Temperatures over 20, a bright sun, and a gentle breeze are the foundations to a perfect line dry, but these won’t last forever. While the summer conditions permit us to hang our laundry out to dry (and lower our carbon footprint) now, don’t let the warm weather bamboozle you. Eventually, you’ll have to head back inside and make use of your front-loading dryer. After a whole season spent dormant, you can’t afford to put your first load of autumnal laundry inside and not have it work. You can ensure your dryer is up to the task at any time of the year by following a few simple maintenance tips this summer.
Just like anything else in your home, your dryer will operate more efficiently when it’s kept clean. There are a couple of cleaning tips that you should be familiar with (and a couple that you might not be) that will help your machine run better and help you avoid frustrating work stoppages. Of course, cleaning the lint trap is any homeowner’s first line of defence against unexpected breakdowns. Typically this is the first (and simplest) maintenance technique that people learn of when they first start to use a dryer. You should check the lint trap after every load of laundry, making sure to remove all of the lint, dust, and debris that the trap filtered out. You can take this one step further by running a bristle brush against the trap’s filter to ensure all of the lint is removed. Once clear of lint, take the time to examine the filter. If you see any rips or tears, it’s time to replace the filter. Sometimes, the filter doesn’t stop all of the lint from escaping, so it’s a good idea to have your vacuum handy. When the filter is removed, attach an extendable, slim nose to the vacuum so you can reach deep within the trap’s housing to catch any loose pieces of debris or lint that wasn’t caught by the filter.
Don’t put that vacuum away yet; it can also be used to clean out the inside of your dryer cabinet. Before you do this, be sure to disconnect your dryer from its power source. Once you have unplugged the dryer, you can get to work. There’s no one absolute way to open a dryer’s cabinet, as the technique depends on the specific make and model of your machine, but it’s a fairly simple procedure. For Maytag models, it’s just a matter of removing four screws, disconnecting the door switch, and noting where the screws and wires need to be returned to. After you opened the cabinet, you might be surprised by the amount of lint collected in its body. Run your vacuum in it carefully to suck up anything that shouldn’t be in the cabinet.
These cleaning tips should keep your dryer running better throughout the year; however, if you’re still having trouble with your machine, don’t despair. For such a simple machine, there are plenty of things that can and do go wrong – the worst of which is it just won’t turn on. For any problem you encounter, our expert repair technicians can arrive at an affordable and quick solution. Just take a look at our G+ page to see how we’ve helped others in the past. Once you get in touch, we can send one of our experienced and well-trained dryer repair technicians out to your home. Under their skilled hands, your dryer will be up and running again and the transition from the laundry line to machine dry will be a smooth one.
