Few things are more irritating than a noisy washer or dryer. Your laundry must be run during the hours you’re home so that it can run continuously. But nothing drives you crazy like the constant rattle, whir, or clack-clack-clack of a dryer that can’t stop making noise. A noisy dryer has a way of interrupting your thought process and drawing attention to it self over and over again. Our team understands how problematic a noisy dryer can be, but also that dryer noise is not something most people will call for repairs to fix. So instead, we’re here to provide you with a few helpful ways to help keep your dryer quiet during laundry hours.
Distance from Other Furniture
The first thing you can do is pull your dryer out away from the wall, the washer, and any other furniture. Dryers do vibrate and shake when they run, and that vibration can be touching something else to make a rattling or resonant sound. Repeated tapping or a very loud fibration in rhythm with the dryer are sometimes indications that your loud dryer problem is related to things touching the dryer and shaking against it.
Level the Feet
The feet of your dryer should be adjustable. This is to ensure that the dryer can be made level even if the ground or flooring are not level. Your dryer might be making noise because the drum is not spinning evenly inside an uneven dryer. To adjust the feet, place a bubble-level on the top of the dryer. Then screw feet in or out to shorten or lengthen them accordingly. When the bubble-level says the dryer is level on all four sides of the top panel, then your job is complete and your dryer just might make less noise.
Wrap and Turn-In Metal Accessories
One of the premier sources of annoying dryer sounds is the metal bits on clothing. The zipper and metal button on many pairs of pants, for example, may click and slide inside the dryer over and over again. In some households, you always know whose load is running based on the light percussive sound of decorated clothing. To prevent this sound, start turning clothes inside-out to wrap the metal or hard plastic elements that have been making noise.
Pad the Sides
Sometimes, a vibrating or slight scraping sound is coming from the dryer without nearby items to rattle. Dryers shake regularly. Your dryer may be one that has some resonant or hissing sound for that shaking. One helpful way to prevent dryer sounds from normal shaking is to place pads on the dryer sides. Acoustic pads are handy, but even just draping a quilt over the top can help to muffle and reduce the audible vibrations, just be mindful of temperature when the dryer is running.
Check the Drum
Finally, if you’re still looking for a solution, take a closer look at the dryer drum. Open the door and spin the drum experimentally. See if it turns smoothly all the way around. Push on the drum to see if it resists perfectly or bounces and balances. These are good responses. However, if you hear a scrape or rattle, or feel too much give, when you push on the drum then you’ve got more than a noise problem on your hands. A faulty or off-balance dryer drum is a future appliance break waiting to happen.
The correct response to finding that your dryer is making noises beyond simple noise is to call a repair technician. They can hunt down the source of any real problems and can probably prevent your dryer from being noisy in the future. For more great appliance repair tips and guides, contact us today!
