The day my dryer repair turned into a 5-hour nightmare

Last Wednesday I rolled up to a job in St. Louis thinking it was a simple dryer no-heat call. The thermal fuse was blown, but when I pulled the drum I found a massive nest of lint and a dead mouse that had basically welded itself to the heating element. Took me over an hour just to clean it all out safely. The homeowner was watching me the whole time and kept asking if I was done yet. I charged them $180 for the repair but honestly I should have doubled it for the mess. Has anyone else run into something way worse than expected behind a dryer drum?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_butler1mo ago

Honestly I should have doubled it" seems a bit much, you know? I mean yeah, dead mice are gross and cleaning that up sounds terrible, but you signed up for dryer repair work. It's kind of the job to deal with whatever's in there. Most people aren't going to expect you to find a whole mouse, but that's part of the risk when you work with appliances. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but $180 for a few hours including cleanup seems fine. You got paid, you got the job done, that's the main thing.

the_sandra1mo ago

Oh man, I feel you on this one! I had a similar thing happen when I was fixing my own washer a few years back and found a whole nest of leaves and a dead bird in the vent. Grossest thing ever, but I just grabbed some gloves and a trash bag and handled it. I mean, it's part of the gig when you're messing with stuff that's been sitting around. The customer probably didn't even know it was in there, so it's not like they were trying to screw you over. I just treated it like a bonus gross chore and moved on.