My clothes dryer began misbehaving on Sunday. The heating element failed, and it took 8 hours to properly dry a load of clothes. Super Hubs got out his “Fix-It Yourself Manual” and wondered and pondered and flipped pages. Then he cleaned out the vent and declared the dryer "cured." The dryer obediently heated up for about 30 minutes, then went back to it’s former misbehaving status. So Super Hubs called and made an appointment for a GE Service Person to come and take a look.
Requesting and receving an audience with a GE Service Person is like trying to meet with The Duke of Gloucester: The appointments are golden. And, in the GE Royal Pecking Order, I, The Consumer, sit at the very bottom of the feeding pond. I need to take whatever appointment I can get and be grateful. So the service call was to be today, any time between 8am and 5pm. The company would not be any more specific than that, because they assumed I had nothing better to do than stay at my house and wait. (I actually didn’t have anything better to do. The only thing on my agenda was to empty the dishwasher, which I could very well do while waiting. But that’s hardly the point.)
While I was waiting, I plopped a load of wet clothes into the dryer, and noticed, with confusion, that the dryer was heating properly again. I texted Super Hubs to ask if I should cancel the service call. But he reminded me that the dryer was temperamental at best, with the heating element working only intermittently. So I waited some more, and then I got an automated message that the GE Service Person was about to grace my home with his presence, and to please lock up my dog promptly (which I deferred to do, just in case the GE Service Person had a second job as a Serial Killer.)
The GE Service Person showed up at noon in large, muddy work boots, glanced at my dryer, and told me curtly that if the dryer was currently working, there was nothng to be fixed. He did an about-face, and marched out the door, leaving, in his wake, a trail of dirty footprints on my white carpet.
My appliances consistently conspire to make me look like an idiot. I swear they have meetings about this when I go to sleep at night. So I am guessing that tomorrow my dryer’s heat will again fail. Then I’ll have to call the GE Company and schedule another appointment, and go through this same little ritual again. (Big sigh.) It’s going to be a long week.
5 comments:
Why do I take it personally whenever anything breaks? We have to wave a big hammer in front of them so they know how to behave.
If it works, keep it. If it starts acting up again, take it to the vet and put it to sleep.
Hopefully everything is working now. Cleaning out your dryer is a great idea, not only to make it work better, but because over 4,000 fires are started by clogged Dryer ducts.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/laundry-and-cleaning/clothes-dryers/dryer-fire-caution/index.htm
If I may also offer that it ultimately, sadly, could be your heating element. Sometimes they "weaken" and do not burn out altogether. So if you notice it takes loner and longer to do your laundry,this might be happening.
You know, The more I look at that clothes line it might be the best way to solve the drier problem.
I hope it keeps working! Didn't I post on this one before?
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