Appliance Parts From ApplianceZone.net - Clothes Dryer Appliance Repair

With the cost of repair services on the rise, more people are becoming "do-it-yourselfers". So when something goes wrong with your cothes dryer do a little troubleshooting. Several things may be causing the same problem. The secret is to eliminate each one to determine the culprit.

All cothes dryers use a small electric motor to turn a large drum that tumbles the clothes placed inside it. All of them have an electric fan, which distributes heated air. There are however, two ways to create the heat needed to efficiently dry clothes - using either gas or electricity.

Electric cothes dryers use heating coils to supply heat. Most electric cothes dryers operate on 240-volt current, twice the strength of ordinary household current. If your laundry area is not equipped with a 240-volt outlet, you must have one installed.

Gas cothes dryers use a gas burner to create heat, but otherwise they operate the same as an electric cothes dryer. Your laundry room must have a gas hookup, with proper connections and safe venting of the gas's exhaust, in addition to an electrical outlet. The connections you have in your laundry room will probably dictate which style you use. If you have both gas and 240-volt connections, consider that gas cothes dryers cost more to begin with - approximately $50 more than the comparable electric model. But in most areas gas cothes dryers will cost less to run over their lifetime.

Generally speaking, the cost of electricity needed to dry a typical load of laundry is 30 to 40 cents, compared to 15 to 20 cents if you use gas. The energy efficiency of a clothes dryer is measured by a term called the energy factor. It's a rating somewhat similar to miles per gallon for a car - but in this case, the measure is pounds of clothing per kilowatt-hour of electricity. The minimum energy factor for a standard capacity electric cothes dryer is 3.01.

For gas cothes dryers, the minimum energy factor is 2.67, and, yes, the rating for gas cothes dryers is provided in kilowatt-hours, even though the primary source of fuel is natural gas.

Check the power

Lint Filter

Interior of clothes dryer cabinet

Check the power

If your cothes dryer does not operate you may need to replace defective fuses. That includes the thermal fuse located inside the back cover panel. Look for open contacts in the timer. Verify that the door switch and the door switch activator are operational and that the circuit breaker hasn't been tripped.

Examine the coils

If your cothes dryer isn't producing any heat the gas valve coils may be defective. This prohibits the valve from opening and the gas from igniting. The electric igniter and the terminal bracket that secures it may need to be replaced. Also check to see if the thermal fuse is blown, if both volt circuits are on and the thermostats are functional.

Test the drive belt

If your cothes dryer does not tumble a broken drive belt and/or idler pulley may need to be replaced. Test for a burned out motor. If the motor is stiff, does not rotate manually and the blower fan housing is obstruction-free, the motor needs replacing. Also check for a defective door switch.

Check the vent

If a load takes longer than one hour to dry clear the vent duct of any obstructions. Determine if the heating element is partially burned out. Unclog the internal ductwork by removing the lint filter and inspecting inside the duct. Verify the cycling thermostat is working properly. In gas cothes dryers a defective flame sensor may be responsible.

Lint Filter

Check and clean the lint filter after every drying cycle. If your lint filter has any rips or tears you will need to replace it. If the filter gets clogged by fabric softener residue or any other residue, you can easily clean it with a soft-bristle brush and a little detergent.

Inspect the motor

If your cothes dryer is making too much noise it is most likely due to a defective motor. Worn rollers (or wheels), idler pulley, plastic glides, rear drum bearing or blower wheel may also be to blame. In most instances replacing the worn part will solve the problem.

Check the thermostat

If your appliance overheats replacing a defective cycling thermostat or unclogging a vent system generally will alleviate the problem.

Replace worn rollers

If your clothes are being damaged you may need to replace the rollers that support the clothes drum, rear and/or front drum seals and/or front glides.

Interior of clothes dryer cabinet

The lint produced by clothes tumbling in a clothes dryer is normally trapped by the lint filter. Some lint invariably escapes and accumulates on the inside of the clothes dryer cabinet. Time to time you might want to check the inside of the cabinet, and clean it if necessary. You might want to do this more often if the clothes dryer is used heavily.

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