Before you take anything apart, unplug the dryer.

Start with the check that costs nothing: empty the drum completely, spin it by hand, and listen. Then pull the blower housing cover and look inside. Those two checks take a few minutes and they’ve caught problems that looked, from the sound alone, exactly like worn rollers.

I read through repair stories and listings for the parts people buy when a Samsung dryer is making noise, and the pattern that stood out wasn’t which part to buy. It was how often the rollers weren’t the problem at all.

Do the free check first

An empty drum, spun by hand with the power off, will tell you more than guessing from the sound. In one documented case, a dryer had a “noise like tennis shoes” in it. The owner replaced all four drum rollers and the belt. The noise came back, because the actual cause was a pair of tennis shoes in the drum. Spinning an empty drum by hand would have caught that in under a minute.

A second case went a different way: the drum wouldn’t turn at all, on a DV42H5000EW/A3. The owner replaced four rollers and a belt, and the dryer did end up running again, but the real cause was a sock lodged in the blower housing, the part that pulls air through the drum. Pulling the housing cover to look would have found it directly.

A third case had a “banging noise like there was a large object inside the drum.” The cause wasn’t a roller at all. It was a seized idler pulley, a small wheel that rides against the belt and keeps it tensioned. A seized idler won’t spin freely, which is a different thing to check for than a worn roller, but it’s also not something the drum-spin test or the blower check will catch by itself.

I don’t have a reliable way to match a specific sound, a squeal versus a thump versus a bang, to a specific part. The research behind this article doesn’t tie any sound to any single cause, and nothing in it supports a rule like “squealing means rollers, banging means the idler.” Three of roughly 39 roller repair stories I read in full turned out to be something other than the rollers once someone looked. That’s not nothing, and it’s also not most of them.

A softer pattern showed up too: buyers who weren’t sure which part was bad, so they replaced the roller, the belt, and the idler all at once rather than isolate the problem. At least five did this in the stories I read. It gets the dryer running, but it also means paying for parts that may not have needed replacing.

The ordering trap: four rollers, not two

Samsung dryers use four drum rollers, two in front and two in back, and every one of them is sold individually. There’s no kit that bundles the four together, and no OEM kit that bundles rollers with the idler pulley either. If you need to replace the rollers, you’re ordering the same part number multiple times.

This trips people up constantly. The most-upvoted repair tip on this part at AppliancePartsPros, found helpful by 29 of 43 readers, exists for one reason: to tell people who ordered two rollers that they needed more. The tip doesn’t let me say exactly how many the original poster ended up needing, the stories I read on this don’t agree with each other on that detail, but the point stands regardless: check the quantity before you check out.

Rollers also wear unevenly. One buyer who inspected all four during a repair found three of the four worn and one still fine. That’s a single buyer’s experience, not a rule, but it’s a reason to actually look at all four rather than assume they fail together or separately.

Which roller fits your dryer

The part most commonly bought for this repair is listed under the number DC97-16782A, which also replaces several older numbers (DC97-07523A, DC97-07523B, DC97-16782C, and DC97-16782D) if your old roller is stamped with one of those.

Here’s where it gets genuinely murky: I could not find a parts list, for any model, that confirms this roller as an exact fit. The one model whose full parts list I could verify, DVE45T3400P/A3, lists a drive belt and an idler pulley assembly by part number, but no roller. That doesn’t mean the roller is wrong for that model. It means the documentation I could check doesn’t confirm it either way.

Five other models show up only because buyers mentioned them while writing about their own repairs: DV45H7000GW, DV45K6500EV, DV40J3000EW, DV42H5000EW, and DV48H7400EW. Those are real people reporting what they ordered for their own machine, not a confirmed fitment list. If you own one of these, or any other Samsung dryer, check your own model’s parts list before ordering, rather than relying on a mention in someone else’s repair story.

The idler pulley assembly, DC93-00634A, replaces DC96-00882B, DC96-00882C, DC97-07509B, DC61-01215A, and DC61-01230B. It’s the part confirmed, along with the belt, on the DVE45T3400P/A3 parts list.

The DC97-16782E mix-up

If you search the roller part number, you’ll run into a second number, DC97-16782E, often advertised with ball bearings for around $20. Two things about that number are worth sorting out before you buy anything.

First, the supersession. DC97-16782E replaces DC97-16782B. It does not replace DC97-16782A. If your old roller is marked A, nothing in the retailer listings shows E as its replacement.

Second, the price and the bearing claim both belong to a different product than the one carrying that number at the two retailers I could check directly. The OEM version of DC97-16782E lists at $110.95 to $111.10, not $20, and neither OEM listing mentions ball bearings anywhere on the page. The $20 ball-bearing version is an aftermarket part using the same number as a cross-reference, sold by a different seller entirely. If you’re comparing prices and one listing looks far cheaper than another for “the same part,” check whether it’s actually the OEM part or an aftermarket one trading on the number.

The ball-bearing upgrade claim

Aftermarket versions of the roller use a ball bearing, the kind of small rolling bearing used anywhere a part needs to spin with less friction, and at least one aftermarket distributor, Edgewater Parts, markets this as a durability upgrade over the OEM design.

I can’t confirm or rule out that claim. The OEM part pages for DC97-16782A and DC97-16782E carry zero reviews at PartSelect, and AppliancePartsPros doesn’t have a review section for DC97-16782E at all. A Walmart listing for the aftermarket ball-bearing version has zero ratings too. That covers every listing I could actually read. Amazon, where the aftermarket ball-bearing rollers mostly sell, was not accessible for this research, so the zero-review picture only describes the retailers I could check, not the full market. The upgrade claim comes from the company selling the part, not from Samsung and not from a body of owner reviews either way. Treat it as a seller’s claim rather than a settled fact.

Reassembly notes buyers have flagged

A few things came up repeatedly enough, or specifically enough, to be worth passing along.

One buyer, echoed by others, sprays the axle and the new roller’s bearing surface before reinstalling it. That’s buyer practice, not a manufacturer instruction, but it’s been repeated often enough to mention.

One buyer working on a DV42H5200GP/A3 reported that the retailer’s own repair video shows the idler spring reattached incorrectly. If you’re following a video for this repair, check the spring placement against your own unit rather than assuming the video has it right.

Buyers have also reported that the sheet-metal screws holding things together strip easily on reassembly. The reports don’t include guidance on how to avoid it, just that it happens, so it’s worth going slowly on those screws rather than forcing them.

FAQ

Why is my Samsung dryer making a banging or thumping noise?

The research behind this article documents three specific causes that all produced noise people assumed was a worn roller: tennis shoes left in the drum, a sock lodged in the blower housing, and a seized idler pulley. There’s no reliable way to match a specific sound to a specific cause from the outside, so the free check (empty drum, spin by hand, check the blower housing) comes before guessing at a part.

Which Samsung dryer models does DC97-16782A fit?

No parts list I checked confirms this roller for a specific model. Five models, DV45H7000GW, DV45K6500EV, DV40J3000EW, DV42H5000EW, and DV48H7400EW, show up only because buyers mentioned using it on those dryers. Check your own model’s parts list before ordering.

Can I use DC97-16782E instead of DC97-16782A?

No, not based on what the retailers list. DC97-16782E replaces DC97-16782B, and nothing shows it replacing DC97-16782A.

Do I have to replace all four rollers at the same time?

The research doesn’t settle this either way, and each roller is sold separately, so you’re not forced into buying all four by the packaging. One buyer who checked found three of the four worn, which is a reason to inspect all four rather than replace just the one that sounds bad.

Why can’t I find reviews of ball-bearing dryer rollers?

Because the listings that can be checked don’t have any. PartSelect shows zero reviews for the OEM version, AppliancePartsPros has no review section for it, and a Walmart listing for the aftermarket ball-bearing roller has zero ratings. Amazon, where these aftermarket rollers mostly sell, couldn’t be checked for this research, so the gap may just reflect where the reviews live, not that none exist.

Sources and Citations

Research checked 31 August 2026.