Maytag DE606: Working but turning off too soon

[hrosenthal]

Hi All,

I've been trolling the forums for the past week and although there's a lot of useful information about the old Maytag DE606 dryer, I didn't find any related to this specific problem.

I inherited a DE606 that was working fine (though I did replace the Halo of Heat last year) until about 6 weeks ago. The dryer runs well and heats but it turns off before the clothes are dry and we have to start it again another one or two times to get the clothes dry. I haven't been patient enough to sit in the basement and see how long it's running but I wiped the paddles with rubbing alcohol (even though I don't use dryer sheets) made sure that the lint filter and vent were clean and even disconnected the vent hose and ran it but it still didn't completely dry.

My girlfriend wants to get a new dryer but I'm convinced that this can be fixed.

Any thoughts?

Thank You,

Howard

 

[super32]

Howard

What is too soon? Approximately? Are the clothes damp? Wringing wet? Does the dryer go "ding" saying its done or just stop?

I would have to dig thru my storage to find answers but I'm sure sure some of my colleagues have answers on top of their head.

 

[kenmore71]

Could be a number of things. What is happening, in a nutshell, is that for some reason the wet clothes are no longer discharging the electronic control capacitor when they are wet. Some things to check -

Pull the back off and make sure that all 3 baffles still have the wire connected to them and that something hasn't come loose there.

Double-check that the wire connection at the copper slip ring hasn't worked itself loose in some fashion.

Make sure that the yellow wire (#12) hasn't worked its way off of the selector switch.

There is also a remote possibility that the carbon brush that rides the slip ring has disintegrated to the point where it crumbled and fell out.

Also, is there any possibility that there has been electrical work done in your home about 6 weeks ago? A careless electrician may have compromised the grounding of this machine at the electrical panel.

Those are the thoughts off the top of my head....

 

[hrosenthal]

Kenmore71, looks like you hit the nail on the head. THANK YOU!!!

Yellow wire #12 had worked its way off the selector switch(see attached). As a matter of fact, one of the little curled ends of the connector has fallen off,as it did for yellow wire #20, right next to it (another attachment). What does yellow wire #12 do?

I went to the hardware store to see if I could buy those tiny terminal connectors but the only ones they had were way to big. Even if I got it on the wire, they wouldn't slide into the available slot. Any suggestions.

I don't know if this was dumb or not but I put a small strip of duct tape long the bottom edge of the selector to hold the connectors in place. Do you think that will be OK?

Again, I can't thank you enough for your help. A quick turn of some screws is a lot better than $$$ required to replace a dryer.

 

[hrosenthal]

One of the curled sides of the terminal connector fell off.

 

[hrosenthal]

Duct tape holding terminal connectors in their slots (Sorry, didn't know how to get multiple photos into one message).

 

[combo52]

DE606 Dryer Problems

The brass terminals have a tendency to break like this as they age, I would just solder all the terminals in place directly to the circuit board, As a service technician I have done this at least 30 times and it has always worked well, John.

 

Doing this solves a lot of problems with these dryers, also keep in mind this dryer will dry clothing a little dryer if you use the WnW setting.

 

[hrosenthal]

Thanks, John. I appreciate the advice and information.