Abstract: The inventive clothes dryer is provided with a system for preventing the overheating of the clothes in the drum caused by the abnormality in the V-belt, such as the break or derailment thereof. By the system, the power supply to the motor is halted temporarily while the motor is rotated at a predetermined speed, whereafter the motor keeps rotating due to its inertia. During the inertial rotation of a predetermined period of time, the number of rotations of the motor is counted. When the V-belt is in the normal state, the motor is loaded appropriately, so that the speed of the motor falls rapidly during the inertial rotation, and the number of rotations is accordingly small. When, on the other hand, the V-belt is in an abnormal state, the number of rotations is large. Therefore, the state of the V-belt is checked by comparing the number of rotations to a predetermined value, and when the number is smaller than the predetermined value, the drying operation is stopped.