it's always something, dryer overheating repeatedly

[EricU]

I might still shorten the vent.  I think I'm within limits, but it can be shorter without an excessive amount of work. Would require some drywalling though.

I think the biggest crime against airflow is when it comes out of the wall, there are two 90 degree bends right together.  According to my friend the HVAC engineer, that is more lossy than two bends separated by some distance.

I'm going to wait for reports of performance.  Now I'm hearing that it has always taken two cycles to dry a load.  If it still does that, shortening the vent makes a lot of sense.

[TDKPE]

Now I'm hearing that it has always taken two cycles to dry a load.  If it still does that, shortening the vent makes a lot of sense.

By any chance, is the dryer being used with an automatic moisture detection cycle?  Ours used to dry ok on 'auto', though heavy stuff was often damp, but lately it's been shutting off even more prematurely.  The cycle time starts at something like 45 minutes, but it counts down and stops sooner than that.  So we use it on the old-school 'timed dry' cycle, and it dries clothes like timed dry units always did, in around 40 minutes on medium heat.  The moisture sensing circuitry seems to think clothes are drier than they really are and shuts off, thereby saving energy.


Just a thought.

[MarkSingleton]

..... we use it on the old-school 'timed dry' cycle, and it dries clothes like timed dry units always did, in around 40 minutes on medium heat.  The moisture sensing circuitry seems to think clothes are drier than they really are and shuts off, thereby saving energy.


Just a thought.

    Ours seems to do much the same.  I just use timed dry after I discovered that, and it seems
to work MUCH better that way.

[EricU]

not sure, it does have the sensor.  I always use the sensor timing, but I really haven't noticed a problem

The controller is really simple on ours.  Pretty much a batch of medium power resistors and a chip

[stav]

Our dryer (older LG Tromm) didn't dry clothes on timed dry for several years.  We got it used so we figured it was just the way it worked. Recently it stopped drying all together.  I tracked it to the thermal fuse. While I was changing it out, I found a lot of lint accumulated in the heating element. Changing out the fuse and cleaning the element got the dryer working better than it ever has. Timed dry works as it should now with very few exceptions.

[EricU]

that's weird, seems like timed dry and sensor dry would both have problems in that case. Our heating element seemed fine, but the holder was cracked, so I replaced it.  So it's on the 3rd heading element. They are cheap, $25 from amazon. Never seen any lint in there, seems like that would lead pretty quickly to a fire.

The one great thing about this dryer is that it can be fixed from the front, albeit by lying on the ground.  Another reason I should raise it up a little.

I'm pretty sure the thermal fuse is fine, but the overtemp sensor was blowing.  It's a bimetal strip, so you can reset it by throwing it at the ground.

[stav]

Sorry, I meant sensor dry in my post above. It worked on timed dry so I would always set it for an hour and let it run. Since I changed the stuff I mentioned above, the sensor dry is working.  I don't know why there wasn't a lint fire inside the dryer to be honest. There was a pretty good accumulation of lint in the elements.

[EricU]

Our dryer has the element in a duct, so if some small pieces of lint get in there, there is a controlled (hopefully) burn .  There did seem to be some evidence of that happening on the older elements.  The design is such that it's fairly hard for much lint to get in there.  Probably the worst time to get lint in the element is right now, after I cleaned everything out and there are little pieces of lint everywhere.  I suppose I should sweep better.  There wasn't much lint on the bottom panel of the dryer, but there was about a handful of dog fur.  Which only makes sense, it's everywhere.

[Snipe Hunter]

Just a thought...

Is your laundry room enclosed? Enclosed laundry rooms need make-up air in order for the dryer to draw air. There should either be a make-up vent with a cross section equal or larger than your dryer exhaust or a sufficient gap under the door to serve as a make-up vent. It's one of the things I look for doing a home inspection. Ours is not vented so we just leave the door ajar.

[EricU]

it's in an open basement.  Pretty sure our house is leaky enough that it's getting makeup air, but that's an interesting thought