The short answer
A AED dryer that has become noisy is normally still drying, and the noise is wear rather than failure. The table on this page carries two model numbers that sit close together in the line. The exception is a hard rattle, which is often a coin or a button in the blower and should be dealt with before it damages the wheel.
The observations that separate this fault from its neighbours
- A high squeal that rises with the drum speed — A dry roller or an idler pulley. It usually appears gradually and gets worse with every load.
- A vibration you feel through the floor — The cabinet passing normal vibration into the structure — usually a foot not carrying weight or a machine standing on an uneven floor.
- The noise continues for a moment after the machine stops — The drum and the blower coast, so a noise that carries on briefly belongs to a rotating part rather than to the control.
- A scraping or grinding from the back of the machine — The blower wheel fouling its housing, or the drum rubbing where a glide has worn through.
- NEAR MISS — a burning smell with the noise — Stop immediately and isolate the machine. Lint against a hot surface is a fire risk and is not an ordinary noise fault.
Ranked causes for these models
- Belt and idler pulley — Ranked first because a belt-and-idler noise is continuous rather than intermittent, which is the most common description on this family.
- What the drum runs on — Second, and distinguished from the idler by rhythm: a roller noise keeps time with the drum, an idler noise is constant.
- The motor — Third. A motor noise does not stop when the drum is held still, which is the discriminating test, and it grinds rather than squeals.
- Blower wheel and foreign objects — Fourth, and identified by a rattle rather than a continuous note.
- Levelling, duct and contact — Last, and free: a loose duct, an unlevel machine or a cabinet touching a wall all make noises that sound internal.
The order to work in on these models
- Run the machine empty for a moment and listen — An empty drum removes load noise and makes a wear noise much easier to place.
- Stop it and turn the drum by hand with the power off — Roughness or a catch you can feel confirms a roller or a bearing without any dismantling.
- Hold the exhaust duct still while it runs — If the noise changes, it is the duct or the cabinet, not a part inside.
- Check for objects in the blower area — Coins and buttons are the commonest hard rattle and the one with a deadline attached.
- Plan the panel work last — Rollers, belt and idler are behind the same cover, so they are assessed and replaced in one job.
Safety first
Safety
Power off at the breaker or the plug before the back or the front panel comes off, and treat lint as a fire load rather than as dirt. Clear lint from the filter housing and the duct as part of every job here — lint packed around a heat source is the fire risk on any dryer. On a gas model, do not disturb the burner or the supply line: that is licensed work, and a gas smell means leave the building and call the utility from outside.
Models in the AED family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AED67 | arctic-wind:dryer:aed |
| AED70 | arctic-wind:dryer:aed |
Where owner work stops
The boundary is the cabinet. A machine that needs rollers, a belt, an idler or a motor has to be opened, which means the drum comes out on most builds of this kind — a job with a real risk of doing more harm than good if it is rushed. Everything outside the cabinet is owner-side, and that includes the single most valuable maintenance task on the machine: clearing the duct.
Other problems covered for this family
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Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
