Replacing a Defective Idler Pulley in Our Dryer

Marie disassembling the dryer for the repair

Four years ago we purchased a new Samsung Dryer and Washer. Recently Marie notice the dryer started to squeak while drying.  Later the “squeak” turned into an annoying “squeal”.  We thought it was a squeaky belt so we thought we should call a repair service and we were anticipating a $300 to $400 bill.

Marie suggested that before we call the dryer repair company we should take a look at what information was online about “squeaky dryers”.  This turned out to be a great idea. I found that the problem was more likely to be a defective idler arm.  this is the device that holds the tension on the dryer belt.

So we then went to YouTube to see if there was a video on replacing the idler arm on a Samsung dryer.  Surprisingly there are at least two dozen videos on replacing the “idler pulley” in Samsung dryers.  I think this speaks to an obvious flaw in these dryers.

The video I found to be the most informative was the one posted by Robin Warner at https://youtu.be/ZlWqH4qqkHU. Robin not only provides a very clear step-by-step process of disassembling the dryer to get at the idler pulley but also provides Amazon links to the parts needed to complete the repair. 

He also suggests that you take the opportunity to also replace the rollers at the same time and provides the link to the right parts kit on Amazon. So we ordered the parts kit from Amazon to replace both the idler pulley and the rollers.

Finding and Removing the Idler Pulley	This is the part that was causing all the Squeaking

Above photos show Marie identifying the idler pulley and removing it. The process was actually remarkably easy once we watch the video a few times to make sure we were disassembling the dryer correctly. Once we replaced the idler pulley we went on to replace each of the four rollers as Robin recommended.  You can see one of these in the photo above on the left. It’s the little blue wheel with the black rubber donut around it. The parts kit cost us about $40 and all-in-all this was quite a simple process and we saved ourselves about $300.  So if you ever find yourself with a squeaky dryer try searching YouTube before you think about calling in an expensive repairman.