8 replies to this topic

[Smatthew]

Greetings, gents and ladies of this fine forum. Let me tell you my tale so far:

A mere two weeks out of warranty and my LG dryer decides that heating up is no longer a thing it likes to do.

I've tried all the "cross your fingers and hope" kind of stuff:
1. Cleaned the lint tray and vent
2. Checked the breaker for any trippage
3. Removed clothing from the dryer and looked blankly into the drum

All this was for naught. Now I'm left with options that are significantly less palatable. I'm not afraid to crack this beast open, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

From cruising the forums, I figure I'm most likely in need of either a new heating element, an internal fuse, or some type of sensor. Besides the lack of heat, everything else seems to be just fine.

Any help you all can offer for next steps would be most appreciated. The clean and damp laundry is piling up around me!

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Greetings, Smatthew, welcome to the Samurai School.

I PMed you the service manual in your other post so you'll have the disassembly info in there. Being as how this is an electric dryer, we should measure for proper voltage at the outlet or at the terminal block on the dryer before we crack this egg open.

Do you have a meter and know how to use it?

[deanfaw1]

If the unit comes on but no heat then your safety thermostat is bad. You can check for continuity on all of the thermostats by taking out the exhaust pipe in from the back of the dryer. This will help you avoid a full disassemble. There is one screw and the whole thing comes out. Then you will have access to the heating element and all of the thermostats on the left if your behind the unit. It should take you no more then 5 minutes. Let me know if you have anymore questions. We do tons of warranty work for LG here in GA.

[Smatthew]

Greetings, Smatthew, welcome to the Samurai School.

I PMed you the service manual in your other post so you'll have the disassembly info in there. Being as how this is an electric dryer, we should measure for proper voltage at the outlet or at the terminal block on the dryer before we crack this egg open.

Do you have a meter and know how to use it?

I dug my voltmeter out this morning and was hoping to see an underperforming circuit, but both legs seem to be up to snuff. The voltage was reading 240-ish at both the terminal block and the outlet. I also tested each leg separately and got 120 on each.

Thanks for the service manual. I can't believe how hard it is to come by those things! A day of searching the internet turned up nothing, and then I find gold after 20 minutes in these forums.

[Smatthew]

If the unit comes on but no heat then your safety thermostat is bad. You can check for continuity on all of the thermostats by taking out the exhaust pipe in from the back of the dryer. This will help you avoid a full disassemble. There is one screw and the whole thing comes out. Then you will have access to the heating element and all of the thermostats on the left if your behind the unit. It should take you no more then 5 minutes. Let me know if you have anymore questions. We do tons of warranty work for LG here in GA.

Thanks for the info. I'll give this a try tonight and report back with my findings.

[Smatthew]

Well, I followed your instructions, deanfaw1 (if that is your real name), and was able to peek in and see the potentially troublesome safety devices as plain as day.

In the end, I just skipped the continuity testing (which I'm a bit unfamiliar with) and just bypassed the possibly bad component by temporarily detaching the wires from the thermostat and taping them together. A quick test of the dryer produced some sweet, sweet heat. Awe. Some.

Now I'll just need to order the new part and I'll be back on the road to cleanliness.

One last question for you gurus of the appliances. I assume I'll be waiting at least a couple of days to get a part, so is there a tremendous amount of danger in leaving the bypass in place until then? It's going to be tough to explain to the wife why we're having to dig deeper into our closets for clean clothes, but if it presents an unnecessary risk, I'll just have to put my foot down and wear that fantastic blue polyester leisure suit like a man.

Thanks for all the help so far.

[RegUS_PatOff]

. . . Now I'll just need to order the new part and I'll be back on the road to cleanliness.
. . . is there a tremendous amount of danger in leaving the bypass in place until then?

1) and determine why it blew (over-heating / usually a Vent problem)
2) you tell me:

[Smatthew]

1) and determine why it blew (over-heating / usually a Vent problem)
2) you tell me:

So you're saying it's okay as long as I'm careful......

I kid, I kid! We held off on the laundry until today when I was able to get the new safety thermostat from Repair Clinic. Works like a charm.

I'll keep an eye on the venting, though I checked it pretty thoroughly and there are not any blockages currently. We've had the dryer in place for just over a year, so I can't imagine that the length or layout of the vent pipe suddenly became an issue.

Is there anything else I need to check? I'd rather not have to keep a bucket of these thermostats on hand.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Got your hi limit and cycling thermostats on this page==> http://www.repaircli...t-DLE2301-==c24