My GE dryer is overheating. I just replaced the element about 6 months ago, and ever since then I cannot dry my clothes properly. The element was bad and had been for a while. I have since moved twice and check my ventilation regularly.

Now if I run the dryer on high (which I don’t) my clothes come out smoking. I mean it, my clothes are smoking and smell burnt. I clean my lint trap after every use and have vacuumed out the duct work (both inside the dryer and from the dryer to outside the house). I am sure my ventilation is good.

Even on medium, the clothes get too hot. I cannot touch them to take them out of the dryer and fold them.

So I run the dryer on low, and it takes almost two hours to dry a regular size load of clothes. I don’t dare try to fill my washer because my dryer cannot dry a large load in a reasonable amount of time.

Yes I now know that GE is not the appliance to buy. I have had this dryer for an amazing 8 years. The matching washer died about 6 years ago and was repalced with a Whirlpool. Unfortunately, I just can’t afford to replace my dryer at this time so I must fix it myself.

I appreciate any and all help I recieve.

Thank you!

Renee wrote:

The gas line connection to my dryer has what appears to be some sort of mineral deposits growing on the ouside of the coupling. It looks like off-white, delicate crystals. The connection is only a year old and was professionally installed. Is this dangerous?

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Could just be residue from when the connection was leak tested after installation… assuming that it was, in fact, leak tested. These days, you just never know. I’ve seen so much freaky shi’ite out there that I don’t assume anything anymore.

Post a photo of what you’re looking at and I might be able to comment further.

Manas wrote:

About 6 months ago I replaced the thermal fuse on my Speed queen Dryer. It seemed to fix the ‘no heat’ problem (the vent is clean). Recently, I have lost heat again, appears the the thermostat (p.# 62641) is bust (no continuity). This manifested by the heating taking longer and longer, to now being totally cold. Oh wise one, what does this trend indicate?

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Whenever a thermal fuse blows, I always check the vent. What am I checking for, just the presence of lint? Nay, nay, intrepid grasshopper, there is much more to good dryer venting than merely the absence of the flammable mixture of human skin, mites, and clothing fibers, a.k.a. dryer lint. How much more? Read and learn.

Best maintenance practices also dictate that whenever either the thermal fuse or the thermostat are found to be bad, that both parts are replaced at the same time to avoid exactly the situation you’re now in.

Grasshopper writes:

I have a kenmore electric dryer. When I turned it on, it wouldn’t tumble. I checked the door switch and others all good. The thermal fuse had blown. Once replaced I tried it again and it still didn’t work. The unit was getting power. During the timed dry cycle it would count down; however, any other cycle didn’t count down. Obviously the timer is running fine. I tried it again and this time the unit attempted to move; however, immediately started to smoke. I unplugged the unit and looked for burnt wires. I pulled the contacts appart and cleaned them (some were burnt – they aren’t anymore). I checked the thermal fuse and other thermostats, all are still good. The door switch burnt out this time. I replaced it and and checked the unit again. Once again, it attempted to work; however, it smoked and burnt again. This is where I am. A dryer unplugged from the wall with a bad door switch in need of repair. I believe I have a short somewhere (which surprises me) because I haven’t changed anything that would cause this problem unless I put the wires on the cycle selector wrong (I drew them out before removing). Does anyone have a wiring diagram, repair manual, or suggestions where to look?

Went on a service call the other day on a Frigidaire dryer with the complaint of being very noisy and then stopped tumbling altogether. I opened up the dryer and saw that the back of the drum had actually dropped down several inches. Hmm, this was weird.

Looking between the back of the drum and the heater can with my flashlight, I saw that the drum bearing had broken clean off!

Incidentally, for instructions and pictures on disassembling this dryer as well as other dryer brands, see this illuminating tome on dryer disassembly.

Anyway, when the bearing on this dryer needs to be replaced, it makes one helluva racket. The noise will go on, getting progressively louder and more skull-piercing, for several weeks before some type of catastrophic failure occurs. I don’t know how they could put up with the noise all that time. When the dryer finally stopped working altogether, then it was time to call for service. Enter the Samurai.

To get an idea of how long the dryer must’ve been screeching and howling, check out how the round drum bearing ball got lathed into a cylinder by the worn bearing ball socket.

Anyway, I installed a brand-spanking new drum bearing kit and harmony was restored to both the dryer and the household.

To learn more about your dryer, or to order parts, click here.

Filomena wrote:

I have a Whirlpool gas dryer model # LGC8858EQ2 that isn’t working. It runs, but isn’t heating. I have replaced the gas valve, the thermostat, and the ignitor and still nothing. I can use some advice. I have two kids and one is a toddler with a disability and really need a working dryer.

Thanks for any advice you may give.

Filomena

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The most important advice I can give you is Samurai’s Ichiban Law of Appliance Repair, “Never replace a part unless you have proof that it is bad.”

But people tell me, “Yo, Samurai, we don’t know how to test stuff and use those fancy instruments like you do, so how we gonna get the ‘proof,’ smart guy?”

Ah, grasshoppah, seek and ye shall find. But you gotta seek. And you gotta be honest with yourself about knowing what you know as well as what you don’t know. In the long run, you’ll save time and money, and you’ll gain the satisfaction of learning something, too (they say that continual learning is the key to avoiding old-age dementia).

Now, let’s apply these principles to fixing your dryer using the information freely and readily available on the Internet… like at this website, for instance. Easiest way to find the information you need ratcheer to fix your dryer is to do a site search using Yahoo!™. In your case, fer ezzample, I’d use a moderately specific search term such as, “gas dryer no heat.” Let’s pop that little gem into the Yahoo! site search box below:

Web   Fixitnow.com

and clicking the search button reveals this page-full of gas dryer repair wisdom.

What’s that you’re saying, “How ’bout makin’ them fancy electrical measurements, like they talk about on some of those pages pulled up by the Yahoo! site search?” Great question! It shows you’re really thinking. Let’s apply the search principles we’ve just learned to this new nugget of knowledge needed to complete our Illumination. Plugging the term electrical measurements into the Yahoo! search box gives this excellent and mercifully short primer on making simple electrical measurements, such as measuring resistance, voltage, and current.

I’d like to summarize the foregoing discussion with a haiku that I wrote just for you and rendered in traditional 5-7-5 meter:

Gas dryer won’t dry.

Shotgunned parts but still no joy.

Search Samurai’s site.

melanie wrote:

Oh noble Samurai, how I love your website. It has already helped me fix my washer, now for the dryer….

Roper model REX3615EW1. Dries and dries, but never stops. Does not matter if it’s on timed dry or auto sense dry….goes and goes and goes…dries the clothes great and then some!

Following your gracious advice, we have THOROUGHLY cleaned the inner and outer duct work. It is directly vented to the outside through a proper vent.

Please help this poor grasshopper, she is truly tired of having to set an alarm clock to remind her to go shut the damn thing off!

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Ahh, grasshoppah, Bliss Supreme has come upon you this day for the Samurai has received your plaintive plea.

The reason your dryer never shuts off is because the timer has failed. The solution is simple: replace the timer. Easy job, plug n’ chug, a mere single mug on the world-famous SUDs-o-meter.

Bern Williams wrote:

I have a Kenmore electric dryer-110.60612990. It was humming for a period of time. Yesterday when I push the start button it hums, works for about 5 mins then shuts off. Today, I pressed the start button, there is nothing..no noise. Is it just the motor or could it be a variety of problems. I had this dryer since in 2000.

desperate need for help.

Thanks Bern

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Here’s whatcha do, compadre. Open the dryer door and try to turn the drum by hand. If it won’t turn or you have to be Hercules to get it to budge, then you have something stuck in the blower chute– clean it out.

On the other hand, if the drums seems to turn ok, then you got yerself a bad motor. Slam dunk. Come git you one.

Recommended reading: Dryer Disassembly.

NancyAnn wrote:

I recently moved. My Kenmore dryer has a 3 prong plug, my new house a 4 prong receptable. I replaced the old cord with a new 4 wire cord, But didn’t connect the green ground wire. The dryer came with a green wire attached to the frame. Do I remove or leave it? and connect the green from the 4-wire cord there? Do I attach both green wires to the frame? This dryer did not have the metal strap as shown in your diagrams.

Thanks,

NancyAnn

This is a point of confusion for many grasshoppers and one that I tried to clarify in my seminal epistle on this subject. Nevertheless, I get enough questions about what to do with the ground wire that some further clarification is in order.

A dryer’s internal ground can be done using a bare metal strap at the terminal block or by using a green wire that’s screwed to the dryer’s cabinet– it makes no difference which is used because they each serve the same purpose.

In the old three-wire dryer cord configuration, the neutral and ground were tied together (Figure 1).

At this point, Samurai’s 6th Law of Appliance Repair illumines us, “Neutral is not ground; ground is not neutral,” and we understand the problem with the old three-wire dryer cord configuration is that it violated Samurai’s 6th Law.

The whole point of the new four-wire dryer cord is to separate the ground from the neutral and thus comply with Samurai’s 6th Law of Appliance Repair. This is illustrated in Figure 2 on a dryer equipped with a grounding strap.

So, in light of this inspiring and illuminating tome, can you answer your own question about what to do with the green wires from the dryer and the cord? That’s right: they both get attached to the dryer cabinet. Go get yourself a cardboard cookie.

Hampster wrote:

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Yesterday as I sat here relishing in the bliss that was the 1st day of my vacation (screaming toddler & 5 loads of laundry) I became painfully aware of just how loud that dryer had become. I surmised that the problem involved whatever it is that the drum rides on. Thanks to your site I was able to rip that sucka apart this morning and remove the offending (offensive?) bearing and glides. I even know what to call them now. After a short drive to the appliance store and a bit too much money for such small parts the dryer is up and running quietly. I may however need to disassemble the vacuum now after filling it with all the lint that formerly resided in the dryer! The photos were VERY helpful. Thanks again.

Hey, that’s what we’re beer for… er, I mean, here for. Eh heh. Congrats on the repair!

A dark and ominous thunderhead had just rolled in when the call came in: dryer taking forever to dry clothes. I set down my 40-ounce bomber can of Colt Malt Liquor and sprinted for my trusty Fixite Do service van.

Just as I pulled into the customer’s driveway, the thunderstorm unleashed its fury, dumping rain and hail. I dodged 17 lightning bolts as I ran from my van to the house. The ground exploded everywhere the lightning struck, like a field of land mines. The thunder was so loud that it jarred loose three fillings in my teeth. But nothing could deter me from my mission– there was a broken dryer out there and the Samurai was on the job!

Once inside in the house and at the offending dryer, I proceeded to verify the complaint. The first thing I do in any slow-drying complaint is to eliminate a restricted vent as the source of the problem. So I pulled the vent off the back of the dryer and ran it. Using my calibrated palm, I felt the pressure at the dryer’s exhaust port– it was weak. So I knew I was dealing with an air restriction somewhere inside the dyer. To proceed, I needed to disassemble the dryer.

I removed the front panel of the dryer to inspect the blower chute and found that it was packed with lint!

(click for larger view)

I dumped all the lint into a waste basket and set it against the wall, near an electrical outlet. Suddenly, the house was struck by lightning which surged through the outlet and arced out to the lint basket. When I looked over at the basket, I saw that IT WAS ALIVE! AHHHHH!

(click for larger view)

Jim H wrote:

I have a Kenmore Dryer with the lint trap in the door. I just replaced the heating element as it went bad. Once I reassembled the dryer and turned it on to check it out, it seemed to me that it smelled hot and that it was getting pretty hot. I took the bottom cover off again so I could see the heating element and the insides. I did not see anything unusual but did smell the heat. Smelled like something was burning. So, I unplugged it and am writing to you to ask what you think it might be. My only guess is that the thermostat is not turning the thing off like its supposed to. Ofcourse you are the expert, not I. So, what is your advice master?

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OH. MY. GAWD! Get out of there NOW! Your dryer is about to explode!

Or it could just be lint balls that got dislodged when you changed the heating element and were harmlessly incinerated when the element fired up. Hard to tell ‘cuz I’m, like, on the other side of your computer, an’ all.

Run the dryer for about 10 minutes while monitoring it. That’s plenty of time for the smell to dissipate… if it’s gonna. If it doesn’t, then there’s something horribly wrong, like a grounded heating element or a bad cycling thermostat.

Gas dryers come from the factory ready to run on natural gas. If you want to run it on propane, you’ll have to convert it. What happens if you don’t convert the dryer or (more commonly) you convert it wrong?

House go boom. Pants go brown.

Well, it might not be quite that bad, but it would at a minimum be a sooty mess. From time to time, I get called in for a cleanup service call on a botched gas dryer conversion. Did one just yesterday.

They had a parts changing monkey from a large appliance dealer in Concord, NH, attempt the conversion. Monkey boy changed the burner orifice but didn’t install the blocking pin, didn’t tag the dryer, and left the rest of the conversion kit inside the dryer, by the burner. It took me a few minutes just to figure out what he did and did not do.

To top it off, the dryer wouldn’t fire up because, as he told the customer, “the igniter was bad.” This was another indication of monkey boy’s competence because, as it turned out, the igniter did, in fact, glow upon starting (thereby proving that the igniter was good) but the burner didn’t fire up. A couple of valve coils took care of that and the burner fired up with the proper flame.

Now, a new problem had appeared: there was a strong gas smell. A plumber had installed the flex gas supply line for the dryer. What’s the rule about getting Buttcrack Bubba to do an appliance tech’s job? I don’t know either, but there awwta be one! I got my bubble leak detector bottle to check it out and found the leak location. Turns out that ol’ Buttcrack musta been tossin’ back the Newcastles ‘cuz he had two mis-matched flare fittings which I discovered when I attempted to tightened the connections and the fittings fell apart in my hand!

Oh, it was a rich comedy of errors. ‘Course, it woulda been a black ‘n crispy comedy if the house had burned down with their two little kids!

Some of the shi’it that goes on out there is downright freaky!

For information on propane’s Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) and health effects, see this page.