Tumble dryer
The one appliance whose routine cleaning task is printed under a fire-hazard heading rather than under care and cleaning.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Disconnect from the power supply first
- Keep away from children and pets
Start here
What this is, what tends to go wrong with it, and what to do about it.
Made from
Which part are you cleaning?
These parts take different answers. Cleaning one the way you clean another is a common way to damage this.
- Lint filter
A component whose cleaning interval is stated as every load, and whose absence the manufacturer forbids outright.
What tends to go wrong
- Fingerprintsvia its material
Skin oils transferred by touch. A greasy soil rather than a dirty one, which is why water alone does not shift them and why they return immediately.
Why it is difficult: Surfactancy
- Water marksvia its material
What hard water leaves behind when it evaporates instead of being wiped away. A mineral film, not dirt, and the fix is at the drying stage.
Why it is difficult: Water hardness, Evaporative deposition
- Rustvia its material
Hydrated iron oxide from corroding iron or steel. Distinguish a surface deposit, which cleans off, from active corrosion of the item itself, which does not.
Why it is difficult: Corrosion and passivation, Why old stains are harder, Adhesion and cohesion
- Burnt-on food and carbon depositsvia its material
Food heated until it carbonised and bonded to the surface. Time and softening do the work; scouring powder does the damage.
Why it is difficult: Contact time, Carbonisation, Adhesion and cohesion, Why old stains are harder
- Greasevia its material
Fats and oils, which water alone cannot lift. Removed by surfactants, by heat, by solvents, or by alkalis that convert the fat into soap.
Why it is difficult: Why oil resists water, Emulsification
- Heat tintvia its material
The rainbow or brown bloom on stainless steel that has been heated. Not a deposit and not dirt: the metal's own surface oxide, thickened by heat.
- Limescalevia its material
A hard, chalky calcium carbonate deposit left by hard water. Dissolved by acids, essentially untouched by detergents.
Why it is difficult: Water hardness, Crystallisation, Adhesion and cohesion
The science behind this: Corrosion and passivation, Water hardness, Chloride attack, Cleanability is designed in
In detail
A tumble dryer's maintenance looks like housekeeping and is not classified as such by the people who make them. The manufacturer prints the lint instruction under the heading 'To minimize the possibility of a fire hazard': clean the lint filter BEFORE EACH LOAD to prevent lint accumulation inside the dryer or in the room, and do not operate the dryer without the filter in place. The same section directs keeping the area around and underneath the appliance free of accumulated lint, which is the part almost nobody does, because the accumulation that matters is the portion that escapes the filter rather than the visible mat on it. Two further instructions concern what goes in. Articles treated with combustible substances — cleaners and some spot removers are named — must not be dried, because the dryer heats whatever residue the fabric still carries. And fibreglass articles are excluded outright, because remaining glass particles can be picked up by clothing in later loads and cause skin irritation: an appliance retaining what passed through it, which is a contamination problem rather than a cleaning one.
Related
- Tumble dryer has the component Lint filter
- Tumble dryer is made from Stainless steel
Hacks and claims involving this
- Cleaning the lint filter when it looks full Does not work
Sources for this page
Sources
Owner's Manual: Dryers DDE5207M, DDG5287M
GE Appliances · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That the lint filter is cleaned before each load to prevent lint accumulation inside the dryer or in the room, that the dryer must not be operated without the filter in place, that this appears under a fire-hazard heading, and that fibreglass articles must not be dried because remaining particles can be picked up by later loads. (states this directly)