Tumble dryer repair
Vented, condenser and heat pump dryers — no heat, long cycles, and the airflow faults that cause both.
What this costs
- Call-out and diagnosis
- £49.00£58.80 inc-VAT
- The repair itself
- £30.00£36.00 inc-VAT
- Parts, if any are needed
- Quoted first
6-month guarantee on repair work. Nothing is fitted without your say-so.
A dryer that takes two cycles to do one load is the most common call we get, and it is rarely the dryer giving up. It is almost always airflow. Lint gets past the filter over a couple of years and settles in the ducting, the condenser block and the heat exchanger, and the machine ends up recycling air it has already used.
We work on all three types — vented, condenser and heat pump. Heat pump dryers in particular need their evaporator cleaning properly rather than rinsing, and that is a job most owners have never been shown how to do.
Airflow faults are also a fire risk, which is the part of this that matters most. A dryer running hot against a blocked duct is the single most common cause of appliance fires in UK homes. If we find one we will tell you exactly what we found.
Faults we see most
If one of these sounds like your appliance, say so when you book — it is often the difference between a repair finished on the day and a second visit for a part.
- Takes two or three cycles to dry one load
- Restricted airflow — a blocked filter, duct, condenser block or heat exchanger. Nine times in ten this is it.
- Tumbling but no heat at all
- A blown thermal cut-out, a failed element, or on a heat pump, a compressor fault.
- Cuts out partway through and will not restart until it cools
- The thermal overload doing its job because the machine is overheating. Treat this as urgent.
- Drum not turning, motor audible
- A snapped or stretched drive belt, or a seized jockey pulley.
- Condenser dryer leaving water in the drum or on the floor
- A blocked condenser, a full tank that is not signalling, or the sump pump.
- Burning smell during a cycle
- Lint against the element. Stop using it and ring us — this is the fault that starts fires.
What happens on the day
- Airflow measured through the whole path, not just a glance at the filter.
- Condenser, heat exchanger and evaporator cleaned out properly — on a heat pump this alone often restores the cycle time.
- Thermostats and thermal cut-outs tested, and the reason one tripped established rather than simply resetting it.
- Vent ducting checked along its full run on a vented machine, including the wall outlet.
- Lint build-up against the element checked as a safety item on every single visit.
What we do not do
- Cutting new vent holes through an external wall — we will refit and reroute existing ducting, but new structural work is a builder's job.
Questions we get asked
My dryer takes hours. Is it worth repairing or should I replace it?
Get it looked at before you buy anything. Long cycles are overwhelmingly an airflow problem, and a proper strip and clean of the condenser or heat exchanger usually restores the original cycle time on a machine the owner had written off.
Is a dryer that cuts out and restarts dangerous?
It is the symptom to take seriously. The thermal cut-out is tripping because the machine is running too hot, and the usual reason is restricted airflow with lint sitting against the element. Stop using it and book a visit.
Do you work on heat pump dryers?
Yes. They need the evaporator cleaning properly rather than rinsed, and a sealed-system fault diagnosing accurately, because the compressor side is not a cheap guess to get wrong.
How often should the condenser be cleaned?
Every few months on a condenser machine, and the filters after every load. It is the single thing that most affects how long your dryer lasts.