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misiek
Premium Member
join:2000-12-25
Round Lake, IL

misiek

Premium Member

[Appliances] Maytag clothes dryer felt seal ripped.

Click for full size
rip in the felt seal
Greetings gents,

Our 17+ years-old Maytag MDG9316AWW gas dryer developed a small rip in the felt seal, per attached picture.
Not sure if this would cause some of the lint to be pushed out of the dryer, bypassing the lint filter and the intended warm air discharge path. Certainly, there is an increase in the amount of lint that settles around the laundry area, compared to what it used to be.
I did not have enough time to mess with it tonight, but the inside of the dryer (took the loading door and the 'front housing' off) looks fairly clean. Dryer was vacuumed well back in December 2014 when I replaced the igniter glow element. Checked for the air coming out of the dryer at the outside wall and it looked like no problems there. All air ducts, both HVAC and laundry discharge one were cleaned some 18 months ago.

To a layman, since the warm air gets sucked out of the dryer and not pushed in, the lint should have traveled along the discharge line and not get pushed out through the rip in the felt.

What do you guys think?

Thanks!
wth
Premium Member
join:2002-02-20
Iowa City,IA

wth

Premium Member

Replaced the rear felt seal on our gas Kenmore about 3-4 years ago as they get hard & brittle because of the heat. Dryer is now 23 years old. On ours, the rear felt seal is glued onto the drum. Not to difficult but you would need 3 hrs as you need to scrape the old felt off after you remove the drum. New felt seal came with a tube of good old school contact glue (the yellow stuff with a smell). Main reason I jumped into this repair was because a bearing in the motor started making a lot of noise and had to either replace the motor & seal or buy a new dryer.
I think the felt seal & glue was about $50.

jrs8084
Premium Member
join:2002-03-02
Statesville, NC

jrs8084 to misiek

Premium Member

to misiek
That exhaust vent grill appears quite clogged. You will need to take a sharp object and open up each item in the honeycomb and remove the debris so your dryer can breathe.

Getting the airflow to properly follow the intended path might help more with your problem. I think the tear is of less issue.

misiek
Premium Member
join:2000-12-25
Round Lake, IL

misiek

Premium Member

Thanks for all the replies, guys.
I'll take a closer look at the exhaust this coming weekend to see if there is something fishy there.
misiek

misiek

Premium Member

Turns out that the exhaust flex pipe was not fully seated in the vent where it goes into the floor and then out of the house. I must've dislocated it slightly when working on the dryer back in December and failed to notice it was out of whack.
That was not visible right away, only when I dove behind the dryer to clean up the exhaust did I notice the small opening. Re-seated the flex pipe, sealed it with aluminum tape.
Putting the plans to replace the felt seal on the back burner for now.
Thanks!
modelamac7
join:2002-04-13
Waterford, MI

modelamac7 to misiek

Member

to misiek
You need to clean out that grill. It is an air passage and needs to be open. I use a wide-blade flat screwdriver that partially fits through the holes, twirling it in each hole to break it loose. I then use an allen wrench, twirling it on the backside of each hole to knock the rest of the lint away. Does a pretty good job and the result lowers drying time.

Jack in VA
Premium Member
join:2014-07-07
North, VA

Jack in VA

Premium Member

said by modelamac7:

You need to clean out that grill. It is an air passage and needs to be open. I use a wide-blade flat screwdriver that partially fits through the holes, twirling it in each hole to break it loose. I then use an allen wrench, twirling it on the backside of each hole to knock the rest of the lint away. Does a pretty good job and the result lowers drying time.

If that grille is plugged he has more problems than just cleaning the grille. Clean Hot air is pulled in through it and exhausted through the filter covering the discharge. If the grille is plugged the whole air passages must be full of lint.