MAJOR Manufacturer's Defect, Broke Down before 1 year!

I would like to let others know about this dryer and a MAJOR manufacturer's defect in this product. We were moving into our new condominium and we had created a laundry closet to fit this unit into. We did not want to have this unit in the Kitchen as how it was previously placed.

So, we opted with a small 24 inch unit. This unit we ended up paying $900 CAD ($650 USD in 2005) and were happy with the unit that it could fit into our tight laundry closet.

PROs
- The unit is nice and compact to fit in the tightest of spots that the regular size units can not fit in.
- The unit is stackable with the accompanying washer.
- The unit can dry well IF you have spun dry on high before putting into the dryer.

CONs
- The unit does take a bit longer to dry cloths (1.5-2.5 hours)
- If you spin dry on low in washer, your cloths will still be a little damp if you use medium or low temperature.

Good Practices found to help with unit
- Remove the lint from the trap half way through the drying process. This will help with the drying.
- Dry on Regular temperature as it will work best to get cloths dry.
- You will have to do 2-3 drying cycles for bed sheets as they end up in a ball of mess and the inside of the ball can't get dried properly. (We have King Sheets) Or try doing 1 sheet at a time.

MAJOR Manufacturer's DEFECT FOUND
After 8 months, our unit ended up starting to squeak. We ignored it until about 3 months later when it started to become unbearable. The Maytag Repairman came in and looked at the unit. The bearing on the back that holds the drum in place has already worn out. The piece looks like a plastic square with a Metal Bushing (Old school Washers) where the pin from the drum sits in.

I asked the repairman if this style of bushing was used in other dryers and he said no, the others use a Ball Bearing bushing instead. I consider this a MAJOR manufacturer's defect as this is the MAJOR source of this dryer's point of failure. If the bushing was s true ball bearing bushing (Especially at the price we paid for this unit) the unit would have never broken down. Luckily it broke down under warranty and it is being replaced.

If any of you currently own one of these, please write into Maytag and to UL about this unit and this potential fire hazard. If we ended up leaving the dryer on and had melted the plastic on the dryer, we would have had a major fire on our hand.

If people are paying good money for a unit and this company puts in cheap quality parts in their dryer, I think that they should be replacing these bearings free of charge and have it completely redesigned for the existing units out there.

Therefore, if you need a 24 inch unit, I would highly recommend that you avoid this unit if you do not want to have a fire hazard in your household until Maytag fixes this issue.