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I have been having problems with my tumble drier (Asko T794C) thermal protection going out frequently and decided to have a look.

The tumble dryer is a built-in so the air intake is on the front panel:

enter image description here

Upon a closer look into the air intake I found what I thought was a really bad case of lint buildup.

The air duct is a plastic case which is really hard to open without disassembling the whole device, so I made a hook out of a knitting needle and started to pick the lint through the front grate.

Here's what I ended up with after an hour or so of work:

enter image description here

and from the looks of it there's more where it came from:

enter image description here

At this moment I'm worried if it's really lint and not some kind of thermal insulation or something like this.

  • It is much more dense than lint usually is. It's almost like felt.
  • It looks like it has quite long fibers and sometimes whole pieces of fabric: enter image description here
  • It looks like it's built up in layers of uniform thickness (about 1 cm thick, you can see it on the grate photo).
  • It does not seem to block the air stream. When I turn the machine on, I can feel the air coming in alright.

What is this stuff? Should I continue picking it out?

Update:

I found schematics for my machine:

enter image description here

and this stuff seems to be what's left of part 6260:

enter image description here

Any idea what could this be and what could it be used for?

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  • Make sure there's not a mouse or something in there pulling out that insulation. It's odd that it would just start coming out on its own like that.
    – JPhi1618
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 14:25
  • It was me pulling out that insulation, and I'm not a mouse (not that I know of). I thought it was lint built up real bad.
    – Quassnoi
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 15:34
  • Ah, ok. I thought you kept finding the little chunks or loose bits of it inside, etc. Maybe a mouse in a past life then?
    – JPhi1618
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 15:36

2 Answers 2

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It is a sound absorber for the air inlet. It muffles the sound of the air being sucked into the dryer. Check the vent hood, where your dryer vents to the outside, for lint buildup. If everything is clear and your thermal protection till goes out frequently, you ought to have it checked out. It appears that the sound absorbers are deteriorated or at least loose and could be restricting flow. good luck

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  • Yes it seems those were sound absorbers, and they were deteriorated and loose indeed (not sure they were like that before my mighty hook, but they sure are now). I've managed to crack open the lid of the air duct just enough to squeeze my hand in there and pulled out what's left of the sound absorbers. Are they just mufflers (and not filters or thermal insulators or something)?
    – Quassnoi
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 3:49
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Lint , felt and strings from “dingle balls, on our bed topper is what I see. I have cleaned my dryer vents for close to 35 years after repairing not 1 but 3 homes that we repaired from dryer vent fires. Since then every year I do this but About 2008 my wife washed and dried a king size topper that had lots of dingle balls, caused problems with the front loader but more with the dryer. What I see is similar and a huge fire opportunity. It is a good idea to clean the dryer lint trap every load and clean the vent lines every year. Not many do this but if blowing a thermal fuse make sure your insurance is paid up, lint on fire with some air flow is as much as a blow torch that will melt the single wall pipe no matter what it is made of. Clean your exhaust yearly, clean your lint trap every load and sleep well if you do this.

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  • Make sure you clean your dryer vent hood too. They can build up stuff that can restrict flow too.
    – JACK
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 1:10
  • Back in a dorm in high school many years ago (1981?), the school dryer wasn't working very well. It turned out the lint trap was in a place different from what any of us were used to (very bottom instead of inside the door or on top) and it hadn't been cleaned in years. After a good cleaning (and now we knew how to clean it after every load) it was as good as new.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 4:07

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