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I spent a whole year replacing dryer thermostats for a noise that was just a sock | Appliance Repairers - Opinions Matter

olivert18•6mo ago

I spent a whole year replacing dryer thermostats for a noise that was just a sock

Had a call for a dryer making a high pitched squeal, and for the life of me I couldn't find a bad bearing or belt. The sound only happened under load, so I kept thinking it was a heat issue. I must have swapped out three different thermostats on that same Whirlpool model over twelve months for different customers, always the same fix in my head. The tip off was last week when a guy in Mesa said his 'squealing' stopped after his wife did a load of towels. I asked him to run it empty, and sure enough, quiet as a mouse. Told him to check the drum, and he pulled out a single, hard, crusty athletic sock that had been wedged up near the front seal. The sound was that thing scraping around once per turn. Felt like a real genius. Anyone else ever chase a 'repair' that turned out to be something stupid simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wyatt6mo ago

My old shop had a rule to run every dryer empty first, which would've saved you a year. Noah_davis is right about checking for junk, but that sound can really trick you.

noah_davis6mo ago

Oh come on, that's just being a bad tech. A real pro would've caught that in the first visit. You hear a noise under load, you check for foreign objects right after the bearings. That's basic stuff. I bet you charged all those people for thermostats they didn't need. A sock makes a totally different sound than a bad bearing or a belt squeal. Sounds like you got lazy and just started throwing parts at it instead of doing the real work to listen close.

viola_reed6mo ago

Spot on about the lazy diagnosis. See this everywhere now, people just doing the easy surface check instead of real work. It's like when a customer service bot gives you the same useless link three times instead of reading your question. Everyone wants the quick fix, the fast answer, even if it's wrong. That tech didn't want to spend the extra ten minutes really listening, so he cost people money and trust. The world is full of that half effort.