If you have been following my blog, you will see that April, May and June have been brutal! I don’t know what I did to piss off the universe, but on top of my washer, dishwasher, hot water heater and faucets breaking down, I now have to deal with no heat from my dryer! Needless to say, my DIY skills have been stretched pretty thin.
When I took the bottom cover off on the dryer and turned it on, I immediately noticed the dryer was not calling for heat (i.e. igniter was not glowing at all).
Based on my previous experience, I correctly guessed that my thermal fuse burned out again. To confirm, I removed two leads from the thermal fuse and bonded them together with black electrical tape, effectively bypassing the fuse. Lo and behold, the dryer was working again without the thermal fuse.
Bypassing the thermal fuse was done only as a temporary test. Thermal fuse plays a critical role in keeping the dryer from overheating and possibly catching fire so and you SHOULD NOT OPERATE your dryer with this security feature bypassed
One interesting thing to note was that during short 20 minute cycle, I observed the dryer getting rather hot. Perhaps this is why my thermal fuse burned up? To play safe, I decided to replace my thermostat (which signals the dryer CPU to throttle back heat if it gets too hot) as well.
Parts Needed for the Repair
- Thermal Fuse, Whirlpool OEM Part # 3392519, Qty 2
- Thermostat, High-Limit 205 F (96 C), Whirlpool OEM Part # 8573028, Qty 1
I will post a detailed how-to-article once I receive my parts (link TBD).
Wish me luck that nothing else will break for awhile!
