 Rust marks on clothing
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Originally Posted by Betty QA  Everything I dry has rust spots on it. Have painted the vent holes twice. The dryer works fine | Hi, Robin here! I am a British Petroleum Facility Maintenance tech in the oil fields of northern Alaska. I have been going round and round with Electrolux who manufatures Maytag, Kenmore as well as many other brands of dryers. I think I knew of their problems before they did. I have spent hours trying to talk to real people that know their products, not just operators and minimum wage earners. Even talking to corporate headquarters was a waste of time.
The problem with rust on clothing, also thought of as burn marks, posted by others stems from the opening of the drum. The whole drum is made of Galvanized steel and the opening of the drum is supported by felt glides and basket seals. In time the plastic on the upper glides wears off the galvanized coating on the metal drum exposing it to moisture from the wet clothing you put in. Rust is sure to develop over time. As the plastic wears out and the felts are now in contact with the rusty rim of the drum rust collects in the upper felt. As the felt continues to degrade the drum droops down causing a gap in the lower basket seal at bottom. Eventually clothing gets caught it that gap and rotates to the top of the drum where it is squeezed between the rust saturated felt and the drums rim opening. This is how your clothing is picking up rust stains, nowhere else. It was a big mistake ordering these dryers for our construction camp. Now I have several to contend with and no technical service that I can say is worth a crap.... I have made this aware to BP upper management to consider future purchases of appliances from vendors with a better track record. Eventually Electrolux started supplying drums with a plastic sleeve insert in the drum opening but they made no adjustment for the standard felt thickness. It would not fit in the drum opening due to the openings decreased diameter. I had to cut the original replacement felts down to make them work. A couple of months later I had ordered more drums and the proper thickness felt glides (one set each) were included with the drum. But still I cannot find just a set of felts for the modified drums. To remedy the problem right now you may have to buy the whole drum and hopefully it will have a set of felts with it. I had tried to order stainless steel drums that would utilize the standard felts and lacking ferrous metals, they wouldn't rust to begin with. But they still sent me the galvanized drums. Grrr....
It is now planned to get rid of appliance that have poor support.
The woman I talked to at corporate headquarters asked where I was and she would give me a list of the nearest appliance repair centers and they would send someone out to look at our problem. I laughed and told her that doen't happen here in Alaska where I am. They are not going to send someone from 700 miles from Anchorage to the northern coast of Alaska, the fly in a helicopter 7 miles offshore to Northstar Island. I knew what the problem was and just wanted to talk to someone who even knew what a dryer was! Preferrably someone who knew if there was part number for what I really needed.
So, long story short, you could just replace the standard felts to get rid of the rust accumulation and decrease the gap at the bottom where the clothes are getting caught. This might solve your problem for quite a while but our dryers a use day and night. Me, I'd look at a new dryer. My Whirlpool washer and dryer are at least 25 years old. with occasionl maintenance and repairs they still work gret. Guess the just don't make things like they used to.
Lots of luck,
Robin | 
