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Symptom guide / dryer
The dryer runs but the drum does not turn
The drum is the part that moves, so the diagnosis is what has stopped it rather than what has failed: the source calls a snapped drive belt the classic version of this symptom, and describes it in one line - the motor hums but the drum will not turn. The visit is what the money goes on here: $80–$130 [S4] covers the diagnostic alone, and every one of the 6 causes on this page needs a part. The complaint is the dryer runs but the drum does not turn, described as the dryer runs but the drum does not turn, the motor hums but nothing moves, the drum turns by hand but not on its own, there is a burning smell and the drum has stopped or it stopped mid-cycle with the load still wet. Snapped or slipped drive belt is where to start — $180–$380 installed, about 60 minutes [S1].
425 of the 4,223 completed jobs in that dataset [S4] sit behind the counts above. Each figure is the source's own median invoice - parts, labour and the service call together, never the part alone.
high likelihoodmoderate$180–$380 installedabout 60 minn=259 completed jobs[S4]
the motor hums but nothing movesthe dryer runs but the drum does not turnit stopped mid-cycle with the load still wet
The source calls this the classic failure of the symptom and describes it exactly: the motor hums but the drum will not turn. The belt links the motor to the drum, so when it snaps nothing else changes - the element still heats, the controls still run, and the machine simply sits there with the load inside it. One mechanical detail decides whether this is the fault rather than the motor: a belt that has snapped or slipped off leaves the drum free to turn by hand, while a seized roller or a dead motor fights back. The source's caution is that the belt is rarely the only worn part in there. This count is S4's completed-job row; S1 stands as the diagnosis source, not as the source of the number.
no cited source publishes a belt-only price: S1's $180-380 figure is its published installed band for the belt, idler pulley and drum rollers together, while S4 prices the completed belt replacement at a $322 median across 259 jobs, with the middle half of those jobs between $275 and $388. S1's own explanation of why the part price is not the number to use: belts are inexpensive, but the job requires opening the cabinet, so labour dominates.
high likelihoodadvanced$180–$380 installedabout 120 min
the dryer runs but the drum does not turnthere is a burning smell and the drum has stopped
The rollers carry the drum and the idler keeps the belt tensioned, and they wear together - which is why the source's instruction is to replace them at the same time rather than one at a time, since the machine is already open and the parts are cheap relative to the labour. A seized roller is also the mechanism behind the burning smell that arrives with a stopped drum: the belt is being dragged across something that no longer turns instead of driving the drum. This is the cause that turns the same reported symptom into a two-hour job rather than a one-hour one.
no part-only price is published by either source for the rollers or the idler on their own; the $180-380 band is the published installed range for the belt, idler pulley and drum rollers as a group, and the same publisher's completed-invoice median for drum rollers or idler work is $338 across its dryer service visits.
medium likelihoodmoderatenot pricedabout 45 minn=40 completed jobs[S4]
the dryer runs but the drum does not turnthe motor hums but nothing moves
The switch tells the control that the door is shut before it will start the drum, and the source names a faulty door switch as one of the things that produces control-like symptoms rather than obvious ones - the display behaves, the cycle starts, and the drum simply never moves. It is on this list because the source's advice before approving an expensive board is to ask what test ruled the simpler causes out, and this is the simplest cause on the page. Replacing it is the same class of job as the belt: a cheap part behind the front panel. This count is S4's completed-job row; S1 stands as the diagnosis source, not as the source of the number.
no cited source publishes a price for a dryer door switch, either as a part or installed, so no figure is claimed here - the switch is an inexpensive part and the work is access labour like everything else on this page
medium likelihoodpro$320–$520 installedabout 150 minn=55 completed jobs[S4]
the motor hums but nothing movesthe drum turns by hand but not on its own
A motor that hums without turning is the symptom the source uses to describe a belt failure, so the motor is the second suspect rather than the first - and the difference between them is the test, not the sound. A motor that has failed electrically does not turn the drum when the belt is removed; a motor with a failed start winding or a jammed bearing can hum and stall while the belt and rollers are fine. This is the point where the diagnosis has to be made with the cabinet open rather than from the symptom. This count is S4's completed-job row; S1 stands as the diagnosis source, not as the source of the number.
the source prices drive motors at $120-250 in parts and around $320-520 installed, so the lower half of the installed band is the part and the rest is the access; no motor-only figure is published by the other source
failed control board not sending the drive signal [S1]
medium likelihoodpro$300–$650 installedabout 90 minn=71 completed jobs[S4]
the dryer runs but the drum does not turnit stopped mid-cycle with the load still wet
The board decides whether the drum runs at all, so a board that has stopped sending the drive signal looks identical from the outside to a belt that has snapped. The source's rule is the one worth carrying into a quote: before approving a board, ask what test ruled out the simpler causes, because faulty door switches, moisture sensors and thermistors all produce control-like symptoms. A board is the most expensive item on this page and the one most often named before it has been separated from a $180 belt job. This count is S4's completed-job row; S1 stands as the diagnosis source, not as the source of the number.
the source gives the whole motor-and-board bracket as $300-650 installed and notes that electronic control boards on higher-end models can reach $650 on their own; no per-board figure is published
the drum turns by hand but not on its ownthere is a burning smell and the drum has stopped
The last possibility, and the one treated as unlikely rather than routine: the source's note is that drum and cabinet hardware typically has plenty of life left in it, which is the reason its own advice on a machine under six years old is that nearly every repair on the list is worth doing. A drum that has dropped onto its glides or an axle that has worn turns noisily and unevenly rather than simply stopping, and the repair stops being a part swap.
no cited source prices drum or cabinet hardware on its own, and the sources treat it as a part with life left in it rather than a routine replacement
Repair or replace?
The verdict
Establish which of the two things has happened before anything is priced. If the motor hums and the drum does not turn, the belt is the classic answer and the rollers are the companion job; if the drum turns freely by hand but never under power, the belt has gone or slipped rather than seized. If the drum fights the hand, stop - a jammed drum with the motor still trying is how a belt job becomes a motor job. Then apply the arithmetic: the two common mechanical causes sit at $322-338 in completed invoices, which is under the source's $400 line and well under the $550 a basic new dryer starts at, so on a machine under ten years old this is a repair. On a machine past ten years the same $322 is still a repair, and the $650 board is where replacement starts to win. [S4]
Four of the six causes carry a published count from the same publisher's dryer cost table (drive belt 259, door switch 40, drive motor 55, control board 71), and two do not: worn drum rollers or a seized idler pulley, and the drum glides, axle and drum hardware. Those four rows are printed above as labelled bands, each with the median and the middle half the table publishes for it and its own count. The source states the reason for the two missing rows itself - parts it replaces too rarely to speak about honestly are left out rather than estimated - and the disappearance is structural, not a missing cell: its table lists eight parts and neither of these two is among them. The same publisher elsewhere reports drum rollers as a 4.1 percent share of dryer service calls, which is a share and not a count of jobs, so it cannot be turned into a denominator here. Two of six causes stand without one. The record-level denominator is bound by name to the dataset the counted causes come from: the same 4,223-job dryer cost dataset whose per-part rows carry the four counts above, and which says itself that these are 4,223 completed repairs from the same company's own invoices. The 425 those four rows add up to is a subset of the 4,223 and is never a total. The other job counts on this page come from other slices of the same publisher's work - a 125-replacement belt row in its approval records and two share rows out of 2,277 dryer service visits - and they are neither added to the 4,223 nor averaged with it.
The decision on this page is not close at the common end and is genuinely close at the top. A belt or a set of rollers at $322-338 against a $550-800 basic machine is a repair by a wide margin, and the source's advice on a machine under six years old is that nearly every repair on its list is worth doing. What changes the answer is the two electronic causes: a drive motor at $320-520 or a board at up to $650 against the same $550-800 replacement is where the arithmetic stops being automatic, and on a machine already past its ten-year line the money is better spent on the machine. The one thing not to do is approve the expensive end of the list before the cheap end has been tested - the source's own instruction is to ask what ruled out the door switch and the sensor before a board is named.
the source's 2026 replacement prices are $550-800 for a basic electric dryer and $900-1,400 for a feature-rich one, and its own decision line is that on a machine past ten years a repair above roughly $400 is hard to justify; the 10-13 year planning range used across this site's dryer pages comes from the same publisher's other dryer records, and this page uses the top of it because the mechanical parts involved here are the ones with life left in them.
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Put your quote and the age of the unit into the calculator — the same half-of-new-price rule, with your own numbers.
A technician visit starts with a diagnostic fee of $80–$130 [S4]. Completed repairs run $322–$338 [S4].
Sources
[S1]FlexFul Appliance Repair (Chicagoland) (2026). the 2026 diagnostic band of $80-130 credited toward the repair, labour at $110-175 an hour with most shops quoting flat rates, the installed band of $180-380 for the belt, idler pulley and drum rollers together, the description of a snapped drive belt as the classic failure where the motor hums but the drum will not turn, the instruction to replace the idler pulley and drum rollers together because they wear together, drive motors at $120-250 in parts and around $320-520 installed, the motor-and-board bracket of $300-650 with boards on higher-end models reaching $650, the note that belts are inexpensive but the job requires opening the cabinet so labour dominates, the warning to ask what test ruled out faulty door switches, moisture sensors and thermistors before approving a board, the observation that drum and cabinet hardware typically has plenty of life left and that nearly every repair is worth doing on a machine under six years old, the replacement prices of $550-800 for a basic electric dryer and $900-1,400 for a feature-rich one, and the decision line that a repair above roughly $400 is hard to justify past ten years
[S2]Bozmanfix (first-party records from completed work orders across six US states, through August 2026) (2026-08). the completed-invoice median of $323 for a dryer drive belt across 125 replacements, with the component reported only because at least fifteen replacements support the median, and the same publisher's figure of a $355 median across its dryer repairs. This belt row is a second, independent slice of the same publisher's work (the approval records rather than the cost dataset), printed beside S4's 259-job belt row rather than merged with it, and the two counts measure different samples of the same job
[S3]Bozmanfix (its own dryer service records, set against NFPA fire data) (2026). drum rollers or idler work at 4.1% of its 2,277 dryer service visits with a $338 median, and a drive belt at 5.4% with a $326 median on the same dataset - a figure that sits beside rather than replaces the $323 from its approval records, because the two come from different slices of the same publisher's work; also the national fire context used in the safety block (13,820 home structure fires a year involving a dryer, 32% caused by a failure to clean)
[S4]Bozmanfix (first-party records from 4,223 completed dryer jobs; page published 2026) (2026). the 4,223 completed dryer jobs behind the dataset, a $352 median dryer repair with the middle half between $294 and $437, and the per-part medians with their middle halves and sample sizes: a drive belt at $322 across 259 jobs ($275-388), a drive motor at $394 across 55 ($334-505) and a control board at $478 across 71 ($300-614), alongside a heating element at $360 across 342, a thermostat at $350 across 169, a door switch at $321 across 40, a thermal fuse at $327 across 29 and a door gasket at $644 across 26
Last verified: 2026-09-18. Prices are US market figures from the sources above; your quote may differ.
Built from a fact record, not from a template: every number above is tied to one of the sources and the record is re-checked against them. Editorial choices (which symptom leads, which cause is the single tell) are kept in a separate block so the facts stay auditable.
Quick answers
How much does it cost to fix a dryer with this problem?
Completed repairs run $322–$338 according to the sources cited on this page, after a diagnostic fee of $80–$130.
How long does a dryer last?
The decision rule used on this page works from a planning life of 13 years.
Repair or replace?
Establish which of the two things has happened before anything is priced. If the motor hums and the drum does not turn, the belt is the classic answer and the rollers are the companion job; if the drum turns freely by hand but never under power, the belt has gone or slipped rather than seized. If the drum fights the hand, stop - a jammed drum with the motor still trying is how a belt job becomes a motor job. Then apply the arithmetic: the two common mechanical causes sit at $322-338 in completed invoices, which is under the source's $400 line and well under the $550 a basic new dryer starts at, so on a machine under ten years old this is a repair. On a machine past ten years the same $322 is still a repair, and the $650 board is where replacement starts to win.
