Checking the Blower Wheel For Lint Clogs in Your Dryer

Your dryer is producing clothes that come out hot or not even close to dry. These are both symptoms that there is a lint clog somewhere. The first place you should check is the lint trap. If that is pretty clear, you can move onto the exhaust hose and vent installed in your home. However, if you have found both of them pretty clog-free and the issue is still happening, you forgot one often forgotten spot – the blower wheel.

The blower wheel in your dryer plays a crucial role. It helps to circulate the air as well as ferry out that moist air into the duct system to be vented out. However, it is not on the “must check” spots for a lint clog, but it should be. This becomes even more true if you regularly use dryer sheets with your laundry.

What often happens to the blower wheel is during one load a dryer sheet accidentally gets stuck in there. It doesn’t get vented out, but instead acts as an impromptu lint trap. This means it attracts lint in greater volume until you have a problem in the area. A clog here can manifest the same problems as a lint clog anywhere else.

Luckily, checking a blower wheel for clogs is much easier than replacing it. You simply need to remove the exhaust hose and then remove the metal plate that covers that same area. While replacing the blower wheel will require you to remove the actual drum of the dryer as well as the motor, you simply need to be able to clean out the spoked wheel area on the back.

Once clean, you can reassemble, but in the future you will want to consider using alternative solutions to dryer sheets. They make your clothes smell pretty nice, but they can be an occasional pain.