How I did the repair is of little importance. What is important and impressive is the level of service your company provides. You must have a fantastic system in place and a team who has bought into the concept of providing the best customer service possible. I have been a Manager for over 15 years and would go home proud and would sleep well every night if my team offered the service your team does. Please share this feedback with them and take the time to shake the hand of everyone who was in the chain of service of this order. Smile and tell them Russell C says well done and thank you. Your team made my life easier and I feel appreciated as a customer of your Company.
I studied the wiring diagram on the back of the dryer. I diagnosed a bad thermal fuse (no continuity). Found the part online at Part Select. The part came a few days later and I was back in business. Great Service.
First I pulled the dryer away from the wall, after which I disconnected the power and dryer vent. I then removed the eight screws holding on the back of the dryer. Next, I disconnected the two wires to the part and unscrewed the mounting screw. I then removed the bad part, replaced it with the new part, and reversed the above steps.
I opened the front lower cover to get the schematics. Looked for the most probable part that was bad. Then traced wiring from the gas solenoid to find the thermal fuse. I opened the back. Took the two wires off the thermal fuse and put my Ohm meter from terminal to terminal. As I got no reading, I ordered a new fuse. It took about 5 minutes to replace and button the dryer back up. This is the second time I have had to replace this fuse.
There was no heat but the dryer would operate properly in all other functions. I checked the ignitor (gas dryer) with a meter and it was okay. I traced the circut back and ended up at the thermal fuse and it was "open" I jumped it out and the dryer started to work. I knew the problem was the thermal fuse but more importantly why did it blow. Further investigation showed excessive lint in the duct. Needed to take the exhaust system apart and clean out the lint. also replaced the flexible dryer (too difficult to clean) and to make sure that I didn't over work the high/low thermostat and would be doing this repair again in the near future I replaced that also. Be careful and do not jump out the fuse and use the dryer as this will cause a fire. I did it to prove the problem only... Dryer works well again and we will probably get another 5 years out of it!
The repair, replacing the thernal fuse was easy, just one screw and then remove and replace by disconnecting and reconnecting two wires. It did take a bit of time to find which part was defective. I first removed the back panel and front panel and the drum to get at the igniter and flame window. I checked continuity of these parts as well as the gas solenoids and they all checked out ok. The thermal fuse was last on my list. It read as an open circuit. I temporarily jumpered the two wires at the fuse and checked that the igniter would now heat up. I spent over one hour removing the ductwork and giving the unit a thorough cleaning with a shop vac.
It took me 5 minutes to find PartSelect's site, read the comments about the most common problems and identify the solution. The exploded views were a great assist, as it wasn't obvious where the thermal fuse is located or which access panel to remove.
It took less than 5 minutes to remove the rear panel and install a temporary jumper to verify the blown fuse was the only issue. With the new fuse in hand, replair took another 5 minutes.
A word of caution to anyone replacing is fuse - I found that the exhaust vent pipe to the wall was full of lint and nearly blocked. This is a potential fire hazard. While enough air was passing through the flapper vent to make it look like it was OK, the exhaust resistance is what caused the overheating and made the fuse blow.
I spent more time cleaning out the vent pipe than replacing the fuse, for a total of 25 minutes. I strongly urge all dryer owners to physically inspect the exhaust duct annually.
PS Drying time has decreased by 30-40% since the repair.
The major issue was getting the dryer out and cleaning it all up. That's what took the time but it was worth it to clean out the lint in the ducts, etc.. Putting the thermal fuse was a snap thanks to the great feedback received when I got this web site and read the previous responses.
My wife and I thought our dryer was done and we were looking at a large replacement costs. We started googling and found this site and watched the video. We are were 99% sure it was the thermal fuse. We received within 2 days and thought we would be in there for over an hour. Turned it was less than 10 minutes, we watched the video clip on how to install on our laptop as we did it.
We will always be buying parts from this site and have told a ton of friends/family to check this site out.
Plastic part in door catch was broken so door would not lock to allow the dryer to operate
I tried to remove the part with pliers but could not remove it so I removed the screws that hold the front part of the door. I took the front part off, removed the broken plastic and then lifted on side of the catch so that the bottom of the front part came thru the door and then was able to remove the door latch. The installation of the new part took about 15 seconds to put in by pushing it into the opening where the broken part was removed. I put the front part of the door back and put the screws back and the dryer works fine.
Took Putty Trowel and pried out top and bottom then pulled out with needle nose pliers, new part just pops back in (be sure flanges are on top and bottom not sides).
Didn't have a putty knife, so used a flathead screwdriver to carefully pop out the top, then bottom of the catch. New one easily popped in. Took less than one minute!
