Top 5 Causes: Dryer NOT Heating Up/Drying Clothes

Your clothes dryer Won't Heat Up? We'll show you the top 5 causes for your dryer not heating up. You'll learn DIY dryer heater element testing, thermistor, and thermostat, testing and measuring the correct ohms resistance for your dryer heating element. This is a Samsung Dryer, Model DV42H5200EF/A3 but the DIY tips here apply to most dryers. It's a good time for a dryer vent cleaning at the same time that you debug your Samsung dryer not drying. If you don't have a dryer vent cleaning kit get one, or soon you will have a clothes dryer that does not dry clothes. These root causes apply to many dryer manufacturers, whether you have a Samsung dryer, a Whirlpool dryer, a Maytag, or a Kenmore dryer. If your dryer blows cold air, you'll know how to fix it.

Samsung Dryer Parts mentioned in the video: (Paid affiliate links, thanks for your support!)
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00:00 5 Causes for clothes dryer not blowing hot
00:15 Root Cause 1: Clogged Dryer Exhaust
01:53 Cause 2: Bad Dryer Heating Element
03:46 Cause 3: Bad dryer Hi-Temp Cutoff Thermistor
04:57 Cause 4: bad Hi-Limit Thermostat
05:23 Cause 5: Bad dryer Thermal Fuse (Not Really)
06:17 How to test for bad dryer parts

[playinatlife]

Wow! Love this kind of video! I don't have a Samsung dryer, but recently, when my refer wasn't cooling, but the freezer compartment was freezing, I was able to find a video to figure out the problem. God bless people like you who share the wealth of your knowledge to help others!

[carn]

My guy you’re awesome. I’m fixing my rusted shower head right now and will keep all your other tips for further needs. So glad I found your channel

[JohnRBooth]

Great video. Using your instructions I found my High Temp Cutoff was shot. THANKS

[tipsclubs]

Great and Concise video. So the Thermistor is basically a thermal fuse Right. I had to change one of these out in a Microwave oven that quit working, and it came in different values such as 160 or something like that, and it had arcked and showed burn marks, changed it and the microwave worked again. Thanks for the 5 dryer checks, that is very helpful. Thanks Jeff.

[LockeLife]

So underrated thanks for the video jeff

[MegaHomieJ]

It's crazy my dryer just stopped yesterday and now you post this video. I still haven't taken it apart yet but from this video I suspect my problem to be the exhaust is clogged and it probably set off the thermal fuse, bc my dryer is not turning on anymore.

[bottomup]

They should build in drop down wheels so you can move these big beasts out with one person without scratching the floor. Great tips!

[wt]

I use leaf blower to blow out the lint.
It works great. Ego leaf blowers are overkill.
Ryobi 18v with skinny flat nozzle seems to work the best. Im still planning on using my Ego 650cfm with custom fit nozzle borrowed from Ryobi.

[chris_mic]

Jeff, does the element typically have a "life span"? If the dryer is s certain age and the thermistor or thermostat go out, is it a safe bet that the element is on borrowed time?

[ernestoortiz]

Jeff I replaced the heating element thermo fuse and thermostat still won't blow out hot air

[jmcenterprises]

Excellent info, thanks Jeff. I have an old Kenmore dryer, over the years I've only had to replace the idler wheels that the drum rotates on. As with most of our appliances, my wife is pissed and feels gipped out of getting new appliances. BTW Jeff, I just had to replace my water heater, they never seem to last more than 4 years here. I use AOSmith. Do you have a recommended brand of water heater that you use? Also, do you do the flush and drain maintenance? I don't but probably should.

[wranther]

Well Jeff, back in time the first step was to check the fuse. If the copper strip in the window was blackened, fuse was burnt. Next came along those cartridges. Sometimes just switching the cartridges in their side box would identify the problem. Usually there was a spare cartridge on top of the side panel. The third great home electrical upgrade was to those breaker panels. Just flip the breaker all the way to off, then on, check the circuit again. The fourth and often overlooked step was to check see that the cord is plugged into the outlet. The fifth and final step, check the weather forecast. If the weather is to be cloudy or rainy, no need to turn on the outside lights anyway because it would be too wet to hang out the clothes to dry anyway. Where is Paul Harvey when you really need him! -Bob...

[seana]

I’ve never dealt with a dryer not heating BUT have dealt with dryers taking a LONG time to dry despite them being spotless in the inside, ended up being a weak high limit thermostat and usually get weak from years of service from being near a hot heating element. Other times, it was because someone installed the wrong thermostat which caused the heating element to cycle below the operating temperature, a cycling thermostat can very easily fit in place of the high limit thermostat which can stump people since everything checks out fine but isn’t heating very well, I always check to see what the cutout temperature is just to be sure the correct thermostat is installed or is the incorrect thermostat.

[bruski]

The limit is a safety switch that will open the circuit not letting the elements receive voltage to prevent a fire. No different from limits in a furnace or air handler

[ffilifields]

Have replaced the element and all the other limiters, fuses and thermostats. The dryer ran maybe one whole load and then quit heating again. The exhaust duct is clean. Why is it doing

[Garth]

Considering the cost of the thermistor and hight limit parts, I'd replace them regardless as well since they are right there and only 30 seconds of added work. Even if that heating element is inexpensive, I'd replace it too since they are know to crack but, if expensive, I'd leave it since its gone through several cycles and still intact, it may keep going and going.
You would think that the engineers would include parts that are more robust than the cheaper and borderline capable to due the work intended. For one, those front load dryers aren't cheap and in the past, the upright dryers of the past rarely ever broke. Here we are today, $900 dryer and it is having issues way too soon while the older $300 dryer is still going.

[davidberryhill]

Guess a roof vent for a dryer is a Florida thing. Definitely not like that in nc.. they typically go through the wall.

[matthewgregory]

Probably some of the hot most air from the laundry machines in the Champlain towers made it collapse. This could have been a contributer.

[paulrobilotti]

The best thing to do is not buy a Samsung appliance lots of problems, but they make great TVs, LOL A little trick if you find that the Hi Temp Cutoff Thermistor is the problem is when you take it out bang it on the ground while holding it, what you are trying to do is to get back down the little thermal disk that broke the contact when it over heated, if you get it down you should have a machine that works until you get new parts

[DanEBoyd]

Normally closed, ONE-TIME-USE, switch...😁
I've repaired my basement dryer a few times. One time it popped the thermal fuse - I guess I narrowed it down with the continuity setting on my multimeter, which works like an Ohm meter for dummies...😆 Google had set me on the path to check the thermal fuse, and turned out to be correct. I also thought I was gonna need a new idler pulley from the sound it had been making up to that point, but when I opened it up, there wasn't one. Just a bracket with a wearable surface for the belt to run over. Turned out someone had the belt routed wrong, so once I got that right, she worked mint with the new fuse.
But then one day a couple of years later, that belt finally broke, having endured several years of being routed wrong. The lucky part was that I was right there to hear it, and run over and shut 'er down, before letting any smoke out of anything in the heating coil circuit.👍 New belt, and she still runs today.👍