So, I move a washer and dryer from the old house, in the back of my Pilot. Unload them and put them in to their alcove. Laundering starts. And then (of course) the dryer fails to heat.
When I opened the top of the dryer and hit Start, I notice the heating elements aren't turning orange. Hoping it's the top thermocouple - and since it's the only one I can reach, I run a meter on it - and (also, of course) it tests normal. In order to check the other one - and to see what I might have knocked loose during the move, the dryer will have to be pulled out of the alcove.
But, there's this one problem.
The opening is off center and the wall that comes out on the dryer side is wider than the wall that comes out on the washer side. The upshot is that after all this - everything will have to be unhooked and the washer moved out of the way in order to pull they clothes dryer out far enough to open up the back.
And the faucet on the hot water side leaks. Only a little, but of course it does.
It's just a pain in the butt all the way round. And so, I thought I'd share.
Look. If you're designing spaces or furniture or cabinets or whatever - things will have to be tweaked. The backs of things will have to be accessed! Flush mounts are slick and all but eventually you'll have to check the cords in back. That's all I'm saying.
Update (sometime later)
What eventually ended up fixing it - after all that, in case you were wondering - was an electrical breaker.
The short version:
- The thermocouples checked out.
- Found online that a possible cause was the timer/controller module. It was a bit twitchy anyway and I thought that it had finally gone. I pulled the part and looked up and ordered a replacement online. This was great - but it didn't make the dryer heat.
- After more research, I found out that a dryer can run but not heat if one of the legs of the 220v outlet was bad (and the other was still good). Tested *that* and that turned out to be the underlying problem. Replaced the breaker and all is well.
The moral of the story is don't take anything for granted. I assumed that the outlet worked so I went to a lot of trouble without going through a full set of tests to assess the environment and the equipment. There was a flight mechanics (?) motto I ran across a dog's age ago: In God we trust. Everything else we check. A shame I forgot that in this instance.
More (yet later still)
In case you're wondering about the techie stuff (I'm reminded about Heinlein's ballistics chapter...), here are two videos by some people:
Thermostats
- Whirlpool / Kenmore Dryer Heater and Thermostat Test by Bill Newberry, an appliance guy and, guessing by his t-shirt, a Marine veteran. If I had watched this before I'd gotten started...
- Dryer Isn’t Heating? High-Limit Thermostat Test – Dryer Repair by an outfit called RepairClinic.com. It's a better how-to on multimeters because it shows you both digital and analogue meters and exactly how to use them to test dryer (or whatever's) thermostats, where Newberry's gives more information about the dryer itself.
Electrical panel
- Checking for a Bad Breaker by TheElectricalDoctor, with some very dramatic bed music.
- How to Change a Breaker also by TheElectricalDoctor, with similarly dramatic bed music.
If you want to fix anything, check YouTube first. Also - please don't electrocute yourself.
