Our dryer has become increasingly erratic. To start the dryer yesterday, I had to rotate the timer dial to "inappropriate" positions incl. some of the Off positions (for testing, I would then rotate it till the machine stopped at other arbitrary but immediately reproducible angular positions).
Today, when I got home from work, my wife said she could not get it to start at any position. I was able to get it going at just one position on the dial. I believe the timer needs to be replaced. Please let me know if this sounds right, or if there is any other likely explanation. I opened the control panel and have access to the timer (I removed its cover). I plan to call parts suppliers (local and perhaps online too) in the morning (tomorrow, Wed 3/6/13). I have the dryer manual (couple months ago) thanks to a helpful expert at Appliantology.
I was surprised to find a price of $230 at Sears online for the timer. That's rather high for just a timer, and, as I recall, about half of what the machine cost at Lowe's a few years ago. The timer label says it is a model M460-G, but I saw somewhere that this model no. applies to many dryer timers with variations, so I'll need to specify the dryer model no. and maybe serial no. too.
Thanks in advance for any advice, incl. where best to order the timer. We can manage without the dryer for a few days, so there is time to ship it by 2nd-day UPS or Fedex.
