Kenmore Elite dryer no longer heats up

Q: Our electric Kenmore Elite king-size dryer (model #110.63942101) no longer heats up. The drum spins just fine but the dryer is stone cold. This happened suddenly today, in between two loads of laundry.

After some investigation online my best guess is that it blew a fuse or a circuit breaker tripped, though a host of other things such as the relays, control board, thermostat or heating element might also be the culprit. The DIY sites all suggest opening up the dryer and using a multimeter to figure out which part went south.

Not being much of a DIY guy, I have some questions for the more experienced folks on this alias:

1. How hard is this? How difficult is this to diagnose and repair yourself? Can I end up electrocuting myself (seriously)?

2. Got the Kenmore dryer repair manual? Any suggestions on how to get access to and identify the fuses, circuit breakers, relays, etc.? I have the owner’s manual but of course it’s useless. I’ve heard rumors that there’s a repair manual—does anybody on the alias have one for Kenmore dryers that they can lend me?

3. Used the Sears repair service? Were they any good and how much does it cost? The fact that when I went to Sears.com I was redirected to this site http://www.sears.com/sitedown/down.htm really leads me to have very little confidence in their repair service.

4. Is DYI even worth it? Given the cost/benefit ratio here (the cost of a repair guy is really high, a fuse is probably cheap but a new relay or control board would easily cost close to $100), should I just buy a new dryer?

We have two little ones at home so the washer & dryer are in use almost every other day. Therefore any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please little “r” me and I will compile if there’s any additional interest in this issue. Thanks.

A: I had a problem with my dryer and it ended up to be a heating element. The replacement takes 15 minutes and the part is $30 (you will be charged $200+ for the job if you go with the contractor), and the parts is available online. I don’t have a Kenmore, but there should be an instructions how to use multimeter (as you already figured out in your email below).

This helped me, may be it will help you too: http://www.davesrepair.com/DIYhelp/DIYreplacingWPLdryels.htm

A: A couple of years ago, I fixed my old Kenmore dryer, which had your same symptoms. I had no previous appliance repair experience, but I did own a multimeter and knew how to use it. I looked up info on the web, which did not tell me exactly what to do but gave me enough relevant info to convince me I had a chance of doing more good than damage. At a minimum, I was pretty sure I could diagnose the issue. It ended up being the fastest and cheapest fix, and avoided adding to a landfill.

First, I just unplugged it from the wall. That took care of any worry about shocking.

Then it was hard to open the service panel, down low on the front. But when I got it open, there was a handy schematic on the back of the door. I checked the electrical resistance on the heating element (coil), and two thermal fuses that were mounted on a housing around the coil. The coil had good continuity (low resistance), but one of the fuses looked open/blown. It was hard to reach the blown fuse, but I took wired clips off of it, got it out, and tested it again. It sure looked blown, and seemed to be the issue!

So I looked up the part numbers on a Sears service website. There was a warning sticker on the housing for replacing both fuses if one blows . I found both replacements in stock at the Georgetown (south Seattle) parts store – about $30. But I also found a substitute part for the blown fuse at the Redmond parts store (very close to main campus!), for about the same price. They did not list the second fuse in stock, but I decided I wanted to go to Redmond, replace the blown fuse, then replace the other one when available.

Turned out the substitute replacement part had BOTH fuses in the same bag, for $30. Score! I replaced it that night, dryer heat was back! Dryer had broken down on a Friday, and I had it fixed the following Monday.

The cause of the whole situation looked to be lint. Where the big exhaust hose exits the dryer, and turns sharply up before going out the side of the house, there was a lot of lint stuck. And there was scary burnt lint filling up around the heating element housing. I think too much heat built up, because it could not escape fast enough, and the thermal fuse did its job! The lowest temperature thermal fuse opened up at 250 degrees, shutting off the heating element. Got to clean out that lint, I guess!!!


A: Going a little further… this is a great illustration matching my dryer:
http://www.repairclinic.com/0100_16.asp

if you hover your mouse of the lower right parts in the illustration, an info pane will popup about the heating element. On the side of that housing is another popup about the thermal fuse and thermostat.

Here are the exact parts I replaced! Searched by brand, appliance, part type.
http://www.repairclinic.com/SmartSearch/SSPartDetail.aspx?PartID=2821&PPStack=1