How to Clean the Dryer

I recently posted on how to clean your washing machine and after that post I had a reader, Kathy, email me a post that she had done on cleaning her dryer. Her tutorial is very thorough, I don’t know if I could have done it better myself. Of course I asked her if I could share it with you, my lovely readers, and she said yes! Yay! So here is Kathy’s post. She has a new blog–Kathy’z Chats–so after reading this head over and give her some love. 🙂
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I was enjoying my evening when I heard it – squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. It didn’t take me long to find the source, I was doing laundry and my 10 year old dryer was squeaking and it was getting louder. This was one of those moments where I wish I could yell out, “Honey, the dryer is squeaking, please fix it!” However, there is one problem with that – there is no “Honey” because I am a single woman. Now, I know that I could have called my dad, he’s always quick to rescue me in these situations but that’s not always necessary because this woman LOVES to fix things!! I’ve always had my own tools and I know how to use them (even when I can’t figure things out, I improvise). I was actually giddy when I moved into this house 2 months ago and I took an entire afternoon to set up my workbench.

And yes, my toolbox is purple!!

The first thing that I did was to unplug the dryer and I always tape the plug so it doesn’t fall behind the appliance.

Then I emptied my dryer and took off the top of the dryer. (When you open your dryer door, there are 2 screws facing up, just take out the screws and the top of the dryer comes off easily).

Everything looked ok, the belt didn’t seem loose but there was a lot of dirt and lint. I did call my dad at this point and he suggested that the dryer may not be level. I got out my level and sure enough, the little bubble was not in between the lines. I then got out one of my most valuable items on my workbench, my block of wood. The block of wood is something that no home should be without, you’d be surprised at some of the things that I use it for. Today, it was just enough to place underneath the front of my dryer so I could raise and lower the dryer legs to level it. This is done by trial and error and all that you have to do is turn them.

Once this was done, I plugged the dryer back in, turned it on and WOW, no more squeaking!!! As I stood there and admired my work I noticed how dirty my dryer was. I mean, disgustingly dirty!! Since I already had the top off, I figured that it was a good time to clean it. I gathered my cleaning materials.

then my assistant showed up.

Taco

The best thing to use for appliance cleaning is vinegar, it really works well and no scrubbing is required, the dirt wipes right off. One of my favorite cleaning tools is a paintbrush. I use it for all of the small nooks and cranny’s when I clean anything. Remember to remove the knobs and clean them also.

Before

After

The most important thing to clean in the dryer is the lint screen. You’d be surprised the invisible gunk from fabric softener and dryer sheets that collects in the screening. (Run yours under the faucet and you’ll see that the water does not spray steadily through it, hence, the invisible gunk)! I use HOT water, dish soap and a small brush and then you know that it’s really clean. Remember, the leading causes of house fires come from the kitchen and clothes dryers.

Once that was all done, I wiped down the inside of the drum and I could believe how much dirt there was. This is the appliance where we put our CLEAN clothes in – how could it be so dirty???? This was the mess at the end: