I still kind of compulsively watch our power consumption, not because we’re close to the edge of our solar plant’s capacity but just because, as Infrastructure Man, I like to keep tabs on such things (and I have a snazzy control center that’s just fun to look at). This morning HA told me she had started drying a load of laundry, and I was concerned because we weren’t using nearly enough power to be running the electric dryer.
I made the trek from the pavilion to the garage and found that the LG electric dryer was off and the clothes in it were still wet. Had HA simply failed to hit the Start button? Unlikely, but I pushed it anyway.
Nothing.
There are no lights or sounds. It was acting just as though it was unplugged. I checked, of course, and it was plugged in. I checked the circuit breaker and it was not tripped, though I cycled it anyway. I got out my trusty multimeter and checked the power at the socket: 240 VAC.
HA and I pulled the dryer out. The timing, while never great for such things, was pretty good in that we’d been working all weekend to make space for Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla to actually go into the garage. Car. In the garage. What a novel concept! So there was room to pull out the dryer and work on it.
The 240 VAC was making it all the way to the control board, but the dryer remained dead. I performed the manufacturer’s reset procedure of holding first the power button and then the start/stop button in for 5 seconds each. Nothing.
Searching the internet yielded a lot of slop, AI generated and otherwise. LG, of course, just says to call to schedule service which likely will never happen out here and won’t be affordable if it did.
The laundry equipment is important to us, particularly after the amount of time I spent repairing the washer after it was damaged in the big move. I think the most likely culprit is the main control board, and apparently LG is rather infamous for control boards failing. I found a replacement board online for about $400. It’s a lot, but I’ll try a board-level repair on the old board once we get the dryer working again, and then I’ll have a spare. I spent $10 extra on “second day” shipping as the last appliance part I ordered still isn’t here seven weeks on, while the vendor suggests I just “wait a couple more weeks.” We’ll see if these guys are any better.
In the mean time, the sun is brightly shining so HA has draped the clothes over outdoor furniture (ironically, she just ordered drying racks about two days ago but of course they’re not yet here). They should be dry by evening.
—2p