Dryers not heating

Dryer Repair
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1

Hi Everybody,

I have a dryer not heating up. Everything seem to be fine except the dryer is blowing cold air. Could it be the dryer heating element? or something else? Any help is appropriated.

Thanks,

3

Here are your parts
http://www.appliancepartspros.com/partsearch/modelsearch.aspx?model=LEC7858AN0

See the attachment for the wiring diagram.

Could it be the dryer heating element?
Yes it could. Visually inspect it or better yet measure it with a meter, should be around 10 ohms.

or something else?
Also yes. Could be a power problem the motor, timer etc all run off of half the line (120 volts) but the heater requires 240 volts.
Also could be any device in the heating coil circuit. Check the thermostats with a meter all should be 0 ohms (closed).
If the thermal cut-off thermostat is blown get back to us as there are other things to check before replacing it.

Try flipping the breaker off/on slowly a couple times, sometimes you can loose half the line without actually tripping the breaker.
If this does nothing, check the voltage at the plug
L1 to L2 should be 240 volts
L1 to Neutral and L2 to Neutral, both should be 120 volts.
If OK
Unplug the unit and check the wires at the terminal strip in the machine to make sure none are loose or burned out
If OK
Check the power at the terminal strip.
Be careful as 240 volts is lethal !!!

If you do not own a meter, I would suggest you purchase a one. You can get a decent digital multimeter for under $20.00. You do not need fancy though it is nice if the leads are a couple feet long.
If it saves ordering one unnecessary part it has paid for itself and you end up owning a useful tool.
Most places will not let you return electrical parts so if you order it, you own it.
A couple things to watch when measuring ohms and continuity

  1. Always remove power from the machine otherwise you could blow your meter.
  2. Always disconnect at least one side of any device you are checking. This eliminates the possibility of measuring an alternate/parallel circuit path.
  3. When checking for closed contacts and continuity use the lowest scale (Usually 200 ohms). Then try higher scales. This scale is 0 to 200 ohms so if the device you are measuring is 300 ohms this scale would show an open circuit which it is not, you are just measuring outside the scale’s dynamic range.

There is a good STICKY at the start of this forum about it’s use.

4

Using the meter the heating element is around 6-7 ohms. Also, I check the thermal cut off for the upper thermstat which is o ohms, but the bottom thermal cut off is some ohms. Could it be the thermal cut off is blown?

5

I just replace my thermal cut-off for both and the dryer is working now. Thanks for your help. Appreciated your input.

6

You are welcome

And thanks for getting back to us. Now when others search for a similar problem they will see what actually worked instead of just suggestions about what could be the cause.