Hey, if that headline didn’t wake you up this morning, have somebody take your pulse. You may be dead!
Well, I guess I’d better explain it, before you all start getting really ugly mental images that will make your waffles and Corn Flakes taste bad.
We have a Splendide washer/dryer combo in our Winnebago, and even though Miss Terry is constantly cleaning the water filter and pulling small bits of lint out of the exhaust vent on the outside of the motorhome, it has become plugged up. The airflow is seriously restricted, and it is taking much longer to dry our laundry.
We bought a flexible vent tube cleanout tool that has several lengths of extensions and different brushes and fittings that screw onto the ends, and working from the outside, were able to get several clumps of lint out. But the air flow is still not what it should be. The next step may be to figure out how to access the back of the washer/dryer, and remove the vent hose and see if we can make any progress from that end. Interestingly, Greg White is having the same problem with the dryer in their American Eagle motorhome.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there. Even though my own dear mother has been gone for twenty years, I still miss her every day. She was quite a lady, a plump little woman who bore eight children, and outlived five of them but never lost her sense of humor, or her ability to see the joy in life.
To give you an idea of what my mom was like, here is a link to a Mother’s Day blog post I wrote a couple of years ago. I’m sure you’ll get a chuckle out of it.
Yesterday we spent most of the day working inside, me on the computer, and Miss Terry logging in all of the orders and subscription renewals that came in our mail the other day. The registrations for our Ohio Gypsy Journal Rally are starting to come in on a steady basis, and it looks like we’re going to have another good rally. I hope you’ll join us!
We left the RV park long enough to run to Sam’s Club and WalMart with Greg and Jan, then we had dinner at Famous Dave’s Barbecue. The food was delicious, and we topped it off with a stop at Dairy Queen for dessert.
Back at the Thousand Trails, Terry cut my hair, we watched some TV, I spent some time writing, and Bad Nick posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled What’s The Point?. Check it out and leave a comment.
Today we’re taking Miss Terry and Jan to a Mother’s Day dinner, and then I hope to come home and take a much deserved nap. When I wake up from that, I think I’ll just spend the rest of the day being lazy and loafing around the motorhome. 🙂
Thought For The Day – It’s not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it.
Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Lint buildup can often be caused by the fabric softeners in detergents and antistatic sheets. Most of those are just wax in one form or another and it can bind the lint into pretty tough mats.
Uncontaminated lint (not wax bonded) is pretty easy to clean out but if it is sticking to the sides of the tubes then it is likely that it is also sticking to the surfaces of the whole exhaust system in the dryer and this may mean periodically tearing it down to get at the blower blades, metal parts and other internal surfaces of the dryer.
Decades ago, I outlawed the use of fabric softeners and detergents that contained them because I got very tired of having to tear down the dryer a couple of times a year to clean it and to replace heating elements and overtemp sensors. When the build up gets bad enough, drying times keep going up and the internal thermal protectors may start to get overused until they start to fail.
Even today, many of the laundry detergents have some waxy compounds in them that contribute to this gradual buildup and the more convoluted and “snakey” the exhaust path it, the more quickly that lint lining builds up. I am sure that “Handy Andy” (Greg) has encountered this over the years, too.
Hey Nick,
We loved your post from 2009 about your mom and your graduation. May we have permission to read part of it on our next show?
John and Kathy Huggins
Living the RV Dream
This came from a Splendide Tech. It has worked for us.
Remove the vent pipe from the washer, turn off and remove the cold water supply from the washer. Insert the cold water supply pipe into the air outlet of the washer. Us a wash rag to hold and seal the cold water pipe into the air outlet, turn on the cold water to flush out the air outlet. Give it 3 to 4 good blasts of 10 to 15 seconds each. This will flush the blockage back into the tank. Put every thing back together. Turn the dial to drain and pump the water and lent out of the tank. Run a cycle to see if it worked
GP
Hey Nick, love Daves BBQ. There is one in Ft. Myers now and we get a fix when we visit family in that area.
Nick – We had the same problem with our original Splendide (same model as yours). Since there were some other electrical problems too, and we like you are full-timers, we felt it was time to get a new one. New models are much better. Steam dryers (when we use it), no more filters to clean as the lint goes out with the water (rinse our gray water tank with some soap going down the road now and then to be sure). When the old unit was sitting on the ground I looked behind where the vent hose came out. Inside it was packed solid with lint! If yours is this way the only way to clean it is to take the unit out and really get at it. Do not wait as ours looked like it was a step away from a fire.
Loved the Mother’s Day story. It made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes. Too bad no one had a video camera back then.
Your mother really loved you.
I didn’t get to congratulate you yesterday on sending your book in. I know it will do well, but the real money will be in the movie deal.
You had a great mom, now I know where you got you sense of humor. My mom is no longer with us, I miss her everyday. The story made my cry but that is fine, If your mom is still alive cherish her. Sorry about your dryer problem. We do not have a unit in the rig just for that reason just something else to go wrong with, Mike like you is seriously challenged in fix the problem area. Lucky you have Greg to fix it. We also love Famous Dave’s good ribs. Take care and be safe.
Nick I just had to remove the lint build up from inside our washer yesterday. This is the 2nd time I have done this. It isn’t very technical, just no room for my hands. Might be easier for MS. Terry. Anyway you remove the vent hose, the oval access panel on the back. the plastic flange the the vent hose was connected to. You can then see the black rubber “s” tube that connects the drum vent to the hose vent. The lint will build up in this tube to the point the washer will go into diagnostic mode and not continue to dry. I cleaned out a lint ball the size of a mouse, put it back together and it drys like new. Also you have to remove the top of the machine but it is only 2 screws. Good luck, Jesse
When you have the unit out replace the original dryer vent tube with the smother aluminum dryer vent tube available at Lows or Home Depot. It helps with airflow
Don Hankins
We had the same problem, I pulled the flex hose off and took the vacum cleaner to it and also to the dryer itself. We have had know problem with it after doing this. Good luck!!!
Sure John, help yourself