, and reinstall it. Many people have reported a dramatic improvement in drying time from this single step.

While you are at it, check the drum itself. You should feel a steady flow of warm air when the dryer runs. Stick your hand in (with it running empty for a few seconds) and check. Weak airflow with a clean lint trap points immediately to a blocked vent run.

Other airflow problems

If the lint trap is clean and drying is still slow, the blockage is further down the system. Work through these in order:

The vent hose at the back

Pull the dryer away from the wall and look at the flexible hose connecting the dryer exhaust port to the wall duct. Accordion-style hoses kink easily when the dryer is pushed too close. A 90-degree kink in that hose can cut airflow almost entirely. Straighten it out, then push the dryer back while watching the hose does not re-kink. If the hose is the thin foil type, it is worth replacing with a semi-rigid metal duct. The foil type collapses and traps lint much more easily.

The exterior vent flap

Go outside and find where your dryer vents to the exterior, usually on an exterior wall or sometimes through the roof on multi-storey homes. Run the dryer and check that the flap opens freely when the dryer runs. If the flap is stuck shut, is blocked by debris, or has a bird or mouse nest in it (a Halifax wintertime classic), no air is escaping. The dryer runs, heats, and recirculates the same damp air in a loop.

Total vent run length

Dryer vents should be under 25 feet in total length. Each 90-degree elbow in the run adds the equivalent of 5 feet to that calculation. If your laundry room is in a basement or a back corner of the house, your vent run might be close to or over that limit. Dryers in those situations run longer by design, but if yours has gotten noticeably worse over time, lint accumulation in a long run is a likely cause.

When it is a part failure inside the dryer

If you have worked through all the airflow checks and drying is still slow, the problem is inside the dryer. Here are the most likely culprits by dryer type:

Electric dryer: heating element or thermal fuse

If your electric dryer runs but produces no heat, or very little heat, the most common causes are a burned-out heating element or a blown thermal fuse. The thermal fuse is a one-time safety device that blows when the dryer overheats, often because of a blocked vent. Replace the fuse, and also find and clear the vent blockage that caused it to blow. If you only replace the fuse without clearing the vent, it will blow again within a few months.

Gas dryer: igniter or gas valve coils

A gas dryer that tumbles but does not heat usually has a failed igniter or a set of gas valve coils (also called valve solenoids) that are not opening the gas line. These are inexpensive parts but require someone comfortable working on gas appliances. A qualified appliance tech can swap them in under an hour.

Moisture sensor bars

Most modern dryers have two metal sensor bars inside the drum that detect moisture in the load. When clothes touch them repeatedly, a coating of dryer sheet residue builds up on the bars over time. A coated sensor reads “dry” earlier than it should, shutting the cycle off before the clothes are actually done. Or, if the sensor is badly coated, the dryer may run for the full timed cycle rather than the auto-dry cycle. Clean the sensor bars with a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cloth. They are usually two silver strips about two inches long near the lint trap opening.

Cycling thermostat failure

The cycling thermostat regulates heat during the cycle. A failing thermostat may cause the dryer to shut off heat too early, or not reach its set temperature consistently. You will notice clothes that are warm but still damp after a full cycle, with no obvious airflow issue. This requires a multimeter test to confirm and a part replacement that is usually $60 to $120 in parts and labour.

How Halifax humidity makes this worse

Halifax sits on the Atlantic coast, and our ambient humidity is meaningfully higher than inland Canadian cities. This has a direct effect on dryers in two ways.

First, clothes often come out of a Halifax washer holding more moisture than they would in a drier climate. The spin cycle does not extract moisture as efficiently when the ambient humidity is high. This is not a dryer problem, it is physics, but it means Halifax dryers are often working a bit harder than a comparable dryer in Calgary.

Second, lint clings more aggressively in humid conditions. In dry climates, lint tends to collect loosely in the trap and shake out easily. In Halifax, lint can cake and compact, especially in the vent hose and at bends in the duct run. If you have never had your full vent run cleaned out professionally (not just the lint trap), and your dryer is more than a year or two old, there is a reasonable chance there is significant lint buildup somewhere in that run. The Bedford and Sackville areas, where many homes have longer vent runs through unheated crawlspaces, see this more often than central Halifax properties.

Recommended vent cleaning schedule for Halifax households: every 12 months for a one or two person household, every six months if you have three or more people or pets in the home.

How to diagnose the cause at home

Work through this in order. Most slow dryer problems are resolved by step three.

1. Clean the lint trap with warm soapy water and run the water test described above. Let it dry fully before reinstalling.
2. Run a test cycle empty and feel for airflow at the exterior vent flap. Good airflow should be clearly perceptible from a foot away.
3. Pull the dryer out and inspect the vent hose. Straighten any kinks. If it is the foil accordion type, consider replacing it.
4. Clean the moisture sensor bars inside the drum with rubbing alcohol.
5. Check the exterior vent flap for debris, nesting material, or a flap that is stuck.
6. If none of the above fixes it, run a timed dry cycle instead of an auto-dry cycle. If the dryer now dries properly on timed mode, the moisture sensor or thermostat is the likely issue. If timed mode is also slow, the problem is heat (element, fuse, or gas components).

When to call a tech

Call a technician if:

• The dryer runs but produces no heat on either the auto or timed cycle.
• The dryer shuts off after 10 to 15 minutes and the clothes are still cool (thermal limiter tripping).
• You have cleared and inspected the full vent run and drying is still taking 90-plus minutes.
• There is a loud rumbling, scraping, or squealing noise from the drum (bearing or glide wear).
• The dryer smells like burning rubber or hot plastic.

For gas dryers, do not attempt to test or replace gas valve components unless you are comfortable with that work. The parts are inexpensive and the repair is straightforward, but it needs to be done correctly.