The Dryer Fiasco

Okay, so here's the conclusion to our dryer story. When we got home after our "Practice Photo Shoot" Robby inspected the dryer further by removing more of the back panels and found that the blower wheel (AKA fan) had broken. The noise we had heard was the broken pieces getting thrown around in the back of the dryer.

After a little research Robby found that the price of a new blower wheel would be about $17. Relieved that it was cheap and appeared easy enough to replace he figured he could do it and save us the cost of a repairman. So, Monday I went and purchased the part, and Tuesday he embarked on fixing the dryer. Little did he know what a project he got himself into!

Tuesday morning I went shopping and when I got home this is what I found:

I never knew what the inside of the dryer looked like! Neither did Robby! Nor did he expect to find out!

When I arrived home he said he I had perfect timing because he need someone to hold the motor shaft inside the dryer while he unscrewed the blower wheel from the back. After several attempts to unscrew the blower wheel Robby began to get discouraged becasue he could not get a good grip, and wheel wouldn't budge. After all the frustration he had gone through taking the dryer apart to access the motor shaft, he began to think that we might have to pay a repairman after all!

At this point we took a break and I suggested that he do a little more research on the web while I picked Little Robby up from school. While I was gone he called me on the cell and asked if I thought he should spend $5 to see a web video of a guy doing the same repair on our brand of dryer. I said yes since I figured what's $5 more dollars even if we still have to call a repairman. Who knows it might reveal the secret.

And guess what, it did! What we didn't know was that there was a clip just inside the dryer that went over the part of the blower wheel attached to the motor shaft. The guy in the video simply pried it off with a screwdriver and then positioned two wrenches just so and unscrewed the blower wheel with a sharp twist!


What took Robby about four hours to do, would probably have only taken about 30 to 45 mintues had we had a clue as to what we were doing! Hey, you have to be impressed with Robby's perserverance through it all! At least he came out successful in the end! And we saved ourselves $70, right?