Why Does My Dryer Keep Tearing Up My Clothes?

Do your clothes go into the dryer wet and perfectly fine, but come out with tears or other abrasion damage? That damage is definitely not normal from a dryer. Typically, damage to clothing from user error of a dryer comes from using too high of a heat cycle on certain types of clothing. However, if your clothes are coming out ripped, that isn’t user error. That is all caused by the appliance.

When your clothing is coming out damaged, you need to peek your head into the tub. What you are looking for is areas of physical damage into the inside of the tub. Sometimes, if you put hard items in like shoes, even if they were on a tumble dry cycle, the impact of them inside the dryer can cause damage. As dryer drums are perforated, enough physical damage can cause breaks in the metal. Your clothing will then become caught and will tear.

Physical damage inside your dryer can also cause the fins inside, called baffles, to come loose or even fall off. This can also be a cause of clothing snagging during the dry cycle.

While these two issues are similar and cause similar problems, they call for repairs that are vastly different in difficulty. The good news is that if a baffle is loose or has fallen off, the repair can be done somewhat easily and very cheaply, but it’s unlikely. The big problems come when you have physical damage to the actual drum. If it is bad enough to catch clothing, you may be able to sand the metal down, but in most cases, you will need to replace the actual drum of the dryer. It is not so much that this is a complex process, but it is a costly one.

In these cases, it is often a good idea to assess if you just want to buy a new appliance because receiving a replacement drum will be close to that cost anyway but our team can verify the cost to help you make the best decision for your household!