Update: the $4 magnet trick saved me a 2 hour tear-down on a dryer

Had a dryer last Tuesday that kept shutting off after 10 minutes, and I was about to pull the whole drum to chase the thermal fuse. Before that, I ran a magnet along the vent hose and pulled out a wad of sheet metal screws the last guy left inside. The screws were bouncing against the blower wheel and tripping the safety switch, not a bad fuse at all. Cost me $4 for the magnet at a hardware shop on 5th and saved me a full afternoon of labor. Any of you keep a magnet in your bag for this kind of thing, or am I late to this one?

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spencer_chen68d ago

Pulling the drum to chase a fuse you didn't confirm was bad is the real problem here, not the missing magnet. A meter on the fuse takes two minutes and tells you if it's open or not. The screws were a good find, but running a magnet through a vent hose should be step one on every dryer call, not a lucky save. You got the right result for the wrong reason and almost ate an afternoon for it.

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