Kenmore dryer heater

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Yes. Whirlpool still makes heating elements for these dryers since many of their entry level dryers are still the tried and true 29” design.
 
If this is it.

You have good taste.

 

This is very mol Kenmore and probably one of Sears best selling models.  Finding a matching belt-drive washer is getting more and more difficult as time goes on but they are still out there.

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Less than meets the eye!

Chris,
Just because a dryer doesn't get hot does not mean it has a bad element. As you know, it can be a bad thermostat, a broken wire or a bad thermal fuse. All these items need to be checked before buying a new element.

Also, someone may say it doesn't heat, but they could have had the dryer hooked up to a clogged vent which would make the element shut off due to overheating.

The dryer looks well used but they do last forever.

Pick it up since you can't go wrong on the price and see what you can find and then go from there.
 
Ohh. Great idea.

I’m picking it up tonight. I ordered a new element. How do you tell if the thermostat is bad ? Are they all in the element box. I’m still new to working on machines. But I’m definitely gonna try it all out and see I love this big door design. There is another one near me with the smaller drop down door for $50 they said jf works great. I like the look of the larger door. Just not the almond colour.
 
Multi-meter and donor machine

Chris, you test the thermostat by seeing if there is continuity thru it. You need a multimeter that will test for continuity. It will also measure voltage and resistance and other functions depending on which setting you select. You can pick up a meter at Harbor Freight for a few bucks to get you started.

Also, that other machine may prove useful as a donor unit as many of the parts may be the same, but that is up to you to try and figure out. With both model numbers, you can compare parts lists and see what parts are common to both of them.

www.sears.com/parts
 
Last question I promise

Sorry for so many questions, I promise this is the last one,
can I swap out the drums with the other dryer in the thread? the smaller door white one?
the drum of the one I have is peeling paint, and kinda smells funny.
 
Ask away! I don’t mind helping someone save an old appliance if I can. The drums on these two dryers cannot be switched due to the door sizes. Each drum is built differently because of this.
 
I’ve seen

worse than that amount of lint with a dryer that was still heating.
But still nice to get all that out.
Best to use a multimeter to test things out before replacing parts or even plugging into your outlet.
If you take the cabinet apart and take out the drum, your app to find lots of lint.
You want to get that out and off the electric motor (old toothbrush) vacuum.
I used a leaf blower once to really clean it good!
Let us know of your progress.
HTH
 
Not always!

For safety's sake, always remove the power source when first troubleshooting the dryer. You want to check the thermostats first to see if they are working and will allow the electricity to flow thru them to power the element and heat the dryer.

No power is required to do that. Also, you would want to check the element itself to see if has continuity thru it too.

If you are taking the machine apart, take pictures of where all the wires go and maybe label them as well.

If you remove the heater box, you may be able to look inside it and see if there are any breaks in the wires. If there are no breaks, then we need to go further.

It will probably be easier for you to check youtube on how to use a multi meter than to explain all of its functions here.

You should first remove the back of the dryer and check the most obvious thing, like a broken wire or broken connection. It may be a simper fix than you think.

You have my cell number so if you want to do a video and send it that would be fine with me or do a facetime call.
 
Good idea to take double pictures BEFORE removing parts so you'll have something to look back on later when putting it back together.

Especially helpful for electric wiring and small detail parts. It's not usual to mix up a black wire with a dk. brown wire, for example, and ...ewww, the results.

Plus if you have questions along the way, with pictures we here can most likely help.
 
Hopefully yours doesn't have a mouse nest in it.

I bought a relatively new Estate (Whirlpool made) dryer from Menards a couple years back, for $19.

It looked good and worked good, but thought I'm going to check the inside JUST IN CASE....

It's a good thing I did as right near the middle, a busy mouse had built a towering nest that, oddly, was all stuck together. With all the moving of the appliance it didn't distort. Apparently the humidity from the basement the dryer had been in glued the mess together. It wasn't quite as bad as the picture but....

Fortunately I opened it up outside, removed the control panel, the top, the front, the back, and pulled out the drum. When disconnecting the belt I could see there was a mess. There was no indication that the mouse had been in any other part of the machine. I propped the dryer up so it slanted to the front, got a hose, and protected the motor with a plastic bag. Then took the hose, some soap, and a scrub brush and cleaned all the crap out. Also bleached it.

Good as new after letting it dry a few days and putting it back together.

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Wow. No mice here phew

I took off the back and removed the heating element box. It was packed with lint. I vacuumed it all out. The bottom of the dryer had about 2” of lint. I thought it was insulation at first. I’ll take some pics today. I ordered a meter to check the voltages on the spots you Guys told me to check.
I did order a new heating element. I’m going to attempt to paint the dryer black to match my washer.
 
It sounds like they used the dryer in tight confines with NO vent attached. As a result, all the loose lint became airborne and was sucked back inside the dryer. That's a significant fire risk. If the heater box was filled that could have easily caught on fire.

The smell you were referring to was the partial incineration of lint particles. I wouldn't be surprised if the drum was discolored from that.

How do you intend to try and paint this?

For what it's worth; these did not originally come in black or avocado as avocado was no longer being used for most appliances by 1985.

If you're thinking canned spray paint...I wouldn't. It rarely turns out good and looks crappy. Large areas like an appliance need to be professionally done with a paint sprayer.

A simpler solution: could do black panels in certain areas such as the door front and the inset part of the top. You could wrap it or use a black gloss or black wood contact paper.

Carefully cut the paper corners to match the top corners before applying. The door you can easily remove, disassemble and wrap the door folding the paper over the edges. Then reassemble and put the handle back in.

Wouldn't take long or cost much and worse case, if you don't like it, it's easy to remove. The almond color would be a good combination for the black vs. a stark white paint.

https://www.amazon.com/Contact-Deco...hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hv
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