The dryer croaked again. Or, should I say, it squealed like a stuck pig. Turns out that after 14 years, the little bearing strips over the door on which the drum rests and turns had worn out. After vaporizing, a little piece of one bearing was left to drag on the drum as it slowly ground down the housing on its way to the floor. Thankfully, Rori knows that squealing is bad, so she stopped the dryer pending my looksee.
I bought new pads, but discovered that the clip on which one of the pads rested had been ground away long ago. I had to order the new door, and it will arrive early next week. Thankfully, the two pads I put into the old door are at least keeping the squeal away, but it's a temporary solution.
The question, of course, is whether it is better to prolong the life of an old appliance than to buy a new one. Buying a new one puts people to work in our appliance factories, assuming that the appliances are indeed made in the USA. The new appliance will undoubtedly be more energy efficient than the old one. A new one also costs a lot of money. The one I have can be repaired for $60 in parts and $0 in labor, since I do it myself. Even if I get only another year out of it, is it money well spent?
I have said it before; I believe that repair will more and more be the normal behavior for these durable goods. Self repair, when possible, is a viable solution, but often self repair leads to larger problems when an unskilled or overenthusiastic homeowner attempts tasks they should avoid. Electrical and plumbing come to mind. Although sexy, one can turn your house into a mold farm, and the other can kill you. Mold and death are definitely prices most of us are unprepared to pay to save a few bucks on a repair job.
In my case, buying the parts and doing the repair myself is money well spent. I replaced the heater coil and the motor not too long ago, and this repair should extend the life of the dryer by another several years at least. At that time, we'll consider a new dryer. Maybe the washer will be ailing by then. Who knows? I've replaced its transmission more than once...
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