I. told. you. so!

And the dryer saga continues. Need a little refresher? The dryer in our rental house is a piece of junk that is older than the hills. I’ve talked to Mrs. landlady many a time about the burning smell emanating from the dryer, but she pretty much doesn’t believe me because I have not been able to replicate it any time that either she or the repairman have been to the house. I did finally figure out how to get the smell to happen and she says, “Well, no other technicians will be coming for this problem.” Basically, she tried to tell me that it was my fault because:

a) I was overloading the dryer

or

b) because I dried “previously soiled cloth diapers” in there. Uh, what? Once the dipes hit they dryer they are clean, which means they don’t smell. Can you imagine, drying dirty diapers? Ewwww!

Anyway, I just sort of gave up for awhile. In the interim, we’ve had to have a repairman come to replace the belt as the dryer was squealing quite loudly. And then just last week, someone came because the top of the dryer was getting HOT. As in “yank your hand back because it’s so hot” kind of hot. I told him about the squeal and the smell (which was never resolved) and he set to work.  It took him about 1.5 minutes to discover the problem.

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Anyone notice anything wrong with this picture?

I’ll help you out . . . . See the black stuff? Yeah, that’s where the yellow wire covering got burned when the wires went poof. And see that green stuff? Yeah, that’s corrosion, which means those wires blew a looong time ago and now the wires are just corroding.All together now . . . .  MAJOR FIRE HAZARD!

And now, I just want to take a moment to say:

I

TOLD

YOU

SO!!

How long had I been telling Mrs. landlady that there was a problem with the dryer?  Oh, yeah, from the first time I used the dryer 3.5 months ago!  So it’s basically been a fire just waiting to happen for a very, long time now.   Just guess how ticked I was when I discovered this?  And then, to make matters worse, I was told by the repairman that it would be EIGHT DAYS before he could get back with the part to fix the dryer, and I wasn’t supposed to use the dryer until then!  Long story short, I told Mrs. landlady about it and insinuated VERY strongly that she really needed to just get a new dryer.  Her response.  “We’ve had several repairmen come in the past and noone said anything about a fire hazard.  I realize this is inconvenient but there’s nothing else I could have done.”

Speechless, I was just speechless.   . . . . but only for about 5 minutes, at which point I fired off another tactful, yet to the point email to her.  As far as I can tell, it didn’t do a drop of good.

But, according Mr. landlady, his wife is probably going to buy a new dryer, which was shocking to me based on the  emails from her.  I have basically given up on Mrs. landlady.  Clearly, she has no grasp on reality.  She’s really quite a nice human being.  Sadly, she leaves quite a bit to be desired in the landlording department.  I really don’t know why she didn’t just buy a new dryer from the beginning.  Between the home warranty deductibles and other repairs she’s had to pay for, she’s probably spent aroun $200 or more.  With that amount, she could have bought a decent used dryer and saved us all the headache. Oh yeah, and the fire hazard.  (Where is that eye roll smiley?)

Stay tuned to hear about the exciting resolution to this totally preventable drama!