what is wrong with my dryer?

September 11, 2009 6:11 PM

kenmore clothes dryer help: my wife and i recently purchased a home that came with a kenmore washer and dryer. at the time of the house inspection, the dryer was working fine. we have tried to use it since moving in and it no longer functions. any ideas what could be wrong?

...when we turn the dial and press start, the dial moves as if it is drying a load. however, the drum inside does not spin and the unit does not heat up. the little light inside it does turn on when we open the dryer door, which makes me think that it is not an issue with the power or breaker. but can it be? or can anybody suggest what could be wrong?

if anybody has any recommendations for a repair-person in the richmond/vancouver BC area, i'd also appreciate that!

thanks all!

posted by cheemee to home & garden (11 comments total)

Dryer: gas or electric?
posted by zippy at 6:18 PM on September 11

I had a Kenmore dryer which a neighbor had set out for garbage, I took it in for repair and the door switch needed to be replaced. It was a ~$20 part & the repair man said it was common for them to fail.
posted by torquemaniac at 6:42 PM on September 11

Electric, I think. Check the breakers. There are possibly 2 breakers that are ganged
together (joined so that if one opens, the other one does too), and it sounds like of
them is off.

Snap the breakers to off, and the firmly back on again, and try to use the dryer again.

Electric dryers usually use 220 volts for the heater element, and 110 for the light and
the timer motor. I'm guessing that your dryer has a 220 volt drum motor. If one leg of the
power is off, then 110 will be available for the light and timer, but no power will be
available for the drum motor and heater element.
posted by the Real Dan at 6:43 PM on September 11

My dryer drum is belt-driven, and when the belt broke, obviously, it stopped spinning. Do you hear any motor sounds inside as if something is trying to drive a belt, but there's nothing connected?
posted by misterbrandt at 6:46 PM on September 11

Dryers that I've worked on seem to have a collection of safety features designed to prevent them from running if something isn't right.

The simplest is the door switch. You've said the light comes on with the door open. Are you sure it turns off again with the door shut? If the light doesn't go off, the switch isn't working, and it won't run because it thinks the door is open.

Another I've seen at least once is a switch that is held in the on position by drive belt tension on a roller. If the belt is broken or not engaged on this roller, the motor doesn't run.

Some have a thermal fuse that cuts off power to the motor if the motor has overheated. This has to be replaced if it's blown.

The motor itself tends to have some sort of centrifugal switch in it, so if the motor is not running, the power to the heater is also disconnected. The safety devices protecting the heater (a couple of thermostats plus a fuse) usually just disconnect the heater and leave the motor running. So this sounds like something in the motor circuit is the problem. Or maybe even the start button or timer itself.

Could it be some problem with the power to the dryer? I don't think it's likely because in all the ones I've opened up, only the heater was fed with 240V from both hot wires. Everything else was connected between one hot wire and neutral since the timer, light, and motor all work on 120V. So if there's a power problem, either nothing would work, or everything but the heater would work.
posted by FishBike at 6:54 PM on September 11

Did you get a dryer manual with the house? Can you google one up for your model? They will often have a "troubleshooting" section at the back with solutions to the most common issues (starting with "is it plugged in" and ending with who-knows-what)
posted by misterbrandt at 6:59 PM on September 11

A good forum for posting this kind of thing is the Samurai Appliance Repairman. If you can get past the awful shtick, the guy is very, very knowledgeable.
posted by mmascolino at 7:14 PM on September 11

I had a dryer that would not get the clothes dry. Turned out that the end of the link exhaust had caked up lint against the screen to the outside. Once I removed that lint she was working like a charm. If it is the motor, this will not help.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:44 PM on September 11

If it's a gas dryer, the pilot light may have been turned off if the gas was shut off as part of the house transition.
posted by jenkinsEar at 8:35 PM on September 11

I used to sell these things at a hardware store.

One thing to consider is that the higher-end models often have circuit boards inside to control major functions. I have heard of many washers and dryers rendered inoperative by bad control boards.

The suggestions by others are good, and you should definitely look into those possibilities. If it does turn out to be the control board, you can't really fix it yourself.
posted by twblalock at 11:20 PM on September 11

I had a dryer that stopped when it overheated ( I tried to dry something too big that got stuck)....Asko's manufacturers in all their wisdom neglected to show where the reset button was in the manual . Mine was a black rubber button in the back.
posted by brujita at 11:55 PM on September 11