Tumble dryer woes

I'd look at the brushes first.

The fluff won't help, but, it could be the motor needs new carbon brushes and a belt. If the machine is coming up for its second birthday, it's better to change both carbons and belt at the same time. Don't fall into the trap of "The Belt Looks Fine" because the motor with new brushes will show you it's not.

If your machine has an induction motor, without carbon brushes, the most likely problem is fluffy stuff. The burning smell will be dust in the motor housing, so make sure you vacuum the motor out as well. But change the belt on this as well. Don't fall into the same trap. You can keep the existing one as a spare, but change the belt. Honestly. Believe me. I've been there too many times. :-)

Have fun, and good luck with it.

snip

Is this the clue?

Most dryers from recollection will not take the same load that a washing machine does. A full load from the washing machine is not being transferred to the dryer is it?

Well yes it is, the drum in the dryer is larger than the drum in the washer. Also it has been happy with a full load of wet washing for about 4 years now.

Does this sound wrong?

If it's been working well like that for 4 years, it would suggest it is ok. The fact that the drum is physically larger does not mean that it is intended to take either the same weight or more than the washer. What do the destruction manuals advise regarding weight?

The bit that has been getting me, and probably only because of my interpretation, is "wet washing". Surely, by the time you put it into the drier, it should only be damp? If it really is wet, that will be much, much heavier than the same material when only damp.

Probably just me...

Drier drums are larger to allow the washing to 'tumble'. Hence the name 'tumble drier' :-)

Yeah I meant damp.

Because I wanted to know, I checked. On John Lewis site, most are at least 6kg capacity, even the cheapest - which is the same as most washing machines. (Mind the comnbination washer/dryers are dreadful for tumble capacity.)

Thanks for the information. I suspect that the dryers have grown in capacity over the years. Definitely was not the case for us a few years ago.... counts, well could be decades!

We had a combined one back in the eighties which was dreadful both in the length of time for drying and also that you had to remove some of the contents between washing and drying. Philco Bendix IIRC.

The message from Rod contains these words:

But surely the clothes are DRY when you put them into the washing machine but DAMP and therefore heavier when you put them into the drier?

Indeed. So the way I took the measurement was 6kg dry cotton into w/m then simply transfer the contents to a dryer. (This seemed all the more likely as the range of capacities in w/m and dryers is identical - 6 to

However, on the Siemens site they use the phrase "7kg wet washing capacity" - for all but one of their tumbles. So I am now wondering...

(And we haven't even got a dryer.)