Tumble Dryer Repair

[Peter Able]

It is overwhelmingly likely that you cleared the fault by random physical manipulation of the beast. Brawn over Brain. As for whether it is a permanent fix . . . !

PA

[GB]

Our 23 year old tumble dryer (!) stopped heating the air, although the rest of it worked.

So, I dismantled it, couldn't find what was wrong, cleaned it, and put it back together. About 6 hours altogether. It now works perfectly.

Please, please reassure me that disconnecting it from the electricity would not have reset it without all the dismantling?

Miele T430, by the way.

[Chris Green]

It doesn't have a safety temperature cut-out does it? They often take quite a while to reset themselves. I suppose the cut-out *might* reset when you disconnect the power.

[misterroy]

the clean might have done enough

[T i m]

Well done for keeping it that long. Many would have thrown it away just because it was 'old'. ;-(

It's nice when it's all back and clean isn't it? When I finally stripped ours just recently I found quite a level of fluff furring on the insides of some of the ducts that you wouldn't normally be able to get to *unless* you were really taking it completely to bits (things that were held on / together / sealed with double sided tape etc).

Result. ;-)

Erm ... no, *bound* to have been a bad connection on the heater somewhere. ;-)

I think we have all done that sort of thing and at least yours is still working. It's worse when you find nothing, break something

*then* find the original cause was something trivial. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[newshound]

I agree that this is the most likely explanation, the alternative is that it was so furred up that the overheating trip was operating all the time.

Either way, the full strip is the way to go.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes could have just been a connection a bit corroded, but normally when that happens the heat melts the block or seizes up the screw. I think I'd have waited a day before I dismantled it but if it is overheating it will happen again unless you found the blockage and removed the lint and general crud inside it..

Brian

[GB]

You lot were absolutely right. It stopped working again, and I had to strip it down.

The thermal cut-out had completely overheated itself and fallen to pieces. Somehow or other my last bit of fettling had pushed the contacts together temporarily.

To get to the heater on this model involves removing the drum, which is bloody stupid. They altered the design later, to put a little hatch in the back to reach the part easily. As it is, it's a major dismantle and rebuild. I did the rebuild, even though I didn't have the part required, just to make sure that I could remember where everything goes. :)

[Thomas Prufer]

Eh, at that point I would have made a little hatch with a hole saw...

Thomas Prufer

[GB]

Last night, after I had reassembled it, I thought the same. It's too late now, as I'd have to disassemble it to see where to put the hatch.

[Fredxx]

There are a lot of resettable thermal / over current fuses that require the power supply to be removed to reset the fuse.