Proper Operation
Learn how your appliance is supposed to operate so you can determine if it is malfunctioning.
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Generating Heat
The heater is located in the lower right hand corner down under the drum. The heater element is composed of a coils of resistance wire suspended by ceramic insulators (see drawing). Air is drawn into the front of the heater enclosure, past the heater elements and into the the back of the drum.
Two 120 Volts Alternating Current (VAC) circuits and a common ground come into the dryer. The heater and its controlling thermostats are across both 120 VAC circuits. The motor is across only one 120 VAC circuit. This is important to remember when troubleshooting circuit breakers (or fuses). If the breaker trips (or the fuse blows) only on the 120 VAC circuit that the motor is not on, the motor will run but the heater will not work.
The operating thermostat is located on the exhaust side of the blower under the lint filter. The operating thermostat is in series with the heating element and determines when it is on.
The safety thermostat or high limit thermostat is mounted above the heating element. The limit thermostat opens at a higher temperature than the high temperature operating thermostat. This thermostat will also open it the dryer vent is blocked and the dryer cannot get rid of its heat.
A thermal cut-off thermostat is embedded in the windings of the drive motor. If the motor winding temperature exceeds the thermostat open circuit temperature, the dryer will stop. The motor's centrifugal switch will open the circuit to the heater element. When the motor temperature drops back down below the open circuit temperature, the thermostat switch will close but the dryer will not restart by itself.
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