...and after completely gutting this dryer,
I still couldn't find anything wrong with it.
I've started to notice that my electric dryer,
which is really only about four or five years old,
doesn't seem to be drying as well as it used to.
I frequently have to re-dry things,
put it on a whole other cycle because everything is still damp
at the end of the cycle, which is just aggravating
and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of extra energy that shouldn't be necessary.
I know the belt's not broken, because it still tumbles just fine,
so it's got to be something else.
Now my first thought was that maybe the
heating element in the dryer is starting to "go bad."
But it turns out that the heating element either works or doesn't work.
It doesn't go bad slowly.
And it is still getting warm in there.
So I think the more likely issue here is that
something is blocking the vent system, so that that moist air gets trapped
inside the dryer, and the clothes never really get fully dry.
I do actually frequently clean out my dryer vents, and in fact,
I've done a couple of videos about how to do that when you have a long
distance to go from the dryer to the outside of the house.
So I'm fairly certain that it's not clogged within the vent.
But I did get in there with a flashlight and my camera, just to see
if it looked like anything maybe had crawled up in there and died,
or maybe built a nest in there,
but it seems to be completely clear.
So I think the issue is probably somewhere inside the dryer
AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Just kidding.
Yeah I don't feel anything in there.
There's nothing obstructing that, so that's good.
Always make sure it's unplugged before you do anything like this.
Love this thing, by the way! This thing is awesome!
Gyroscopic screwdriver from Dewalt.
I'm not even sponsored by Dewalt -- I just freaking love this thing.
Seriously, buy this for somebody this Christmas, it's awesome.
All right, let's see...
Pencil,
a screw,
safety pin,
an earring,
another safety pin.
Oh my gosh, that's for my sunglasses!
A tiny little nail
(laughing) This is my life, by the way.
This is a good story of my life right here.
The fan spins.
Seems like it's unobstructed, so that's good.
See there is some stuff in here, so we'll get that out.
Otherwise it's actually pretty empty.
By the way this flashlight is another great Christmas gift.
Check this out:
All right I'm gonna vacuum all my stuff out with a little shop vac here
This right here is the heating element,
and although I don't really want to mess with it too much,
because it is still heating, and you know,
"If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it..."
But I do want to take a look at it while I'm here,
just to make sure it looks like it's still in good condition.
I might as well, since I'm already here.
It's pretty small actually. I'm kind of kind of surprised at how small this guy is.
But it doesn't look like there's any breaks as far as I can tell.
Since I've already gone this far with it,
I'm going to test this sucker for continuity.
Testing for continuity, which you do with a multimeter,
is just a way of confirming that electrical current can
get from one end of the heating element to the other.
Sometimes heating elements are made up of two separate coils,
so it's possible for one to go out while the other one still works.
So you'll get heat, just not as much heat.
In my case, they appear to be one complete coil,
so I don't think this is the issue with mine, since it's still heating.
But I'm going to try it out just to make sure
First thing I have to do, though, is remove it from
the whole appliance, which is a little bit tough.
I don't want to break anything in here for sure.
OW!!!
*%#@*!
Cut my finger open, look at that.
Lovely
This is our multimeter, and it's got these probes that come with it.
And you may need to read your instructions for your particular
multimeter, because they're all a little bit different, but for mine you put the black
probe into that, you put the red probe onto this side over here,
and then mine actually has a sound setting
to test for continuity, so I'll switch it over to the sound.
I'm just gonna set this up right here so you guys can see it.
Then you touch these guys to the terminals here on the heating element,
and if it makes a sound that means there is continuity (audible high-pitched tone).
Trying to be super careful with these.
(audible high-pitched tone)
All right, that one's good.
(high pitched tone)
Some modern dryers also happen to have moisture sensor bars on the inside of
the drum, which can sometimes go bad and need to be replaced.
And they're fairly inexpensive.
Mine doesn't happen to have those though.
At that point I had checked everything you could possibly check on a dryer
to figure out what was wrong,
and couldn't find a damn thing wrong with this.
Everything about it is functioning completely normally.
So I just went about my life, and did some laundry a few days later,
and then something occurred to me.
Now if anybody wants to call me on my crazy on this, comment below.
For the last month or so here, it has been ridiculously humid.
The kind of humid where you wake up in the morning,
and all of your windows are completely covered in condensation .
And I realized that every time I found laundry that was still damp in the dryer
after having been run, it was usually the next morning because I didn't take it out
the same day, or maybe I waited a couple of days.
And so I'm wondering if the humidity from outside
is making its way up into that dryer all the way through this vent.
That may seem a little bit far-fetched,
because that's got a long way to go to get into my dryer.
But if you knew how humid it was here,
it wouldn't seem like it was that crazy.
Now my first thought...
(Dryer turns on) Whups... (laughing)
Oooooo!
(Dryer shuts off)
Accidentally turned the dryer on.
Woo hoo! It's a whole different kind of video now.
(Turns on again)
Oh nothing, I'm filming.
Don't come in here! Don't come in here!
(Laughing)
Oh my God, I hope my daughters never watch this.