Tumble Dryer Not Tumbling but Motor Running
This is a distinctive fault: you can hear the motor humming or running, sometimes with a faint smell of hot rubber, but the drum itself stays completely still.
Common causes
- A snapped or badly slipped drive belt — by far the most common cause
- A seized idler pulley that can't maintain belt tension
- A drum that's jammed against the cabinet due to worn rollers or bearings
- A motor pulley that has come loose on the motor shaft
How to check it
- Unplug the dryer and remove the front or top panel to access the belt and drum.
- Look for the belt draped loosely inside the cabinet (snapped) or sitting off its pulley track (slipped).
- Spin the idler pulley by hand — it should turn freely with no grinding.
- Rotate the drum by hand and feel for physical resistance or grinding that would indicate a jam.
Fixing it
A snapped belt is a straightforward replacement: thread the new belt around the drum, under the idler pulley, and onto the motor pulley following your model's belt routing diagram, usually printed on a sticker inside the cabinet. A seized idler pulley should be replaced rather than lubricated, since dryer parts sit near heat where standard grease breaks down quickly.
When to call a technician
If the drum resists turning by hand even with the belt removed, worn rollers or bearings are likely jamming it, and diagnosing exactly which support point has failed benefits from hands-on experience.
Prevention tips
Avoid drying single heavy items like duvets or rugs on their own, since the uneven, concentrated load they place on the belt and pulley accelerates wear on exactly the parts that cause this fault. If you hear a belt starting to squeal before it snaps, treat that as an early warning and replace it rather than waiting for a full breakdown mid-cycle.
Quick questions
Why does the motor sound louder than usual when the belt has snapped? With no belt load resisting it, the motor spins with less resistance than normal, which can make it sound higher-pitched or louder even though it's actually working less.
Can I temporarily run the dryer without a belt to finish a load? No — without the belt, the drum won't turn at all, so there's no way to complete a cycle until it's replaced.
Parts and repair notes
Drive belts are one of the most universally stocked dryer parts, and most repair visits for a snapped or slipped belt are completed in a single call-out. If the underlying cause turns out to be a seized idler pulley or worn rollers rather than the belt alone, expect the visit to take a bit longer, since the technician will want to address the root cause rather than fitting a belt that's likely to fail again soon.
Related issues to watch for
A belt-related drum fault can sometimes progress from slipping to fully snapped over a period of days or weeks, so a drum that's turning intermittently rather than completely still is worth investigating immediately rather than waiting. Left unaddressed, a slipping belt under continued strain can also damage the idler pulley it's dragging against.