How to do maintenance on a Frigemore dryer

[lebron]

Hi all, I have this Kenmore dryer mod # 417.81142000, and it seems to be taking a little too long to dry. I have it pulled out and am planning on taking the back off and clean it (almost like Dave cleaned his HOH 'tag awhile ago). Any one work on one of these before.. any problem areas?

 

[golittlesport]

When dryers start taking longer and longer to dry, they probably need a good de-linting...and don't forget to clean the exhaust vent line, from where it connects to dryer to outdoors.

I have a Frigidaire dryer and because the exhaust clogged up at the point where it exits the house, lint accumulated in the dryer behind the drum. With a dryer vent cleaning brush kit and a vacumm cleaner I got it cleared out and the dryer now works like new.

I'm going to start checking the exhaust line annually.

 

[laundromat]

The back on these dryers does not come off.It is serviced from the front.You need to first remove the top to get access to the screws to remove the front.After removing the front,get a shop vac and suck up all the lint that may have deposited everywhere as well as any coins or other debres that may have been left in pockets of the clothes dried.Another thing that becomes a rutine issue is the little sensor bar just under the front of the lint filter frame.You can get your compact out (mine is from Max Factor!) to get a view of the silver,metal bar.Take some steel wool and brush the metal bars.What happens is fabric softner(dryer sheets especialy)has wax that builds up on the senser bar and causes them to be less sensitive to the "dryness"of the loads and causes the dryer to not sense the dryness you set on the dial.It will cause the dryer to take longer or shut off before the dryness level set is reached.I would try that before cleaning out the entire assembly.

 

[lebron]

Fixed

I have the drying running at 100% again - it's a decent design, almost borrows some ideas from a HOH

 

[toggleswitch2]

So how did you fix it?

 

[autowasherfreak]

I moved into a trailer in the early 90's that had a Frigidaire Skinny Minnie, and the dryer took forever to dry. I finally pulled the dryer out and found out the vent hose severely clogged, I'm surprised that it didn't catch fire. Instead of cleaning out the vent hose, I replaced it didn't take to much because it was vented through the floor. After that it dried a lot faster, and my electric bill went down a little too.

 

[lebron]

Toggle, I should have taken a picture. The moisture sensor is placed right below the air duct and filter, took this apart and lint was literally caked all along the sensor, so it wasn't doing its job very well. Also moved a large amount of lint/debris stuck in the main duct before the blower. The rest of the dryer was very clean. Auto dry works perfectly now

 

[toggleswitch2]

Thanks!

 

[kenmoreforever]

The 1st time I messed with one of these was a while back. I wondered what Kenmore was thinking whwn the ybuilt it but as time went by I saw that it was really a nice design even for the purist such as I.