Is your dryer not getting hot enough? We can help you with the issue and weather or not you need to call an appliance repair person.
The most common reason your dryer is not getting hot enough is a faulty thermostat inside the dryer. If it’s not that then one side of your heating element is not getting sufficient power.
6 Reasons Dryer Not Getting Hot Enough
- Faulty Thermostat Inside Dryer
- Faulty Thermal Fuse
- Plugged Line Trap
- Plugged Dryer Vent
- Loss Of Power
- Broken Heating Element
1. Dryer Not Getting Hot Enough Due To Faulty Thermostat
Inside your dryer is a thermostat that regulates the heat temperature to dry your clothes.
This thermostat clicks on and off when it reaches a certain point of the dryer.
Because of the clicking on and off, overtime this can cause the thermostat to wear itself out.
At this point it will need to be replaced by your local service repair person. Most electricians do not service appliances like dryer’s are stoves.
Hiring a professional is the key.
2. Dryer Not Getting Hot Enough Due To Thermal Fuse
The other main reason why your dryer could be not working correctly is the internal fuse inside the dryer.
This is an overload fuse that detects if the dryer is getting too hot.
Firstly it can become worn out or faulty and need to be replaced.
This is also done by your local service repair person. The overload fuse or thermal fuse can be continuously shutting the heating elements off due to a blockage.
This is why it’s very important to keep lint traps and dryer vents clear.
You can also have a disconnect box mounted right next to your dryer for servicing.
Most of the time this has fuses inside 30 amp.
These fuses can become worn or the fuse holder itself can become worn as well which causes heat and friction with arcing.
Eventually this will cause a fuse to blow and you will lose heat to the dryer. We recommend checking the fuses and making sure they are completely tight by turning them clockwise.
3. Plugged Lint Trap Inside Dryer
A clogged lint trap inside your dryer can also be a culprit.
It could be restricting airflow which would cause it caused a thermal fuse to trip.
Be sure to check the lint trap on every usage or every load of clothes. Additionally you may want to take a flashlight and check down inside lint trap. Use a vacuum with a crevice tool to suck out any length that has made it past the trap.
This will ensure the dryer operates correctly and gets its proper amount of heat.
Once lint starts to build up on the inside of the dryer vent it will first restrict the flow.
If the thermal cut out doesn’t do it’s job it starts to become worn out in the dryer will just keep on heating.
When the lint fills up inside of the vent pipe and the heat hits the blockage you can actually get to an ignition source if it’s in a confined space.
Once you have a dryer fire inside the vent they are extremely hard to put out.
This is why we recommend the shortest distance possible for your dryer vent.
4. Plugged Or Kinked Dryer Vent
We’ve all heard stories about plug dryer vents causing fires.
We have also seen this firsthand.
Your dryer vent should be cleaned at least every six months. We recommend doing this the same time you change the batteries in your smoke detectors.
This is something that you can do yourself and do not need to involve an appliance repair person.
When you take the back of the dryer off make sure you vacuum the back of the dryer vent hole well.
There will be a build up on the inside of this on the back of the dryer. Thoroughly clean out your dryer vent from the back of the dryer to where it escapes outside.
Sometimes there is a screen on the inside of the dryer vent exiting the building.
The screen will be need to be removed and cleaned as well.
Check for any kinks in the line that could be restricting the airflow from the dryer to escape outside.
You can usually tell that you have a problem with your dryer vent when you get an excess amount of humidity in the room where the clothes are being dried.
This means that he cannot escape properly and is venting back into the room.
5. Loss Of Power
Loss of power or partial loss of power to your dryer receptacle could also be another reason why you’re not getting heat from your dryer.
A dryer receptacle operates on both 120 and 240 V voltages. One half of the 120 turns to tumbler or the drum.
However both 240 runs the heating element.
This is typically a 5000 watt heating element. If you lose power to one side of your dryer which can commonly happen then you will get no heat.
This doesn’t mean the tumbler or drum will stop spinning.
Make sure to check all the fuses are good the breaker is not tripped.
It is also a good idea to unplug the dryer from the dryer receptacle in the back of the dryer to make sure that there are no black or scorched or burn marks.
If there were like shown in the picture above on the receptacle and this means that you have a faulty receptacle in it needs to be replaced.
Black scorch or burn marks would be caused by loose connections or where overtime.
This can be done when you were servicing your dryer vent.
6.Broken Heating Element
A broken heating element inside of the dryer can also be the culprit.
Unfortunately these elements to wear out overtime and need to be replaced.
Once the element gives up or has a break in the element and it will simply not heat.
At this point you will need to call your appliance repair person to have it replaced. Overtime the element can also become worn.
It will result in a less amount of heat coming out of the dryer which takes longer to dry the same load of clothes.
So What About The Dryer Vent?
For dryer vents we recommend using solid 4 inch ventilation pipe.
We also recommend the shortest straightest route possible to the exterior of the building.
The more bends or 90° angles that you have inside of this pipe gives lint the chance to build up.
This is why we do not recommend the corrugated plastic vents or aluminum mesh ones.
Overtime the length will build up inside the corrugation and restrict the flow of air to the exterior of the building.
Be sure to use foil tape when connecting the piping together. Although it seems like a better idea to screw the pipe together.
It would be more solid, this would create screwheads on the inside of the pipe which is an area for lint to collect.
You want the inside of that pipe as smooth as you can possibly get it set up the lint freely exits the dryer to the exterior.
You may ask yourself why would lint be in the dryer vent itself shouldn’t the trap catch all of it?
The answer is no, lint does make it by the trap through the bottom of the dryer vent and out into the external vent to the outside.
What Else Can I Do To Make It Heat Better?
Finally one of the last things that may be causing your dryer not to get enough heat is the size of the load you put in the dryer.
I know you can find this hard to believe but size does matter.
If you try to stuff to load from the washer in the dryer expecting to save money on dry time you won’t.
If you double the mass inside of the dryer that will take twice as long for them to dry and it is hard on equipment as dryers are not rated the stuff that many clothes inside.
A good measurement of amount of clothes to put inside of the dryer is half full.
Washers are usually designed to come with dryers so the load right out of the washer should go right in the dryer.
If you do all the maintenance yourself talked about above and over a period of time. The dryer just becomes slower and drying.
For example when you bought it, the dryer would dry load of clothes in 45 minutes and now takes an hour and a half.
It may be time to look at getting a new dryer.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A NEW DRYER…..