On the job · Downtown Charleston
The rest of the lineup.
Same $99 diagnostic, same written quote, same written warranty on every machine we fix in Downtown Charleston.
Saturday morning, two sets of sheets, a guest arriving at four. The dryer in the hall closet runs, tumbles, and hands back damp cotton. On the peninsula that is a dryer problem about half the time and a vent problem the other half, and we check both before we write a number. Gas, electric, stacked and the ventless compacts in condos.
Same $99 diagnostic, same written quote, same written warranty on every machine we fix in Downtown Charleston.
Start with a load of towels in a Wagener Terrace bungalow. The dryer heats, the cycle ends, the towels are warm and wet. The owner runs it again. Then a third time. The heating element is fine; the vent is not. In that neighborhood and in Hampton Park the vent often runs from a hall closet through two walls to a hooded outlet under a piazza, and Charleston humidity turns the lint in that run into felt. Airflow drops, the high-limit thermostat trips, the element cycles off, and the machine looks lazy. We put an anemometer on the exhaust before we open the cabinet, because a new element in front of a blocked vent fails again within the year.
The other half of the peninsula is condos and conversions off King Street and Meeting Street, where there is no vent at all. Those buildings run ventless condenser dryers and, increasingly, heat-pump compacts from Bosch, Miele and LG. They fail differently: a full condensate reservoir, a lint filter behind a second door nobody knew existed, a pump that stopped moving water to the drain. South of Broad and Harleston Village add salt air from the harbor to the mix, which corrodes the flame sensor and igniter on gas dryers and pits the contacts on door switches. A dryer that will not start after a humid week is often a door switch that reads open when it is closed.
On electric dryers we check the thermal fuse, the element and the thermostats with the meter in that order; the fuse blows because the vent restricted, so we test airflow too. On gas dryers it is the igniter, the flame sensor or the gas coils. The van carries all of these for the common brands.
This is the vent complaint. We measure static pressure and airflow at the machine, check the flex transition behind it and the outlet outside, and clear what we can reach. If the run through the wall is packed, we tell you what we found and what to expect. The dryer itself is usually healthy.
A door switch that has corroded in salt air, a start switch, a belt switch on some models, or a thermal fuse that opened. Each has a distinct reading on the meter. We test the switch under load, not just for continuity, because a corroded contact can pass a quick test and fail under heat.
Drum rollers flatten from humidity and age, the idler pulley bearing dries out, or the belt has glazed. In a stacked unit the noise carries through the whole house. We spin the drum by hand with the belt off and identify which part is talking before anything gets replaced.
Condenser and heat-pump dryers pump condensate to a drain or a tank. A blocked pump, a full tank or a clogged condenser fin pack shuts the cycle down. We clean the condenser, test the pump and check the float switch. Most owners have never seen the second lint filter these units carry.
Stop and unplug it. Lint has reached the element or the burner, or a roller has seized and the belt is dragging. We open the cabinet, clear the base, inspect the heater housing and check the vent, then tell you plainly whether the machine is safe to run.
The diagnosis follows the air and the heat. First the vent: airflow and back-pressure at the machine, then a look at the outlet on the piazza or the roof to see whether the flap moves. Then the cabinet: with the front off we meter the element or the gas valve coils, the thermal fuse, the cycling and high-limit thermostats and the moisture sensor bars. On gas units we watch the igniter glow, the flame light and the sensor drop out, which tells us more in thirty seconds than a code does. On a stacked pair in a Radcliffeborough closet all of that happens with the unit walked out onto sliders, and we put it back and re-level it before we leave.
We repair Whirlpool, GE, Samsung, LG, Maytag, Frigidaire, Electrolux and Kenmore dryers, plus the Bosch and Miele compacts and heat-pump units common in downtown condos. Property managers running short-term rentals near the College of Charleston and along the Battery get the same service on a turnover schedule: we book between guests, text the written quote, and fix it before check-in. Pricing does not change by neighborhood. The $99 diagnostic is inside the number you approve, and if you decide not to proceed, $99 is the entire bill. Book the visit online and up to $20 comes off the repair, never off the diagnostic.
Call (843) 969-4664 with the symptom, or book online and up to $20 comes off the repair. Downtown Charleston, six days a week.
