No one did one for yesterday or has started today, so I will.
I have been having fun with the old dryer. I got it in 1994. A few years ago, while cleaning lint out of it, I busted the heating element. So, I replaced that and it worked fine. Then a week ago, it wasn't drying. So, I replaced the heat element, again. It worked. DW did her laundry. The next day, I do mine. Two hours later, the dryer is still running and not drying. So, I surmise that the two sensors on the element housing are not working. And I replace those. It turns out that one is a thermostat and one is a high limit cut-off switch. The cut-off will burn out and disconnect power if the element gets too hot, in order to prevent a fire hazard. I start the dryer, it's getting hot so I turn it off, considered the job done. My clothes have been damp for a day and a half so I re-wash them. Stick in the dryer. 2 hours later the dryer is still running and not drying. I have burned out the new cut-off switch. Curses, foiled again. After some discussion with the parts where I bought the stuff, I surmise there must be something else wrong, such as the timer which tells the element when to turn on and off for different temperature settings. By this point, I have already spent about $100 in parts and some sweat equity (the dryer is in the garage, only place to put, and I've already been in the 95 degree heat all day). Now, I'm looking at another new set of t-stat and switch, and possibly a new timer and more than likely, an appliance repair expert who does this every day and whatever his labor charges are. Spit on that. It's time for a new dryer. So, I buy one on Wednesday and it got delivered yesterday. The brought the new one and took away the old one. So, I decide to do something different with the dryer vent.
The house was not built to have a dryer vent. When the house was built in 1969, people in this part of Texas did not have electric dryers. The washer taps used to be in the kitchen and the dryer was the two poles in the back with two lines. When a dryer was added, they turned the water taps around and faced them into the garage and dropped a wire down the wall and cut in a 240 volt plug next to it. But there is no way to get through the foundation wall to underneath the house and the garage floor is a separate concrete slab about 4 inches below the foundation sill wall. The dryer should have been installed along the exterior wall of the garage and a dryer vent stubbed out that way. And I may eventually do that.
What I had going on with the old dryer was about 20 feet of flexible 4 inch air duct led out through the garage door. But that flex collects lint like no one's business. So, I decided to change most of that to sheet metal duct, laying on the floor. And got my butt kicked again. I work around duct hangers all the time but I don't pay attention to what they do. So, I had to go back to Home Depot and have someone show me how to roll the duct sheet metal until the tongue and groove fit together.
Finally, success. I had to wash some bed linens. Euphoria. And a good thing. I'm on my last clean pair of jeans. But, I can dry the old-fashioned way if I had to.
As I get older, I learn when to recognize when my butt has been kicked. And that sometimes, the cheaper thing is to buy something new. 14 years isn't bad for the old dryer.