This is my dryer. It is currently on strike. I have received no word about possible talks or negotiations yet. So it's a waiting game. Dang! It crapped out on Friday. I had one load of wet things in the dryer and one in the washer. When the dryer timer buzzed I went in to do the old switcheroo and found a load of clothes just as wet as they were when it started. What? I checked to make sure the filter was clean (it was) and that I had the settings right (ditto). Hmmmm. I tried a few things like adjusting the settings from regular dry to more dry and changing the sort of load it was from delicates to normal and got the exact same results. Double Dang. I got a distinct feeling of dejas vu. It couldn't be more than six months ago that we went through this before, but that time the issue was no tumbling. We had plenty of heat then. This time the tumbler works fine but there is no heat. Get your act together dryer! So Frustrating. This large piece of machinery is less than 5 years old. Seems to me that, for the ridiculous price of them, they ought to work properly longer than that. But I had to deal with what was, not what I wish was. So the immediate issue was a washer AND a dryer full of wet clothes. Back to the draping wet things all around the house trick. And honestly, since there was only one load left to do, I went ahead and threw it into the washer. May as well. In for a penny, in for a pound. And when I say there were wet things all over the house, I am not exaggerating. I brought the rolling rack which is normally in the utility room by the dryer for easy access into the living room. Why? Well the "utility room" was, once upon a time, a small one car garage. Which means that while it has the space for such things as washers, dryers, rolling racks and storage, it has no windows for air circulations and very little by way to HVAC. Which is not good for drying. It is however, excellent for hanging up things that ARE dry so that they do not wrinkle before putting them back in the closet.
Most of the clothes went onto the rolling rack with only a little bit of creative thinking. But trousers and shorts were awkward so they ended up being hung over the backs of chairs. Towels too were tricky until it occurred to me that the shower curtain rods in the bathrooms were an excellent spot, as were the towels rods. And any leftover towels, such as kitchen towels? Well the laundry baskets have edges and that worked too. My second step, once all of the wet clothes were draped here and there was to call the repair person. Now as it so happens, both washer and dryer are still under warranty (Tim is a very smart man) so the protocol is to call the place where we purchased the appliances and they would notify the repair person who would then call us to set up an appointment. And since it was a Friday when this entire thing began, I was advised that the repair person probably would not get 'round to calling until sometimes the following week. And that is fine. The way this worked six months ago when the tumbler chose to stop tumbling was that a week went by with no repair person call so I called the appliance place again so that they could jiggle the handle. I then waited a few more days for the call. When the call finally came, our repair went on the books but for another ten days out. So it was three weeks with no dryer last time. Which was three visits to the laundromat. And that was three visits more than I care to do again. Ever. Tim got a call from the repair place saying that if the problem turns out to be a clogged vent, they would not be happy and we would be charged for the visit because clogged vents are not warranty approved issues. Tim checked the vents. They are not clogged. So it's something else. Probably a heating element thing? I'm just guessing. I have no idea. I'm not mechanically inclined. But it seems logical to me. Just the same way when the tumbler not tumbling last time I guessed (correctly) was some sort of belt issue. But having a clue and fixing the issue are two entirely different things. I blame computers. By making all of our appliances "smarter", we have also made them more complicated and harder to fix. I remember my dad easily fixing nearly anything in our house that wasn't working when I grew up. TV on the fritz? No problem. He would whip out a screw driver, some replacement tubes and some electrical tape. Alakazam, by the end of the day the problem would be solved. It was the same thing with our cars, my dad could fix nearly anything that went wrong with any of our cars. Hey they were all American made giant honkers. You could practically climb inside the thing to work on it. Everything was right there in front of you. Easily accessed, easily addressed. Any normal toolbox held exactly what you needed. Every dad person that I knew could fix broken stuff and most of the teen guys too. Even I could fix a few issues. I drove my mothers' car, a Rambler, when I was in high school. It had a sticky butterfly valve that occasionally acted up. If I couldn't get the car started I would just hop out, pop the hood, remove the top of the carburetor, put a pencil in the butterfly valve, get back behind the wheel and turn the key, it would start and I would remove the pencil, put the top back on the carburetor, shut the hood and go on my merry way. No Big Deal. I didn't even get dirty. And then in college, I bought a Fiat. Why? Well for one thing, I could afford it. Just paid for it outright. And I learned very quickly, that none of the tools in my dad's toolbox fit. Metric tools required. My dad had no metric tools. Why would he? So the car had to "go to the shop" when ANYTHING went wrong. And that was the beginning of the end. Cars got smaller, it was harder to reach things, specialty tools were required. And then computer chips were added and it was game over. Same goes for home appliances. Now instead of fixing things yourself, you need specialty tools and a degree in computer science to repair stuff. I'm not sure this is progress. Meanwhile, I will be draping clothes and towels around the house until the repairman finally fits us into his schedule. Sigh. I suppose I should be grateful that it's the dryer that isn't working. I am absolutely capable of drying the clothes inside the house, especially on a really nice day when the windows are open. But if the washer isn't working, I really really really do not want to have to hand wash everything. Then I really would have to go to the laundromat and I truly do not want to do that. I will be grateful for the little things. And I will live with wet clothes draped around the house to dry for awhile once again.
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AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
April 2024
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