Spent 20 minutes chasing a phantom rattle on a Samsung dryer

Last Tuesday I was working on a Samsung dryer in a basement in Akron. Customer said it was making this loud banging noise every time it ran. I pulled the drum, checked the rollers, even took off the blower wheel. Nothing looked loose. Finally I sat there and just watched it run for a full cycle... turned out a kid had stuffed a plastic toy truck into the bottom vent. That little thing was bouncing around right where the belt runs. Has anyone else had a hidden object waste a ton of time like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_green841d ago

That toy truck story sounds frustrating but the thing that sticks out to me is you said you pulled the drum and checked everything before finding it. Most dryers have a bottom panel you can pop off without taking the whole machine apart... just a couple screws usually. You could've saved yourself 15 minutes by checking down there first when the drum looked clear. Those little plastic toys love to hide in the vent area or behind the blower housing. I've found marbles, coins, even a Lego figure once that was making a clicking noise like a bad bearing. Next time try shining a flashlight through the lint trap opening while the drum is out, sometimes you can spot stuff wedged in the bottom that way before you dive into the full teardown.

spencer_johnson221d ago

I mean, @iris_green84 i get what you're saying about the bottom panel shortcut, but honestly i think that kind of "just pop it open" advice can backfire if you're not careful. Once you start unscrewing random panels without knowing exactly what you're looking for, you might end up creating more problems than you solve. You said you found stuff like marbles and coins in that area, but what if the toy truck was actually stuck in the drum's blower housing or wrapped around the heating element? Then you'd have to take the whole thing apart anyway after wasting time on the easy access. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather do the full teardown once and know for sure everything's clear instead of half-assing it and risking a fire or something later. I've seen people snap those cheap plastic panels trying to pry them off too. So yeah, the bottom panel idea works fine for some things, but for a big toy like a truck i think pulling the drum was the right call even if it took a few extra minutes.