My dryer is taking three times as long to dry my clothes as it used to. It still gets very warm (though not hot), so I don't see how it can be the heating element. My husband has cleaned out the vent, from the outside to the inside, to no avail. I have cleaned the lint trap. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Dryers have thermostats inside. There are usually 2 on the heating element holder. They should just be able to be popped off and then the new one popped back in. They have a light metal tops, kind of a circular shape that look as if 2 sides got pulled out of shape with prongs on the bottom. There is also usually another one, that is not on the heater holder, but near it, that is oblong and is plastic with little prongs. I think it is called a thermal coupling. I would try replacing that one first.
You may have cleaned off the lint in the vent and the lint trap/screen. However, if you are a regular user of dryer sheets (as opposed to liquid fabric softener), your problem may stem from their use.
What happens is that there is a waxy substance on the dryer sheets. This gets on your clothes to make them soft. It can also get on the lint trap/screen. To check for that build up which you can not see. Remove all lint from the lint trap/screen. Then, run water on the screen. If the water puddles and does not go through the holes in the screen, you know you have build up. Take a scrubby and scrub the screen until water will run through. This should help your dryer. My SIL had a heating element completely burn out due to this problem. It is the sole reason why I now only use liquid fabric softener. Good luck!
One time we had a repair person out for the same thing. When he took the front off there was lint all over the inside - between the drum and the outside walls. This could also be a fire hazard! check it out.
My daughters dryer does this too. Have to dry them 3 times! How ever when the kids go out and clean out the dryer vent on the outside wall it works fine. The kids do laundry too and they always over load the dryer. That doesn't help but they sure don't listen to me when I tell them not to.
Assuming it is an electric dryer, it could be your element is burning out and is not producing the full heat it used to. Elements work by resistance and do burn out slowly sometimes. The could be a bad thermal limiter that is turning the element off and on. the other thing it could be is you might only be getting half the voltage you need, your breaker might be bad and one side is not sending the current through so intstead of 240 your dryer is only getting 120 and producing half the heat.
I'm glad that you mentioned that you've cleaned out the vent from the outside to the inside and also the vent in your dryer, because that was the first thing that I was going to suggest.
If you own a gas dryer, it might be the electrical ignitor that actually lights the natural gas. And if that is malfunctioning the gas won't stay on long enough to dry your clothes. Or it might be the heating coils that are shot.
If you can't fix it yourself, call in a repairman.
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Request: Dryer Isn't Drying Clothes
Archived on 06/22/2009
The dryer is taking two or three cycles to completely dry a load.
Brian from Hamilton, MI
Feedback:
RE: Dryer Isn't Drying Clothes
It could be either the thermostat or the heating element. You can replace them yourself. (03/11/2008)
I had the same problem about a year ago. Make sure that you clean out the dryer vent which runs from your dryer to the outside of your house. My husband had to take the long dryer vent apart in sections and I really gave it a good cleaning. If it is really clogged with lint it will take forever for your clothes to dry. It should be cleaned out every year. (03/11/2008)
I don't know if you have fuses or breakers for your home electric box. My dryer had 2 fuses and one went bad and it was the heating fuse, if you have breakers, check to see if one of the breakers switched off for some reason. (03/12/2008)
RE: Dryer Isn't Drying Clothes
Look to see if there is somewhere along your hose to the outside dryer vent that has a sag in it. Condensation will build up in there and cause water to sit there and not allow the damp air to get through easily, so it takes hours to dry a load. I had this problem one time and got about 1/2 gallon of water out when we disconnected the hose from the dryer and lifted up the part that had sagged. (03/12/2008)
I would look at my heating element. Better yet call a service repair man and get "the real deal" rather then guessing. (03/12/2008)
By Paula Jo C. from Mebane, NC
RE: Dryer Isn't Drying Clothes
I received an email recently that said it was important to wash your dryer vent if you use dryer sheets as it leaves a film on them that prevents the air flow and slows down the drying process. If you run water over your vent and it does not go through it needs to be scrubbed with a brush, rinsed and dried and put back in your dryer.
Kim from Penetang (03/14/2008)
