Finally got that stuck drawstring out of the dryer drum

Same thing happened to me with a hoodie drawstring last winter, except mine got sucked almost all the way through the drum seal and only about an inch of the cord was still hanging out. Pulling was a mistake, it just fed more of the string through and I figured it was gone for good.

What saved it was working from the other side. I pulled the lint screen out and shone a flashlight into the slot, and sure enough the end of the cord was coiled up right there near the blower housing. A long pair of tweezers from my wife's sewing kit reached it, and I slowly worked it out the way it came in. Took maybe ten minutes and I never had to open anything up.

Since then I tie the drawstrings in a loose knot before anything with cords goes in the wash. Looks a bit lazy but I haven't lost one since. My neighbor actually buttons the strings through the buttonhole on his hoodies, wich works too if yours has one.

When mine snagged on those little drum holes, I made the same mistake of yanking on it, except my cord was allready old and frayed, so it snapped right at the plastic tip. Left me holding an inch of string and nothing else. At that point I figured the easiest fix was just to replace the whole thing anyway. I got the rest of the old cord out by working it back and forth through the hole with a crochet hook untill enugh poked through to grab. Then I threaded a new cord by taping it to a safety pin and feeding it through the channel in the waistband, same way you'd re-string anything else. Took maybe ten minutes and a new drawstring cord was only a couple bucks at the fabric store.

Honestly, if the tip on yours is still intact, your approach was the better one. But for anyone whose cord breaks mid-rescue like mine did, don't panic about the piece stuck inside. It can't really go anywhere once the drum spins, and fishing the leftover bits out later is way easier than you'd think. A bent paperclip works almost as well as the crochet hook if that's what you've got on hand.

I had a belt loop that got snagged when I was loading clothes. It wasn't a drawstring, but it got caught on the inside metal wall somehow, way back near the bottom. I just started shaking the whole machine really hard, hoping it whould pop loose. That didn't work at all, and it just seemed to make the catch tighter. I'm kind of worried about messing up something inside near where the heat comes from. If something gets stuck deep inside near the heating parts, is there a simple way to grab it without having to tear the dryer apart?

Mine wound around one of the drum fin screws once, which was a whole different headache. Couldn't see it at first becuase the string had wrapped itself under the fin, so every spin cycle just twisted it tighter. Ended up taking the fin off from inside the drum, three screws, and the cord was basially cocooned around the shaft. Cut it free and re-tied a new tip on. These days anything with strings goes in a mesh laundry bag. Cheap fix and I quit worrying about it.