I have been having problems with my tumble drier (Asko T794C) thermal protection going out frequently and decided to have a look.
The tumble dryer is a built-in so the air intake is on the front panel:
Upon a closer look into the air intake I found what I thought was a really bad case of lint buildup.
The air duct is a plastic case which is really hard to open without disassembling the whole device, so I made a hook out of a knitting needle and started to pick the lint through the front grate.
Here's what I ended up with after an hour or so of work:
and from the looks of it there's more where it came from:
At this moment I'm worried if it's really lint and not some kind of thermal insulation or something like this.
- It is much more dense than lint usually is. It's almost like felt.
- It looks like it has quite long fibers and sometimes whole pieces of fabric:
- It looks like it's built up in layers of uniform thickness (about 1 cm thick, you can see it on the grate photo).
- It does not seem to block the air stream. When I turn the machine on, I can feel the air coming in alright.
What is this stuff? Should I continue picking it out?
Update:
I found schematics for my machine:
and this stuff seems to be what's left of part 6260:
Any idea what could this be and what could it be used for?
Best Answer
It is a sound absorber for the air inlet. It muffles the sound of the air being sucked into the dryer. Check the vent hood, where your dryer vents to the outside, for lint buildup. If everything is clear and your thermal protection till goes out frequently, you ought to have it checked out. It appears that the sound absorbers are deteriorated or at least loose and could be restricting flow. good luck