Is it worth repairing a dryer, or should you replace it?

A washer fills, heats, agitates, drains, pumps and spins a heavy wet load off balance. A dryer turns a drum and blows warm air through it. Fewer systems means fewer expensive failures, which is why the repair-or-replace answer lands on repair far more often for dryers than for washing machines.

It is also why dryers outlast washers. Fifteen years is ordinary and older machines still running well are common.

The single most common dryer complaint is that it takes two cycles to dry a load, and the single most common cause is airflow: a lint packed vent run, a crushed transition hose behind the machine, or an exterior flap that no longer opens.

This matters for the replace decision because a new dryer vented into the same blocked run will be just as slow. People buy machines to fix this and stay annoyed. Clear the vent first and judge the dryer afterwards.

Heating elements, thermal fuses, thermostats, igniters and flame sensors on gas machines, drive belts, idler pulleys, drum rollers and door switches. All of them are inexpensive and all of them are worth fixing.

One caution on thermal fuses. A blown fuse is a symptom, not a cause: it blew because the machine overheated, and it overheated because airflow was restricted. Replacing the fuse without clearing the vent buys a few weeks.

A cracked drum, a failed rear bearing housing that has already worn into the drum, or a burnt terminal block that has damaged the wiring back into the machine. These are structural rather than bolt-on, and on an older dryer the labour stops making sense.

The other case is a machine past fifteen that has needed three visits in a year. Not because any one repair was wrong, but because the pattern is telling you something.