How to Troubleshoot & Replace Whirlpool AP3790434 / 280114 Dryer Drum Felt Seal

I ordered the part, new drum felt, & after removing the front panel I discovered a section of an old handkerchief wedged between the panel & the drum. The felt was ok. I reassembled & tested & all was OK. I called AppliancePartsPros.com to see about returning the unopened package & getting a refund. They e-mailed me a return authorization form & about a week after I sent back the part I received a refund. No hassle & outstanding service! This is an excellent company to deal with. Ed B. 

With the help from some videos on the AppliancePartsPros.com site. I was able to disassemble my dryer remove the drum remove and replace both felt seals. I then cleaned some lint build-up. while I was waiting for the seals glue to cure. Also while everything was apart I took time to clean the drum rollers of built-up hair that was keeping them from rolling freely lubed and reinstalled them. Thanks 

Put a new pulley and assembly in it. While I had it apart I put new rollers in it and a new belt. 

Pushing the start switch emitted a click. The timer & buzzer worked so the unit had electrical power. The door switch was broken in the ON position for months which was easy to work around but was the first thing we replaced to trouble shoot the unit. Dryer still did not work after replacing the door switch. We watched repair and disassemble videos on Youtube and decided to test the thermal fuse. Fuse was dead. We replaced the Thermal fuse and Thermistor, as one can take out the other, and unit works great. While open we cleaned a prodigious amount of lint build up from inside the cabinet and found one of the drum seals was worn through in several places. We will open it up again and replace the felt. I am a semi-handy homeowner. This could be a one person job but I needed my husband to help be re-seat the dryer drum to the door while I lined up the rollers. We took pictures at each step of the disassemble for reference as we left it open several days while we awaited for parts delivery. All parts arrived on time. 

Second time replacing rear felt. Takes about 2 hours. Not too difficult even if you have no experience. Most time consuming part is removing old felt and residue. Definitely worth replacing as laundry dries much faster. Dryer is now 22 years old and still cooking! 

I replaced the belt, belt tensioner, rollers (4) and the drum felt seal, since I had to remove the drum. 

I used replacement rollers and drum felt seal purchased from AppliancePartsPros.com 

Using the always excellent how-to videos here, I disassembled my dryer in about 45 minutes, going slowly to take note of where fasteners were located that needed to be removed and looking for wire connectors that needed to be disconnected. Once the drum was out, I removed the old seal and cleaned the edge of the drum with a wire brush, as recommended in the how-to video. I first dry fit the new seal to make sure it was going to fit, and did just a little bit of stretching as shown in the video. I started gluing the seal on and made sure to get a sufficient amount in without letting it drip out beyond the seal too much. I let the drum set for 18 hours before I reassembled the dryer in about 20 minutes. Just before putting the lower plate back on, I plugged it in and tested it for function. Once I was convinced it was all good, I connected the vent and put the lower plate back on. We used the dryer and it all worked wonderfully. 

My problem started with a squeaky belt and then the dryer stopped heating. I absolutely LOVE this website as I found the parts I needed. We ordered the dryer belt repair kit, and while reading reviews, I took someone's advice and ordered a new fuse and coil. While you have the dryer torn apart and especially if it is not heating, you may as well replace these parts. The price was cheap and I love how every part has a video attached so I can figure out how to do all this myself. That being said, when I got the dryer back together, I did not have the drum situated just right, and when we turned it on, it then ripped the old felt seal. Serious. Bummer. So I ordered a replacement and this was definitely the hardest part of the repair. As stated in the video, the seal was smaller than the drum...however it did not stretch as easily for me as it did for the man in the video. What finally worked was stretching it around the drum and then working it up from the there to the lip where it needed to be= just trying to fit it directly on the lip it was constantly too small and would keep flying off. Working with two people definitely makes this job easier, as does putting the dryer back together. The second time, with a helper, everything went back in place perfectly and not our dryer is working great! It is super quiet and heats better than ever. Thanks Appliance Parts Pros!! 

Followed the directions from two videos that were linked from this site, one to take the dryer apart and the other to replace the felt seal. The videos were spot on and we were able to repair the dryer without a hitch in about 3 hours (included 1 hr. cure time for the glue).