I have an old pair of stackable Kenmore (Whirlpool) washer and dryers. Thanks to YouTube, we (with considerable cajoling for my husband) can easily see the necessary steps in a repair, order parts and make things work. It is not without considerable cussin' and fussin' on the part of one in my household.
The felt lining in my dryer drum ended up tearing. It is an essential part of the dryer in that it serves as a gasket that keeps hot air in the drum and lint and "stuff" from escaping the drum into the cabinet. (E.g. it funnels to the lint screen). Well, it failed prior to our feeling like we had the time to fix it (though I had the part). And the "stuff" ended up escaping an causing buildup of lint in the cabinet which fried the heating element. I had already cleaned the area knowing this would happen, but it needed greater frequency.
The drum felt replacement is not so hard, but it is a pain. A dryer is but a drum that is supported by a cast of things that keep air hot, keep air circulating and spin the dryer. Not complicated. But it is sheet metal, and there are lots of opportunities to get banged up and cut, so gloves a necessity.
We accomplished it over a period of two days of intermittent working on it. A professional could likely do it in a couple of hours. All told it probably took us double that. But given that a new dryer is $1,000 (which would have the features that I would want), our spending some of our time an less than $50 on parts made it worthwhile.
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