Dryer Nuggets

A few days ago our dryer began making some new rattling noises when running, so I took it apart to clean and repair† it. In the process I removed the plastic paddles from the inside of the drum, as I’d previously bobby pins stuck behind them, so I figured I’d clean them out as well.

Inside of most compartments of the paddles were these gumball-sized formed pellets of lint and hair; a sort-of felted pom-poms. I find them fascinating — and a little bit gross — as they slowly built up over time from what’s otherwise just dust. (I imagine there’s some fabric softener and skin oil in there as well, functioning a binder to help hold it all together.)

I can’t help but be reminded of “Stan’s Boogers” or “Stanimals” that build up inside of some tubeless bicycle tires as the solids in the sealant come out of suspension, stick together, and tumble around. But instead of being latex lumps they are people and clothing residue that’s been building up since the dryer was bought, before we owned the house, back in… 2015 or so (if I remember the date stamp correctly).

† The dryer needed a new set of rollers, as the ones I installed in early 2023 had already begun binding, causing the drum to skip and vibrate while turning. I also replaced the belt for good measure, since that wasn’t done before. Thankfully a whole roller + belt + idler arm/pulley kit can be purchased via Amazon for ~$34, shipped overnight. The repair is overall easy, it just takes a couple hours disassemble the dryer, vacuum it all out, and put it back together.

I previously had replaced only the rollers, greasing the axles with a provided white lithium grease. This time the kit came with new axles as well, so I replaced the entire assemblies, lubricating the roller bushings and axles with Dri Slide Bike Aid, a super-nice molybdenum disulfide (“moly”) dry lubricant (after the carrier evaporates). This both made the wheels spin super-smooth and should resist collecting dust/lint/hair and hopefully make the new set of rollers last longer.