The Zen and Art of Tumble Dryer Maintenance

Our tumble dryer started making a horrendous squeaking and banging noise a couple of weeks back. This bothered Lydia enough to stop it from drying my clothes mid-cycle. Now, this bothered me enough to open the back of it up and look inside.

At a first glance, it was clear that the bearing had decided to cease to exist. There were a couple of balls hanging around, but mostly many pieces metal shavings. This was rather worrying. I stripped the mechanism, and saw this:

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Is that hole meant to be square?

It was clear that the bearing needed replacing. So, since this tumble dryer is a Defy, I phoned the Defy service center. Once I explained the problem to a technician, and asked for a part number, and the replacement cost, he asked me for the model number. I gave it to him. He asked me if the hole at the back of the washing machine was round or square. I said round. Wrong answer. Apparently it’s meant to be square. WTF?. Since when is a hole through which an axel that sits on a bearing square? His response was that the drum will need to be replaced (Cost: R350).

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New bearing and old bearing pieces

Well, I disagreed. I decided to go find the bearing myself. Phoned around. One place wanted a part number, and couldn’t work with bearing dimensions. They told me to come in and then they would see if they had something that would work for me. Since it was the closest place, I decided to do that. Turned out that they didn’t have anything in nearly the correct size. So I decided to phone around. I started at SKF. They asked for dimensions. Yay. They had one in stock. Unfortunately they were in Bellville. Anyways, it was worth the drive. On close inspection, the bearing that they replaced it with looked like an exact replacement for the worn one (Cost: R22).

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As good as new

Well, I replaced it and the tumble dryer works, as good as new. Actually, it’s a much softer thumping noise. Once again, please people, get a frikkin clue. I really don’t like dealing with muppets that waste my time. The least that Defy could have done was either sell me a replacement bearing, or, if not, give me a part number, and tell me where I could get a replacement.


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