A laundry appliance

A laundry drying machine includes a cabinet and a laundry holding drum rotatably supported within the cabinet for rotation about a horizontal axis. The drum includes a cylindrical wall and a pair of ends. A drum hatch comprises a section of the cylindrical wall. A drive motor is connected to drive rotation of the drum via a drive belt. A hatch engaging member is actuable to grasp and hold the drum hatch relative to the cabinet while the drum is rotating. A controller operatively connected with the drive motor is configured to operate the machine through each of: a) a drum opening operation in which the drum hatch is grabbed by the hatch engaging member while the drum is rotating and the drum is rotated through a hatch opening rotation to expose an opening; b) a drum closing operation, which follows the drum opening operation and in which the drum is rotated to re-close the opening with the drum hatch, and c) a water extraction operation.