Speed Queen Dryer-Help!

[charlye37]

I have a Speed Queen Dryer that is five years old. Model# ADE4BRGS171TW01. I dry 4 to 5 loads per week, and it has been well cared for. Two weeks ago it just stopped drying (heating) on all cycles. I called a friend that is an Electrician and loves to troubleshoot any electrical problem. We have gone through this dryer inside and out, along with assistance from Speed Queens Tech Support. I keep the vents and dryer pipe clean and all times. I have no lint build-up at all. Every part has been checked via ohms, voltage, ect...with the Electricians meters and other equipment while S.Q. tech support was on the phone verifying the correct readings. Everything checks out perfect. Even the power coming into the house, breaker box, wiring, dryer plug, all check out. S.Q. Tech Support had me to replace the Timer, Fabric Selector switch, and the Thermal fuse. No change. I went ahead and replaced every part in that dryer. The power cord, Heating Element, Limit Thermostat, & Cycling thermostat. Now I have very low heat on the Regular Fabric Selector switch setting...and with the Timer set to "Timed Dry". All other settings I get cold air only. S.Q. had me to switch out again the Timer, and Thermal fuse. I exchanged them at the appliance parts store but no change. It doesn't make any sense. Everything is brand new using genuine OEM parts. The only thing that has not been replaced is the wiring harness. Is there something we have overlooked? Any help, advise or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.
Charlye37

 

[luxflairguy]

Glad to see you here!  Greg

 

[stricklybojack]

.
The electrical outlet may have issues, is it old?

 

[charlye37]

The electrical outlet was installed when I bought the set of Speed Queens in 2014. The Electrician removed the outer cover and checked the voltage and all of the connections to make sure they were all tight. He said it checked out perfect.
All of the copper connections inside the outlet looked brand new. He even checked the wiring to make sure it was the correct size...it was. He rechecked the voltage, it was perfect. And I forgot. He had the same circuit breaker on his truck that was on my dryer circuit. He installed it inside the breaker box. It changed nothing. He checked the old breaker again and put it back.

 

[DADoES]

 
If the element is not getting voltage then follow the circuit back to the next components.  No mention above of the motor, or specifically the centrifugal start switch on it.  Heating elements typically are fed through that switch (so they don't get power if the motor doesn't run-up to full speed).  Could be a bad switch.

 

[combo52]

Little Or No Heat From A SQ Electric Dryer

As Glenn suggested jump out the motor centrifugal heat contacts, also take a voltage reading at the heater element while the machine is running.

 

Also take voltage readings at the outlet and the terminal block on the dryer while it is running.

 

Something is differently wrong, we see this type of problem on any electric dryer occasionally, and there is still a good chance its in your homes electrical system.

 

Keep us posted as to what you find, John

 

[charlye37]

Thanks Glenn and John for the information. The new heating element is getting around 115 volts the electrician told me. He didn't take any voltage readings from the motor connections, he couldn't get to them. The Tech at Speed Queen never mentioned anything about the centrifugal start switch on the motor. He just ask if the drum seemed to be running it's normal speed when I open the door, hold in on the door switch and push the start button. I told the tech that I had never had a reason to do this. Therefore I wouldn't know how fast the drum should be turning. I did do this though. I'm going by the sound the dryer makes, and the amount of air it shoots out of the outside exhaust vent. I didn't realize that a dryer drum would turn so fast. And my outside 4 plastic flaps on the vent are as always, they are all 4 standing all the way open when the dryer is running. I know that I will need to remove the air duct channel in front of the motor. I don't want to break anything. Can you tell me what I would need to remove next to get to that motor switch. Then I can have the electrician stop by after work and check the voltage while it is running. And John, the electrician said that the 115 volt reading at the heating elements terminals is when the dryer is getting it's only heat. On regular fabric setting and timed dry. On regular fabric setting and the timer on heavy or high heat...he said he thought he only got around 90 volts with it running. There's no heat at all on any high heat setting. Tomorrow the electrician is coming to completely redo the entire service panel. From the outside transformer, to the electrical pole in the yard, to the weather head that's connected to the house, and upgrade the wiring, Polaris connectors, circuit breakers, and anything else that it may need. He said that it wasn't done correctly and safely when it all was installed five years ago. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for everything.
Charles

 

[combo52]

Little Or No Heat From A SQ Electric Dryer

I think you will find the problem in the houses wiring, I don't think this is a dryer problem, is there an electric range in the house that works properly ? You could try plugging the dryer in there or even take it to a friends house and try it there.

 

John

 

[charlye37]

Update on Speed Queen Dryer woes.
The Electricians completed their work yesterday. Everything is new and up to code and was inspected by the utility company. From the pole out by the road, a new transformer, cable and wiring from the transformer to the light pole at the end of the driveway, and from that pole to the weatherhead on the side of my house is all new. The breaker box and everything inside of the breaker box is brand new. They ran a load test with the central air (3 tons) the electric stove on (all 4 burners
on high and the oven on 450, and a 220 volt air compressor running in the garage.
Everything checked out perfectly. They even removed my old meter and installed a smart meter. But the Dryer...no change. They had me turn everything off in the entire house, even the frig and the deep freezer. They wanted to check on the smart meter a current change when the dryer was started up. He said there was around 120 v change. In other words the amount of power it would take to run the motor only, no heating up of the coils. I guess my next step is the motor switch. I don't know where to go from here.
Charles

 

[mrb627]

Broken Wire

I had a broken wire in a harness between the console and the motor in my SQ dryer. After replacing the motor and timer without fixing it, the technician and I went through each wire in the harness and found the break. The wire was spliced and all was well.

Malcolm

 

[ea56]

Electricians are very expensive!

how many new dryers could you have bought for what this electrical work cost, instead of going on this wild goose chase doing all this rewiring, with still no working dryer?

I really feel for you having all this expense to get a moderately used 5 year old dryer to DRY, with still no success.

Seems like the techs on SQ’s phone line should have been able to direct you to look for a break in one of the wires, before buying all these new parts and spending hundreds of dollars on having an electrician do all this work, that seems like it may have been completely unnecessary.

And call me crazy, but a moderately used 5 year old dryer shouldn’t have wires breaking, unless something wasn’t put together correctly during its manufacture.

Good Luck!

Eddie

 

[charlye37]

Oh...I forgot to mention. Before the Electricians left, one of the guys did one last check on the power coming out of the dryers four prong receptacle. It was perfect. When he touched the probes to the slots on the right and left of the receptacle, the reading was 240 volts. From each side slot up to the L shaped slot was 120 volts. From each side slot down to the round hole slot was 120 volts. He then checked the terminal block. The L1 terminal...L2 terminal...and the Neutral
Terminal. The correct amount of current was getting from the receptacle through the power cord, to the terminal block. Everything was tight, and the ground wires were in place according to the Installation Instruction book for the dryer. All of that was perfect and correct.
Charles

 

[henene4]

Pretty certain that since - if I haven't skipped over it - you did not check the motor centrifugal switch.

So check if with the dryer running there is voltage present at the eliment terminals.

 

[supersurgilator]

I'm sorry but instead of trying to diagnosis all of this myself, I would have just called appliance repair and let them take a look at it. Would have been so much cheaper and less of a headache, than swapping out all of these perfectly good parts, and replacing electrical stuff that there probably wasn't anything wrong with in the first place.

 

[coldspot66]

If the centrifugal switch is bad, I don't think it is available as a separate part....you may have to replace the drive motor.

 

[charlye37]

It's been a few days since my last post. Have been out of town. I finally
found the problem. I couldn't see it until I took the dryer completely apart.
And with the advice from all of you, I knew what to look for. There is a set
of wires that connect on top of the motor. And there is also a large white plug
with a number of wires coming from it also going to the motor and the wiring harness.
I started looking at it closely with a strong light and a magnifying glass. I
noticed that the large plastic plug was sitting kinda sideways. It just didn't
look right. When I grabbed onto the plug, I pulled on it slightly. It came off.
It has a locking tab on it, but it apparently was never pushed all the way down
when it went down the assembly line at the factory. It looked clean, but I blew everything off really well with the air compressor. I pushed the large white plug back into place until it clicked, locking it onto the top of the motor. I had a gut feeling that this was the problem. It had been working fine for five years just sitting there barely attached. I guess with the vibration over five years, it finally worked loose enough not to heat on regular and high heat settings.
It works better now than when it was new. So I will keep the old parts for spares, and can use them in the future if I ever need them. Thank you for all of the
advice and comments. It was appreciated.
Charles

 

[frigilux]

Another AW.ORG happy ending. It's the teamwork, isn't it?

 

[eurekastar]

I'm really glad you figured it out on your own!  Sometimes, just taking a step back and giving it time, the solution comes!  That's really satisfying. 

 

[luxflairguy]

It's fixed!

Great to know!

Greg