my dryer doesn't dry my clothes

[DragonfliiMama]

seriously, it takes an hour and a half to two hours to dry just one load. I set it to the maximum time and then have to listen for it to end and go restart it, sometimes twice. Meanwhile the load in the washer is just sitting there and that load's not getting dry either. Any suggestions for how to improve my drying time?

[Rabbit]

Clean your dryer and its vents.

Start with the filter in the machine, and vacuum down into the space behind the filter as far as you can get. Then move the dryer out, and vacuum, sweep and mop up all the lint behind it. After that, disconnect the vent pipe or tubing and clean in there. Finally, go round to the outlet, outside of the house, and remove the grates or vent covers, and clean that out as thoroughly as you can. When you've got it all put back together, the dryer should run like new!

[2sunshines]

throw a dry towel in with your wet clothes. That will help dry the wet clothes faster.

[ShiriChayim]

come wash clothes at your sister's place, my drier works fine ;)

[DragonfliiMama]

i will try the dry towel trick.

as for cleaning the vents - i always clean the filter and almost always clean out the door spaces. I can't pull the machine away from the wall or reach any of those other spots, b/c we live in an apartment. the dryer is above the washer and the whole combined thing is tucked into a tiny little nook, I'm not sure if it's even possible to move it at all. And I certainly can't get to the outside of the house. I have no idea where it would come out!

I suppose I could call the apartment office though.

[Rabbit]

I would absolutely call maintenance. You're paying a lot of extra in electricity and time, when cleaning out the vent could fix it all.

[anjelika]

Is it an electric or gas-powered dryer? I ask because we used to have an electric - which took hours for each load (at least 2 cycles). When we moved to our new house, the old owner left a dryer that ran from natural gas - dries clothes no problem. Maybe that's part of it?

I would definitely call management though - wouldn't hurt to do vent cleaning!

And I will have to try the dry towel trick!

[expatmom]

If this is a change in how your dryer used to work, then you definitely need to call your maintenance company. It is a fire hazard to not be able to clean the tubing & the outlet.

[pastelsummer]

I would call maintenece and have them come look at it. untill then


come wash clothes at your sister's place, my drier works fine ;)


:giggle :giggle I think someone is lonely!! Not sure if she lives close by but maybe take her up on it if she does!

[DragonfliiMama]

Sadly, she doesn't. :sadno I would love to go do laundry and hang out with her, if only!

The dry towel did help, some. I know that it would also take less time if I switch the dryer to high heat instead of low, but I am concerned that my clothes will shrink if I do that. Most of the care instructions say to use low heat. And I really ought to be able to use low heat for clothes that need it!

I'll have to call the apt office but I'm not sure when I'll get a chance. I don't really like to have them come in when we aren't here.

[diamondintherough]

It could be that your heating element is going. Dh fixed ours and said it wasn't too hard and the part was inexpensive. Do you own the machine or does the apartment complex? Before I did anything with the dryer, I would take Rabbit's advice to clean out all the lint from everywhere and call maintenance for the stuff you can't get to.

[Lady TS]

Did it just recently start not working right?

Does it get hot?
(Could the kids have switched it over to air dry instead of the setting you usually use? :shifty)

Or maybe the heating element went out. I'd call maintenance and have them take a look.

oops--diamondintherough beat me on the heating element comment! :)

[DragonfliiMama]

It doesn't get hot, that I've noticed. No kids around the house, so if anyone switched it, it'd be dh, but I don't think he did. And this isn't really a recent thing, I've just been dealing with it until I got fed up with it. But I can't remember now if it's always been like this since we moved in or if it's gotten worse over time. And it belongs to the apt complex.

[Beauty4Ashes]

My dad put ours up on 2x4s so that the dryer hose wouldn't get kinked. If something is blocking the flow of air, the clothes won't get dry.

[illinoismommy]

We just had to replace the heating piece of our dryer. It was coming and going and not getting very hot.

[diamondintherough]

If the apartment complex owns it, I would definitely get them out there to fix it. :yes I'm still guessing it's the heating element, but the maintenance worker should be able to figure it out.

[gentlemommy]

:popcorn We have this prob too.