On the job · North Charleston
The rest of the lineup.
Same $99 diagnostic, same written quote, same written warranty on every machine we fix in North Charleston.
A 1950s house in Park Circle vents its dryer down through the floor, twenty-five feet across a damp crawlspace, and out a foundation vent that has not been opened since the Bush administration. That run is the reason so many North Charleston dryers heat but never dry. We check it on every call, then meter the dryer, write one number and fix what is actually wrong.
Same $99 diagnostic, same written quote, same written warranty on every machine we fix in North Charleston.
The housing stock does the diagnosing here before we arrive. Park Circle, the blocks off Montague Avenue and the older streets along Dorchester Road are 1940s to 60s houses on crawlspaces, and the dryer vent almost always drops through the floor and runs under the house in flex duct or old rigid pipe with a dozen joints. It is dark, damp and long. Lowcountry humidity condenses in that pipe and turns lint into wet felt that never leaves. The dryer upstairs pushes against it, the high-limit trips, the element cycles, and a load of jeans takes two hours. Half our no-heat calls in these neighborhoods start as a vent problem that became a thermal fuse problem.
The newer side of the city is different. Townhomes in Oak Terrace Preserve, the developments off Ashley Phosphate toward the airport and the rentals along Rivers Avenue run short vents but stacked or second-floor laundries, so the complaints are noise, belts and door switches rather than airflow. Gas dryers are common in the apartments, and their igniters and flame sensors give out with age. A duplex near Remount Road booked a dryer that ran cold. The element was fine. The thermal fuse had opened because the crawlspace vent had separated at a joint and was filling the space with lint. We replaced the fuse, reconnected the joint and told the owner what the rest of the run needed.
Electric: the thermal fuse, the heating element or a thermostat, in that order on the meter. Gas: the igniter, flame sensor or gas valve coils. The fuse only blows when airflow is restricted, so a no-heat dryer in a crawlspace house gets its vent measured too. The van carries these parts for the common brands.
The vent. We measure airflow and back-pressure at the dryer, check the flex behind the machine and go under the house or to the exterior hood to find the restriction. We clear what we can reach and tell you what remains. Moisture sensor bars coated with dryer-sheet film cause this too, and we clean them.
Door switch, start switch, thermal fuse, a belt switch on some models or a drive motor that has seized. Each has a different meter reading. Tenants often report a dead dryer that turns out to be a tripped breaker on a 240-volt circuit with one leg out, so we check the outlet voltage before the cabinet.
Drum rollers flatten and squeal, the idler pulley bearing dries out and screams, the belt frays and thumps, or a glide has worn through. We spin the drum by hand with the belt off to isolate the noise. Rollers and idlers for Whirlpool, GE, Samsung and LG are standard van stock.
The igniter glows but one of the gas valve coils has weakened and will not open the valve, or the flame sensor has failed. We watch the ignition sequence through the front and meter the coils. It is one of the most common gas dryer faults in the older rentals and usually a same-visit fix.
Stop using it. Lint has reached the heater or burner, a roller has seized, or the vent is so restricted the high-limit is tripping every cycle. We clear the cabinet base, inspect the heater housing and measure airflow. A dryer that shuts itself off is protecting the house and needs the vent fixed, not just a part.
We follow the air first and the electricity second. An anemometer at the exhaust tells us in a minute whether the vent is the problem. Then the outlet: 240 volts on both legs for electric, or gas pressure and a live igniter circuit for gas. Then the cabinet comes open and the meter goes on the element or the coils, the thermal fuse, the cycling and high-limit thermostats, the moisture sensor and the motor. On the crawlspace houses in Park Circle and along Dorchester Road we go under the house with a light when the airflow reading says we should. A dryer repaired in front of a blocked vent comes back within the year, and we would rather fix it once.
Whirlpool, GE, Maytag and Kenmore dryers dominate the older rentals; Samsung, LG, Frigidaire and Electrolux the townhomes near Oak Terrace Preserve and the airport. We service all of them, gas and electric, stacked and side by side. For landlords and property managers running doors along Rivers Avenue, Ashley Phosphate and Remount Road, we schedule with the tenant, send the owner the written number with photos and text when the job is done. Same price at every address in the city: the $99 diagnostic is inside the number you approve, and if you decline, $99 is the whole bill. Book online and up to $20 comes off the repair.
Call (843) 969-4664 with the symptom, or book online and up to $20 comes off the repair. North Charleston, six days a week.
