This article is about faults that can cause a noisy tumble dryer. However, due to the way dryers are designed, many tumble dryer noises can be difficult to fix because you need to strip the entire dryer down to get to some parts. This article gives general guidance without specific stripping down instructions.
Tumble dryers, particularly condenser and heat pump dryers can be complicated to strip down and get back together!
Metallic scraping noise
Metallic scraping noises should not be ignored. This sound usually means the metal drum is scraping on something as it revolves. If ignored, serious wear can occur.
As you can imagine, something metal constantly catching on something else – even something else metal – will inevitably result in wear of one or both of the parts involved. I’ve seen many simple faults ignored until only a very expensive repair will fix it.
Other metallic scraping noises could be caused by the plastic bearings the drum rests and rotates on wearing down so much that the lip of the drum at the front can scrape on metal.
Make sure the dryer is level. If not level the cabinet can slightly twist causing drums to catch on nearby parts. Hotpoint and Indesit tumble dryers used to be terrible for scraping noises, and they brought out modifications to try and address the problem.
It’s hopefully solved by now, but cheap dryers, or even expensive ones not well made, can have flimsy casings which twist easily and have too little clearance between the revolving drum and the back panel.
Squeaking noises
These can be caused by tension pulleys which usually tension the drive belt and revolve all the time the drum is turning. They are small wheel-like plastic parts that are held against the drive belt with strong springs, and run on a small metal shaft. They commonly dry out or wear.
The proper cure for this is to replace the pulleys and the shaft they run on, or at least strip them, clean them and grease them with high melting point grease if they aren’t too worn. Unfortunately though these tension (or jockey) pulleys are not usually accessible without stripping the dryer down though some dryers allow you to remove a side panel if you can work out how to take it off.
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Squeaking bearing
On some tumble dryers are dry or worn bearing can cause squeaking noise. This is particularly common on some Indesit or Hotpoint tumble dryers. Check out the comments below where 2 people have contributed their experience on how they dealt with their squeaking tumble dryers.
Rumbling noises
Deep rumbling noises can also be caused by the same belt tension pulleys from the last section. Depending on their design they can develop squeaks or a rumble. So can worn drum bearings, which are usually just shiny plastic parts the drum rests on at the front and a single brass bearing at the rear centre of the drum.
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Noisy motor
The motor can of course become noisy, though it is pretty rare because they revolve so slowly that they don’t tend to wear much. If the belt is removed and any tension pulley brackets moved out of the way a motor can be run on its own to see if it’s creating the noise.
Warning: refitting a tumble dryer drive belt can be extremely difficult. They are very strongly tensioned and special tools are often needed to be able to force one back on, especially with a brand new belt.
Condenser dryer noises
Condenser tumble dryers have more parts than vented dryers and one which can cause noises is the small pump which pumps condensed water into the condenser drawer. If this pump becomes noisy it should be a different noise to the noise of the drum revolving and should continue even when the drum pauses when reversing.
The condenser pump may run continuously during the cycle, or it may be designed to kick in and out intermittently during the cycle. If it develops excessive noise it may need replacing. This water pump can develop a loud screeching noise. Access may be available from the rear panel but some may need side panels and frontages removing.
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Hello Neil. It’s possible that stripping it down and reassembling could introduce something. If the squeak started the next time you used the dryer or was reported within days or a week of the modification they might be more likely to suspect a link. However, it’s just as likely if not more so that it’s not related but as you say no one can be sure without seeing it.
The dryer has stopped making the squeaking noise. This is due to it now not rotating in one direction.
Could be terminal. Repair or Replace ?
Under and to the rear of the machine is a dark powder. I suspect this is from a drive belt.
The link to Junes modification will not be acknowledged by Hotpoint, but there had been no squeak before.
Hello Neil. Drive belts are black so an issue with the belt should produce black rubber. I can’t see a belt problem causing faults turning one way only though. Dark coloured powder could be from a dry bearing possibly. Unfortunately when they carry out these modifications they are unlikely to bother with anything else so if the bearing was already a bit worn they may just ignore it as they are under a lot of pressure to carry out as many of these modifications as possible. They are even advertising for people to do nothing but these modifications on a 6 to 12 month contract and these people will be trained only to do the modification and are likely to know little or nothing about anything else.
It’s just not possible to say that these faults are caused by the modification (or not) without someone looking at it. However, many faults can start up any time without warning. I always remember early on in my career I called out to service a washing machine that was 5 years old and had never had a fault. All I did was tighten the belt, oil the suspension and clean the filters, it looked fine. But 3 days later the main program timer failed and the woman refused to believe it was nothing to do with me. It made me wary of servicing appliances that were apparently working ok from that day on.
Hi Neil.
re: black dust….I had the same issue, the source of the dust was the bearing at the back. It was either from the bearing/drum shaft/the back panel of the machine (where the shaft was wearing through).
The shaft on my drum was attached with rivets, I drilled them out and fitted a new shaft, and a new bearing. The problem only returned weeks later.
TBH I eventually gave up and got a new machine, the hassle it was causing eventually got the better of me.
When fitting new bearings try using a little bit of copper grease, its only about £2 on ebay. Should prolong the life of the bearing.
If only I could get the casing off my Indesit IS31V tumble dryer, maybe I could see if the belt is broken.
Any help would be appreciated.
Hello Ivor. You shouldn’t need to take the casing off to check the belt. With the lid off you should be able to see if the belt is attached because it should wrap around the entire drum. If it is broken or fallen off you should normally see the mark where it used to run. If it is there you should be able to try lifting up the belt to see if it is tightly attached to the motor or of it is loose.
Tumble dryers can be quite difficult to strip down these days and often need the back, kick panels and side panels and sometimes in control panels removing to get access to various parts.
Thanks Andy, but I don’t have a top on my dryer, it’s all in one, sides, top etc.
I’ve got the casing loose but the front control panel seems to be holding it on and with no visible screws I think it must be simply a push on fit and clip in and I don’t want to try and wrench it off in case I break a hidden fixing.
Ivor, I’m not familiar with that type. There may well be screws behind the front kick panel if fitted. Another way to test if the belt is on or not is to try turning the drum by hand. If the belt is properly on it should have quite a strong smooth resistance. If the belt is broken it should move very freely or maybe freely for a bit then jamming if the belt has come off and tangled up. If the belt feels like it’s still on and the drum is not revolving it could be a capacitor, the motor, the drum jammed, some electrical fault or connection problem or even the pcb. I would definitely get an engineer in if so.
Finally got the cover off my Indesit IS31V Tumble Dryer.
Here’s how to do it for anyone else having the same trouble. At the back of the machine remove all the screws you can see then at each side at bottom take those out, next at the front take those bottom ones out and finally with a pair of pliers pull off the timer knob. You should now be able to ease the control panel up off its clips and so release the casing.
Hope this helps someone.
Forgot to mention to undo the screw behind the knob.
I’ve bought a refurbished indesit condenser dryer and had it delivered today. It squeaks and when I phoned the shop about it they said it’s normal for a refurb and that it will stop after a few loads. Is this right?
Thanks
I wouldn’t have thought so Emma. But the best thing to do it give them the benefit of the doubt and see if it settles in after a couple of weeks. Make sure it is level from left to right and front to back as some of them are very flimsy and the cabinet can twist causing the drum to scrape. If it’s no better after 2 weeks they should hopefully come and look at it.
Hi – I have an interesting problem with a Hotpoint TCM570 Aquarius condenser drier – every time it switches to the short “reverse” cycle to untangle the clothes, we get a deep rumbling and vibration once every rotation, until it switches direction and goes back to the normal direction of rotation when it runs smooth as silk – until the next time….! Any ideas? ‘ve had a quick look but it’s impossible to feel anything when manually turning the drum and I can’t see anything when it’s running as the vibration is just momentary and then passed….
The drum bearings etc were replaced when Hotpoint attended to the “fire risk” issue they’ve been dealing with It never used to vibrate, but I can’t be sure it started immediately after the modifications were done either as it doesn’t get used a great deal. Any ideas welcome!