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Spent 4 hours on a dryer that just needed the vent cleaned, and I'm still mad about it
Last Tuesday I rolled up to a house in Mesa for a no heat call on a 6 year old electric dryer, and I was sure it was the heating element or the thermal fuse. I pulled the whole thing apart, tested every part with my meter, and everything read fine, which made zero sense. Turns out the vent line was packed solid with lint about 12 feet in, so the dryer was tripping its safety cutoff every few minutes. Four hours of my day gone for a job that a $30 vent brush and 20 minutes would have fixed. I get why customers never think to check it, but honestly some of these calls should start with the vent before I even touch a screwdriver. What's your rule for when to check the vent first versus digging into the machine?
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the_max22d ago
I'm gonna push back on this one. Checking the vent first sounds smart until you burn a $90 service call pulling a dryer out and finding a clean vent and a dead heating element anyway, which happens plenty. Vent clogs usually show up as long dry times or the dryer getting hot but not drying clothes, not a total no heat shutdown. A six year old electric dryer with no heat at all points straight at the element, the fuse, or the thermostat way more often than a clogged line. I've seen packed vents cause overheat trips, sure, but that's usually after 15 or 20 minutes of running, not right away. You did what most of us would do, tested the machine because the machine was the thing acting up. The real lesson here isn't check the vent first, it's ask the customer how long dry times have been and whether the outside flap is opening before you load the van. Half these diagnosis shortcuts people preach online only work when you already know the answer.
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