Every Noise a Kenmore Dryer Makes, and Where It Comes From

Why is my Kenmore dryer making a loud noise: locate it, do not describe it

Descriptions of noises are almost useless over the phone. Everybody's thump is somebody else's bang. What is genuinely diagnostic is where in the cabinet the sound is coming from and when in the cycle it happens, and you can work both out standing in the doorway with the machine running and empty.

Run it empty. A load of wet towels masks everything and adds noises of its own.

The rhythmic thump

Once per revolution of the drum, steady, more felt than heard on a good day. Two usual sources: the felt seal at the front or rear of the drum has worn through and the drum is riding on metal, or one of the support rollers has developed a flat.

This is the noise that gets slowly worse over months. It is not urgent. It is also not going to improve, and the parts are inexpensive on every one of these machines — the labor is in taking the front off, which is the same labor whether you wait or not.

The squeal

High, thin, worst as the drum begins to turn, sometimes fading once the machine is warm. This is a bearing or a pulley running dry: the idler that keeps tension on the belt, or a roller whose bearing has given up.

Of everything on this page it is the one most likely to end suddenly, because the same tension that squeals is the tension holding the belt on. A squealing dryer that eventually stops turning altogether has not developed a second problem; it has finished the first one.

The scrape, and this is the one that matters

A hard scraping, grinding or metallic dragging sound. Two things usually cause it: something has fallen between the drum and the bulkhead — an underwire, a zip pull, a screw — or a roller has failed completely and the drum is running on its mounting.

Stop using the machine. Not out of caution for its own sake: metal dragging on metal inside a hot cabinet lined with lint is the one mechanical noise on this list that is worth treating as urgent, and the damage a dropped underwire does to a drum in a week costs more than the visit.

The rattle that follows the air

A rattle or buzz that changes as the airflow changes, and that you can sometimes hear more clearly outside at the vent hood, is something loose in the blower housing. Coins are the classic. Buttons, hairgrips and small toys all qualify.

It is not damaging in the short term, and it is a five-minute job at the same time as anything else.

The rush that is not a problem

A smooth, steady rush of moving air is the machine doing exactly what it is for. So is a tumbling thud from the laundry itself, and so is the click of a thermostat cycling.

Worth saying, because half the calls about dryer noise are about a machine that has been moved onto a hard floor or is standing slightly off level, and is now simply audible from the next room.

What to have ready when you call

Which of the five above it sounds most like. Whether it happens all the time or only at the start. Whether the drum turns freely by hand with the power off. And the model number, because the parts belong to whichever company built the machine — a 110 is Whirlpool's, a 796 is LG's, a 417 is Frigidaire's, and the roller kit for one is not the roller kit for another.