Electric Dryer No Heat But Spins

If your Electric Dryer Spins but has No Heat Check the Following

Power from the house

Check to see whether there's power getting to the dryer. Is it plugged in? Check for blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers--your dryer uses two fuses or circuit breakers. The dryer could tumble but not heat if only one of the two fuses is blown. If you have circuit breakers, one of the two circuit breakers can trip, even if the two for the dryer are connected.

Heating Element

Often a dryer heating element burns out, but doesn't trip the circuit breaker or blow a fuse. The heating element is simply a long coil of special wire. You can check it for continuity with an ohm meter. No continuity means the element is bad and you need to replace it. The proper ohm reading can be found in the service manual or sometimes on the tech sheet located somewhere on your dryer (9- 13 ohms is a common reading). Electric heating elements aren't repairable. The heating element is easy to replace. Check our videos for other types of dryer heating elements.

Thermal fuse / Thermal Cut Out / Thermistor

On many dryers, there's a thermal fuse mounted to the exhaust duct inside the back cover panel or behind the front cover. The fuse--which is about an inch long--is usually embedded in black resin and mounted in a white plastic housing They are also round and made of metal and plastic. The thermistor is located on the blower housing usually. If any of the fuses do not have continuity replace it. Check for continuity if none replace, But before replacing check for obstructions. The fuses are very inexpensive and easy to replace.

Wiring

A common problem is for the main wiring connection from the house, at the dryer, to burn and break its connection. Because the dryer can still tumble with partial power, the connection may be only partially defective. Check all connections, make sure they are tight. Loose connections can lead to a fire. You may need to replace both the power cord to the dryer and the terminal block inside the dryer that the wire is attached to.