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How do I get my dryer out of its hole?

by 110 Comments

There’s something wrong with my clothes dryer. I need to pull it out and see what’s occurrin’ round the back.

Trouble is that it’s very snugly in its hole and under normal circumstances I’d pull it out. However, we cleverly slotted a stray square bit of flat MDF wood on the top of it. This means there is liderally no wriggle room now. It’s stuck fast. I can only get a grip of one edge of the MDF and even if I do, it only moves a little bit.

If I can get the MDF out, I think it’ll be all smiles. But…what should I do? Do I drill holes into the edge of the MDF and hammer nails in it, so I have something more to hold on to?

Or … do I staple gun some cable ties to it and then pull it out? I like this idea because it means I get to use the staple gun. But it sounds dangerous.

I can’t help thinking that the more practical-minded members of the Massive might have a simpler solution. So do you?

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Comments

  1. I think we need photos. Dryers typically sit on a bracket with slots in the top corners of the dryer.
    You get it on / off by lifting out and up.
    This is a long way of saying you need to remove anything on top preventing you from doing this.

        • I don’t think Mr. Celebration needs to shimmy rom side to side, Junes. At his age it could cause complications.

          I’d suggest fixing a couple of stout shed door-type handles to the edge of the MDF, with as you say a nice long screw. That would give you something to hang on to. Plus squirt some WD40 in there – can’t hurt.

  3. I would drill a couple of holes in the edge of the MDF, put screws in them, and use a crow bar to drag it out.

    MDF has no ‘give’, so drilling the correct sized hole is paramount. Too small and the screws will force the MDF to expand (and wedge in under even greater pressure). Too big and the screw threads will not engage.

    Failing that, drill lots of holes in the edge of the MDF and use a hammer and sharp chisel to break it up.

      • I mean “use the nail-puller slot of the crow bar to apply pressure on the screws and extract the MDF”. Not “use the crow bar to lever out the dryer, thus wrecking it in the process”.

        • A crowbar is a lever, requiring a fulcrum, which cannot be the object you’re trying to shift. What are you going to use as a fulcrum? The edge of the work surface? The dryer itself? Lots of luck with that. Also – the crow bar does not pull straight out, and will bend the screws, fracturing the MDF.

          Cuphooks And Crowbars – should the Afterword ever rename itself, that would be perfect. And I think “have you tried a crow bar?” may enter the ‘Word phrasebook, at least if I have anything to do with it.

    • DO NOT use a hammer to either bang nails/screws into the edge of the MDF or try and break it up in situ. Chances are you’ll make things worse by wedging the MDF further back where it’ll be harder to get it out.
      Use an electric screwdriver to put screws into the edge and pull it out using these.

      Quite possibly the rubber feet on the dryer will have stuck to the floor a bit, due to it not having moved for a long time. After you’ve got that pesky bit of MDF* out, wedge something under the front edge of the dryer and lever it upwards slightly to break the seal.
      Don’t try to pull it out by it’s door or you might damage the hinges and render it useless.

      *Why on earth…

      • *we don’t remember why it’s there. My feeling is that it should have been the surface the dryer itself rests on. However, it looks like the dryer was slotted in and then, at some point, we thought – “what’s this bit of MDF doing here?” And then saw that it slotted nicely into the gap between the top of the dryer and the fixed cabinet above it. Stupid? Oh yes.

  4. My tradesman bloke showed me you open the door (assuming it’s a front loader) and get a grip on the top of the hole and pull from there. None of this trying to grip the sides business. Once out, you squirt a bit of washing up liquid on the floor to make it easier next time.

  8. Move? Or plant some cress seed at the back?

    Failing that, either try to lever up the worktop surface (assuming that). Do you have a plunger or suction cup that could do that?

    Or gorilla glue something grabbable to the mdf. Let it set and then give it a firm and persistent tug. This would be Moosey’s suggestion as well.

    • I watched all of that and feel sure that the tip is something that may come in handy one day. But aside from all that – his tattooed head is a wonderful thing. For those of us that still grow hair up there, this is an option if I was ever going to get tattooed. Apparently if it’s done on the head it doesn’t hurt as much. Another bonus.

    • Surely it is not beyond the wit of the numerous Brian Butterworths in
      SaucecrafTel’s R&D dept. to fashion an ingenious end* to BC’s washday
      misery?

      *Batteries not included

  12. Great news! It’s all sorted out.

    Saucy will be relieved to hear that there were no cup hooks needed. I drilled a small hole in the centre of MDF edge and found a longish nail in my shed. I banged it in with a hammer. And then I grabbed the nail and pulled and wiggled and pulled and wiggled and then out it came – like the difficult birth of a hard, flat, square MDF baby.

    Thanks for your assistance everyone. Isn’t music great?

    • I think – and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this – that you owe the Afternet an apology. All those that sought to offer advice (the erotic dance urged by Junes, several cup hook fetishists, and an unusually violent and ill-thought-out solution from fentypants) did so in the spirit of friendly concern and a genuine wish to help a chap out. That you didn’t try such a simple solution (the first that came to my mind as to many others, dismissed because of its obviousness) before wasting everybody’s valuable time and emotional investment – it’s been quite the roller coaster – comes as a slap in the face to us all and frankly diminishes the chances of further appeals for help to zero.

      But kudos for enabling some wit here – not I – to chime in with a “nailed it!” response.

      • You know those dumb catch-all phrases that people say as if it is accepted universal wisdom…? One of them is “Never apologise, never explain”. Well I spend half my life apologising and the other half explaining. That’s because I’m British and that’s what we live for.

        So, in that spirit, I apologise for not following the very sound advice given. I did have cup hooks at the ready, though. And whoever it was that told me to drill a very small hole influenced me too.

  13. In other domestic white goods news, I got a new washing machine on Thursday.

    It is both WiFi enabled (there’s an app) and it plays a plinky-plonky tune when it finishes its cycle. If anyone can explain to me why, I’m all ears.

      • I’ve got a WiFi enabled dishwasher. I haven’t quite worked out what do when I’m out and about and think “Bugger, didn’t turn on the dishwasher: I’ll just ask it to find a dishwater tab in the box underneath the sink, insert it into the proper dispenser, close its door, set the Controls to Economy and , by the way, forgot to hang out the washing too – any chance?”

        • Hey, if computer game music can be performed by symphony orchestras, why couldn’t classical music be performed by an armada of domestic appliances?

          I’d hate to be the conductor though…getting them to finish washing at the same time to synchronize the plinky-plonky tunes! Could it be done?
          The audience would probably get more satisfaction from placing bets on the outcome than to actually listening to the cacophony – replacing horse racing no doubt.

      • Fisher and Paykel appliances in NZ can play the national anthem! It’s a real pain because I don’t usually have a lot of time to sort out my laundry so having to stand to attention and salute for 60 seconds is a right pain the arse.

      • That’s not actually mine, it is white with a black door surround. But the tune is the same.

        And, I found out yesterday when I went to register the five-year warranty, the serial number label is stuck to the back. So I had to drag the bloody thing out of its hole.

  15. I feel short-changed. Anyone else want to know what the situation was when the dryer was extracted from its hole? I feel like the saga has only just begun. Stopping here would be like stopping Lord Of The Rings just after Bilbo’s party.

    • It all started when my wife noticed that the carpet was getting a bit damp at the other side of the hole where the dryer is – and also we noticed that the condenser wasn’t collecting as much moisture as it used to in the early days. I put this down to the age of the machine and wondered if we could just replace the thing. We thought the best thing to do was to take it out of the hole and investigate around the back to see if that moisture was indeed coming from the dryer or was it some plumbing from some other part of the house, so this is where the story began with the somewhat routine procedure of simply pulling out the dryer.
      Now, in my experience dryers are somewhat lighter than washing machines so I really thought that this would be a two minute job just to pull it out and see what was going on, but then the situation developed as described in the OP started to unfold. I saw that the MDF on top was a bit of a problem. Now let’s fast forward to the yanking out of the MDF. It then became a little easier to get the dryer out, but as I said in one of my posts that wasn’t routine either. Looking around the back, it didn’t seem that the dryer itself was malfunctioning or even leaking that much. Yes, there were a couple of leaks when we tried the dryer and we made it run outside of the hole, but not enough to cause moisture in the carpet in a neighboring room. We wondered whether that kind of thing happened when the kids put multiple loads through one after the other, and after a punishing weekend, the cumulative affect of several small dribbles from the back of the dryer meant a damp carpet in a very small area. What we have now is a dryer half in /half out and what we’re finding is that the last couple of loads have gone quite well with the condenser filling quite nicely and it was a bit like the old days – and no drip coming out the back. What I put this down to is that the MDF that was on top of the machine is now on the ground and under the machine – where it was always meant to be. It creates a level surface for the machine to operate on, which means if there is a small dribble of moisture coming out the back it’s not drifting over to the wall and not seeping through the carpet on the other side due to a small slope on the concrete base. I honestly think that the amount of moisture that would come from the dryer through one load is so small that it would evaporate overnight and it only becomes a problem when the teenagers put through multiple loads one after the other, so that’s where we are at the moment. We’ve got the dryer half half out and it seems to be working better than ever before so if we continue to be happy with this, then I will insert it fully back into its hole knowing that now it is broadly level with the floor thanks to the MDF, and the leak is either negligible or not occurring at all. I do hope you’ve enjoyed this update. I will give you more details as and when they come to light but at the moment, I’m not thinking that you would be incredibly interested by that.

      The MDF is now nail-less and back under the machine. If you think I’m going to pull it out again just to take a photo of it, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint.

      • Firstly, if you find the cumulative affect of several small dribbles from the back mean a damp patch in a very small area, I can recommend a gastroenterologist.

        Secondly, I really don’t think putting the MDF underneath is a good idea. If MDF gets wet it becomes swollen and it is likely to raise the level to the point where the dryer becomes wedged underneath the worktop. I’d replace it with a sheet of similarly-sized Marine Ply which, as the name suggests, is waterproof.

        • Simply lever the Marine Ply into place with your crowbar, hammer in some cup hooks at random intervals, et viola!

          I’d of thought that sliding a shallow baking tray (attached to a string or something, for convenient removal) under the leak area is clearly the best solution, allowing for regular check-ups.

      • Well thank you for the update, though the absence of photos is a bitter blow … after all our effort… but no I’m better than that. As a general rule any white good , whatever the function, likes a bit of air circulating. So my recommendation is just leave it half out. Preferably blocking the doorway and the hall way. . Mrs Celebration may not like it but there will be heaps of air circulation.

          • “Interestingly” you won’t find a washing machine or dryer anywhere near a kitchen in a NZ house. It’s in a special utility room downstairs.

            There are two other things Kiwis consider strange about us Brits – plastic bowls in kitchen sinks and separate hot & cold taps.

            • I once saw a YT video of a woman who had a washing machine and tumble drier fitted in her first-floor family bathroom, using the logic that all the dirty washing comes from the laundry baskets in the bedrooms.

              Leaving apart the logisitics of getting a heavy washing machine upstairs and straddling secure joists, there will probably be a follow-up video by now, of the downstairs ceiling being replastered after the washing machine upstairs sprung a leak.

            • Yes same here. I am in an upside down house with bedrooms on the lower level together with utility room.

              Have resisted posting my travails but both appliances have been recently replaced and then I was getting water all over the floor. Got a guy in under warranty, who refixed the drainage hose that had come loose. Seller then wanted me to pay for the service as that wasn’t included in the warranty, I explained that it could not have been fitted properly as it had come apart within a couple of months where as the previous one stayed on for 8 years. He insisted on payment and I just ignored him and he has appeared to have gone away. Also the technician who came said he didn’t like the way they were just plonked on top of each other (dryer on top) without any brackets holding them in place. I explained it was his guys that had installed it!

          • Don’t knock that wall through if you live in Middlesbrough, or someone will pull it out the other side and nick it. Along with anything else in your house that’s not chained down.

  18. Update: I’ve had my new washing machine for a week and done probably four loads. Today I found a clump of – there’s no easy way to say this – pubes, in the rubber seal round the door. I’m fairly sure they’re not mine. Did I miss the short ‘n’ curlies dispenser feature?

    To be fair, I haven’t read the whole user manual.

  20. Now that the thread has degenerated into abuse, I thought I would add a detail that I failed to mention earlier.

    A few years ago I reluctantly bought a hand trolley and thought I’d hardly ever use it. How wrong I was! I use it quite often. Most recently, I slotted the flat bit that sticks out at the front under the dryer and jiggled it about a bit. This allowed me to get the dryer out more easily.

    They’re good for moving hampers around too!

    • I finally acquired one of those folding sack-barrows after years of coveting one. It is very handy – folds flat in the car boot, etc, but has a 60kg limit.

      I tried it under the old washing machine but feared it would snap, so resorted to dragging the washer across the utility room floor and outside ready for the arrival of the replacement.

      The men who delivered the new machine were built like brick sh*thouses and carried it inside.

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