Siemens WT44W162 iQ300/iQ500 dryer front door (WHL #109)
Here’s a super quick, simple, clean PSA: The bottom front cover of a Siemens WT44W162 that covers the fan and some air ducts…
(ha, second press photo directly from Siemens!)
…is held in by these clips:
Good fucking luck with that.
Of course there’s no such thing as a quick PSA on this blog.
First of all, there are nine breakable plastic clips that need to be depressed simultaneously in a careful manner, which will not happen on any unit that needs the front removed (mine’s mid-2016 vintage now, 429€ + 35€ shipping and installation). Sure, I damaged my unit so that you (in theory) don’t have to, but at that level of FUCK YOU from Siemens, chances are some will break. Because after that, there’s the 10th, center clip marked in red, that also holds the thing in place, but isn’t accessible from the outside. And after that, rotate the thing out to the top, as the bottom (here) / top (in the actual unit) three green clips will not be able to move, these are fixed in place and also need to be inserted first when putting everything together.
Second, I of course searched the interwebs for some help before ripping the thing out with brute force and ignorance. All I was able to find on iQ500 dryers were models with some lever system that made the entire process very easy. My unit doesn’t have these. And while digging deeper, I found this document right from the BSH (Bosch-Siemens-Hausgeräte = Bosch Siemens Appliances, the sub-company that makes Bosch, Siemens, Constructa, Neff and some more upscale brands out of the very same components in the very same factory): WT44W162 specsheet
I’ve seen the classification as iQ300 device on the main page, but in here, it even says iQ300 AND shows a dryer unit that, exactly like mine, is branded as iQ500 on the top right face plate. Now I wonder what tf happened that caused this rebranding…
Third, the initial goal of this removal was to clean the thing from the front, even if it says “self-cleanring” (of course it’s not able to, some lint will plug the chassis every cycle). That’s not really possible, since the front plate covers the fan (which does have some lint attached), as well as parts of the condenser system, but no exposed heat exchangers or anything. So yeah, in case the fan is blocked/clogged that is a viable action, but other than that: Probably not worth removing the plate before disassembling a whole lot of other chassis parts.
Fourth: The metal around the opening is painted, but otherwise raw from cutting (stamping, most likely). Well d’uh, you’d say, that’s some internal part, why should it be treated, that costs money. Yes, indeed, but the first finger that went into the opening was also the first one that came out, profusely bleeding. Those edges are RAZOR SHARP. Do they assemble these appliances with protective chain-mail gloves?!
All in all: Well, looks like I gotta clean the thing some other day, just removing the front bezel for a quick dusting with compressed air will not do the job…
