Clothes Dryer Drum Roller Axle Lubrication and lack thereof

[headrush]

I have a Maytag dryer model DE512 manufactured in 1988. That's 36 years ago. My grandmother gave it to me around 1995ish, although I honestly can't remember the date. We had a 3 person family (2 women) until one left for college, so it hasn't seen heavy use. Heavy use would be a family with 4-8 kids, which is relatively common in these parts.

My dryer started squeeking recently. It sounded bad and I assumed death, but I did exploratory surgery. A drum roller wheel axle was the source of the noise. I watched videos from what I believe is a reputable source. These steel axles run on a steel hub on the drum roller wheel. And based on the videos, they are not assembled with lubrication. Steel on steel with no lubrication. For 38 years.

This is blowing my mind. Of course I haven't performed metallurgical analysis on the axles & hub, but they are both appear to be steel. A wear couple where both surfaces use the same or similar materials is generally considered a very bad idea. And without lubrication is unthinkable (in my view).

I cleaned the axle and hub with 1000 grit sandpaper and sprayed the axle with MoS. I still have a squeek, but it is a very different squeek. Not sure if it is the other drum roller axle or MoS was a poor choice. But the point of this post is that my Maytag dryer, which has lasted 38 years, and I am reasonably certain (although not completely certain) was assembled as a steel-on-steel wear couple without lubrication, lasted 38 years.

Any clothes dryer design engineers on this forum?

 

[Chris142]

I was able to buy those parts for our Kenmore a few years ago.I don't remember the specifics But I seem to remember greasing the shaft with a moly grease.

 

[bullwinkle]

I have the same rollers on my Maytag, and they seem to need a nice layer of antiseize compound every 5 years or so. I think the inner part of the wheel is a bronze bushing, but they still get noisy, generally followed by a drum belt failure.

 

[nthach]

I used Red Line CV-2 on my parent’s dryer. The mix of red moly and PAO base oil was my reasoning for that choice.

 

[Chevyc10]

You replace the rollers when you start hearing noise. I sold thousands of them. The shafts hardly ever went bad. Idler pulley is common issue to. When I have to replace belt, drum rollers or belt I usually replace all of them. Comes in maintenance kit.

 

[JHZR2]

I used Red Line CV-2 on my parent’s dryer. The mix of red moly and PAO base oil was my reasoning for that choice.

lol what lubrication regime in a clothes dryer requires that?!?

I have a Maytag dryer model DE512 manufactured in 1988. That's 36 years ago. My grandmother gave it to me around 1995ish, although I honestly can't remember the date. We had a 3 person family (2 women) until one left for college, so it hasn't seen heavy use. Heavy use would be a family with 4-8 kids, which is relatively common in these parts.

My dryer started squeeking recently. It sounded bad and I assumed death, but I did exploratory surgery. A drum roller wheel axle was the source of the noise. I watched videos from what I believe is a reputable source. These steel axles run on a steel hub on the drum roller wheel. And based on the videos, they are not assembled with lubrication. Steel on steel with no lubrication. For 38 years.

This is blowing my mind. Of course I haven't performed metallurgical analysis on the axles & hub, but they are both appear to be steel. A wear couple where both surfaces use the same or similar materials is generally considered a very bad idea. And without lubrication is unthinkable (in my view).

I cleaned the axle and hub with 1000 grit sandpaper and sprayed the axle with MoS. I still have a squeek, but it is a very different squeek. Not sure if it is the other drum roller axle or MoS was a poor choice. But the point of this post is that my Maytag dryer, which has lasted 38 years, and I am reasonably certain (although not completely certain) was assembled as a steel-on-steel wear couple without lubrication, lasted 38 years.

Any clothes dryer design engineers on this forum?

This is a very slow speed motion, I assume. So that may be part of it. Dry won’t collect lint or grit. Wet or greased will.

A dry lube might be the right compromise.

 

[headrush]

You replace the rollers when you start hearing noise. I sold thousands of them. The shafts hardly ever went bad. Idler pulley is common issue to. When I have to replace belt, drum rollers or belt I usually replace all of them. Comes in maintenance kit.

Without lubrication of the shafts?

Steel-on-steel without a lubricant seems like the worst possible situation to me.

I purchased a rebuild kit after I attempted to fix the drum roller squeak. It was a screaming deal on Amazon ($35) which includes rollers, axles, an idler pulley, and a belt. All parts made in China. The parts are made by a company called Exact Replacement Parts. My confidence in these parts is low. But everything is made in China now. I haven't installed the parts yet.

 

[Carmudgeon]

I've used the OE rebuild kit for an early 70s Kenmore (Whirlpool) dryer and the parts served for years without a second thought.

That dryer was retired after serving for 50 years only because of an intermittent electrical failure in the safeties of the control panel, with parts NLA, not because of a physical failure of the drum or those rollers.

The dryer that replaced it, a late model Whirlpool, is practically the same, with modern cosmetics, but the same basic engineering design, same roller parts and all.

I can't vouch for the quality of aftermarket parts, or even that of the OE parts nowadays, but the venerable design, readily available parts, and solid performance of what is essentially just a heated box, aren't on the list of things that keep me up at night.

 

[JHZR2]

Without lubrication of the shafts?

Steel-on-steel without a lubricant seems like the worst possible situation to me.

why? Is it smooth metal, low speed? Dirty? Gritty?

 

[headrush]

Yes, smooth metal, although there is no way to know the original surface roughness. I don't know the speed, but I wouldn't call it low. The load is certainly low. Why is because similar materials weld themselves together. It's called adhesive wear.

What I don't know is if the axles were lubed on assembly. I only know that various repair videos don't recommend lubrication, and I did not see evidence of past lubrication, although any evidence could be long gone.

I suppose the load may be low enough that adhesive wear doesn't occur.

Or maybe lint does infiltrate the contact surfaces and wads up into tiny little balls/cylinders which act as roller elements. A bearing lubricated by contamination?

 

[headrush]

MoS2 is the wrong lubricant for a dryer drum roller shaft. I used Safe-T-Eze dry MoS2 spray, which I believe is only MoS2 after it dries. Within a few loads my dryer started squeaking again. It was a different squeak but highly annoying.

This time I disassembled both rollers and looked closely at the roller I hadn't disassembled before. There was evidence of lubricant. I am now convinced the shafts were lubricated when assembled at the factory. For the second go-around I sanded the shafts and bushings with 1000 grit emery cloth, applied some Miller-Stephenson PTFE dry teflon spray, and after letting the PTFE spray dry I applied some home brew chain lube, which is 5-20 wt motor oil with steric acid added. I didn't use new parts (even though I have an entire rebuild kit) because I have to know the results of this experiment.

Note that my home brew chain lube is a not very good bicycle chain lube because it collects dirt like crazy. I don't worry about it collecting dirt in the dryer because is resides in a small and long gap (i.e. little surface area is exposed), but it is possible that as it migrates to the ends of the shafts/bushings it will collect lint, which could wick the oil from the gap.

So it appears this whole thread has been a wild goose chase because I thought the shafts/bushings had been assembled dry, but I am now confident I was wrong about this. I believe the best approach to replacing drum rollers would be to grease the shafts as common sense would dictate. I think the repair videos are negligent by not specifying lubrication when replacing drum rollers.