OT: Tumble dryer lube?

[T i m]

Hi all,

Last night Mrs tells me the tumble dryer has stopped rotating but making the motor noises. A quick check and it appears the drive belt is either broken of come off it's drive somewhere.

This morning I remove the lid and no sign of a drive belt so it must be broken.

Go get new bet and fit but as I did so I removed and checked / cleaned (de dusted) the smallish plastic idler / tension pulley. Back together I hear the odd metallic screeching / chirruping noise ... like that of an idle pulley running dry. ;-(

Take it to bits again [1] and put a bit of 3 in 1 oil on the spindle, re-assemble and it all seems quiet again ... but for how long?

I sort of expected to see either a real bearing of some sort or an oillite bush (as per the rear drum bearing) but no, just a plain steel spindle with what looks like a steel insert in the pulley.

If it should be (externally) lubed, is there the proper stuff please?

Cheers, T i m

[1] I feared that if the pulley was seizing it might shred the new belt. I might get a new pulley anyway.

[Peter Parry]

Most tumble dryers rely upon two plastic or felt bearing pads (or a complete circular felt bearing around the drum entrance) at the front by the door. These eventually wear and the drum starts to rub on the metal of the casing

eg

If the noise is the idler pulley alone then a drop or two of motor oil is likely to be more use than 3 in 1 but there is a lot of dust on most tumble dryer casings and this will eventually turn the oil into a dust/oil paste so you might want to consider a replacement - most are about £10.

eg

[T i m]

Yup, already changed that when the rear bearing went a good few months ago. The main bearing had collapsed and allowed the drum spigot to eat it's way through the bearing plate, damaging the spigot in the process. Luckily the spigot was available as a replacement and all that side seems to be A-OK still. ;-)

That's what I thought but I didn't want to go down the workshop at 11 last night and wanted to get some washing dry. The 3in1 proved the principal though as it was pretty quiet after application (the frequency of the noise was that of the pulley. Too fast for the drum and too slow for the motor). I did think of just leaving it but was concerned the pulley seizing may have been the cause of the other belt shredding (as it looked ok when I worked on it last)?

There was indeed but lees after a good vacuum out . That's why I just cleaned (rather than 'and lubed') the pulley in the first place but was still suspicious that it might be an issue.

Ours looks exactly like this one:

(which is not surprising considering it's a Zanussi TD534) but compare the 'bearing' with this one:

which is obviously brass, bronze and / or oilite?

I did think of making a new pulley in nylon and fitting a couple of sealed ball races but that might be a bit OTT (but another chance to play on the Myford). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. We may well consider a new dryer ... are condensing types more efficient (less heat being pumped outside possibly, not so good in the summer?), can you plumb the condensate into an outlet (our dryer is on a shelf over the washer). Are gas dryers still worth considering (I have a Corgi mate).

[John]

I guess that something better then 3in1 would see it to the end of its days - I would use my Moly Grease (tin is about 30 years old and still useful)

[Harry Bloomfield]

T i m laid this down on his screen :

I would of thought condensing means it must have a drain due to the constant flow of cold water to provide the condensing action. Our washer /drier - drier part certainly does discharge into the drain.

Pass?

[T i m]

I thought about something 'heavier' but this pulley spins quite fast and is a fairly tight fit on it's spindle so I wasn't sure how much grease I could get in there? I even looked closely to see if there was a groove or some such inside the plain bearing that may hold some grease but alas no.

I even thought of cutting an access hole in the side or bottom of the machine so you could get a bit of lube on there without having to take the machine to bits (and may still do that). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Oh, I thought not checked yet) a condensing dryer just condensed the water (like a de-humidifier) into a container and that would need emptying? I came to that conclusion (possibly illogically) as I have seen note of the capacity of the condensate tanks (no mention needed if it was plumbed in)?

My question based on that was if they normally do empty into a fixed tank, can they (all / some / any) *also* be plumbed in (like some de-humidifiers)?

Ok.

Cheers, T i m

[Graham.]

A waste of distilled water IIHO

[Harry Bloomfield]

I did originally think so, but when you look at the dirt, fluff and other rubbish collected in my dehumidifier's condensate tank....

[T i m]

Agreed, but who uses it anyway?

Most car batteries are sealed these days and irons and things seem able to deal with harder water with their fitters and anti-scale traps etc?

I am running the de-humidifier in the bathroom atm and chucking about

4l of water away / day?

Want it? ;-)

T i m

[brass monkey]

Yes, there's a connector on the back of ours (bog standard white knight

77aw) which usually feeds into the tank, you just disconnect it and plumb it into the kitchen waste. 77aw is a bit of a noisy little devil.

[T i m]

Ah, that makes sense then.

Noisier than any of your previous machines do you think?

Do you feel they are more economical that the vented machines? It must be a good idea to keep all the energy indoors in the winter (offset the heating costs to some degree possibly)?

Cheers, T i m.

[David]

We had the White Knight 77AW in a holiday cottage in Scotland, noisier than any machine we have used and it can get on your nerves.

[Clot]

4l a DAY? That will be using some leccy!

[Peter Parry]

Less actually, they also don't dry as well.

[T i m]

Whilst our 'utility area' is quite away from our bedrooms we can still hear the background rumble of the current dryer. No idea if it could be called loud or not? Time to get the sound level meter on it maybe ...? ;-)

T i m

[T i m]

Oh, is that a generally accepted thing then (age / model for age / model etc)?

Are they a solution for those that can't have an external vent?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Possibly but it's a bit of an experiment (and it's only 300W)?

I'm not sure the built in humidistat is very accurate (see earlier thread) but turned down quite low it seems to at least cycle on and off sometimes.

Cheers, T i m

[David]

We have a portable AC unit which extracts 25l a day, use it only in summer and not for 24 hours.

[Clint Sharp]

In message , T i m writes

Our last one had the tank with the option of fitting a water drain to it, think it was a white Knight. Our new one doesn't, it has a rather large condensate tank.