Gas dryer taking 2 hours to dry clothes

Jonny3777

Hello all. I am the second owner of a kenmore gas dryer. I've had it for almost 2 years and almost 1 year ago the thermal fuse went out on me so I replaced that. Now I have what seems to be the same problem. My thermal fuse has continuity and I replaced the thermostat that is right next to the thermal fuse at the base of the heating tube. I also replaced a thermostat at the top of the heater tube. I flushed out my exhaust pipe leading to the outside of my house and cleaned out the entire dryer. Still no real heat. I can hear a click shortly after i start the dryer and i see the flame ignite and it stays on for about 45 seconds then shuts off for about 45 seconds and that cycle repeated itself for about 6-7 minutes and then I shut the dryer off. Please help this sucks.

hardwareman

if it runs only 45 seconds you would have air blockage somewhere. Did you try it with out the vent hooked to it?

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Jonny3777

Yes I did. No blockage

Jonny3777

Also I tried it with no clothes and when I opened the door the air inside seemed pretty warm.

notmrjohn

You have a bad thermo-couple. Tube at burner that senses heat when burner is on a few seconds. If it feels no heat it shuts gas off, so as not to asphyxiate wet clothes, or spark ignites gas filled laundry room blowing your Victoria's Secret undies all over neighborhood

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Jonny3777

The burner turns on about 10-15 secs after I turn it on. I see the flame burn for about 45-50 seconds then the flame goes out for about 45-50 seconds. Then the flame comes back on and the same process continues. It seems to be drying on a low setting like an air dry when clothes are in it.

notmrjohn

I'm always forgetting things i read in the original question, this time I forgot what was in the title, "taking 2 hours" so obviously the burner is on part of the time. So it aint the thermocouple, but thermocouple sounds all technical and stuff and sounds like I know what I'm talking about, so I like to tell people to replace it. And thermocouple is about as far as my knowledge of gas dryers goes. Heres two sites that talk about coils on dryer gas valves and shorted radiant sensors that can cause intermitant burning. So even if those aren't your problems, at least I learned something.
http://www.appliance-repair-it.com/g...er-repair.html
http://www.the-appliance-clinic.com/...r-shorted.html
Now if someone could explain how a gas refigerator we once had works. Heat rises, top of a map is north, food in freezer gets hot, realizes its on top,thinks its at north pole... No that don't make sense. if food got hot it'd think it was in Egypt in a food pyramid and mummify itsel....oh I'll let you get back to your dryer. Lessee ... bandaged wrapped food sees Santa, then Moses...

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hardwareman

still think you have blockage, when you unhooked it from the vent does it blow out really hard? Since no model#, I'm assuming its a Whirlpool buit unit for Kenmore. If its blowing good out the back, the only other thing I can think of is the front or rear drum seal. Look inside the drum, around the front and the rear should be 2 felt seals that "seal" the dryer from sucking in outside air.

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................."I want a house that has gotten over all its troubles. I dont' want to spend the rest of life bringing up a young and inexperienced house"...........

notmrjohn

hardware, I think you're right about being a Whirlpool, jonny said he checked "thermal fuse at the base of the heating tube." One of those sites said only Whirlpool had that.
Would blockage cause burner to cut in and out? Is air flow to burner part of air flow to dryer tub? Like i said I know as much about gas dryer as gas refrigeration,(or how dishwasher works ) but isn't there a heat exchanger? Doesn't seem like exhausting gas thru clothes is such good idea.
When front seals went bad on my electric it told me so with gosh awful screech, plastic bearing surface wore out, felt was doing most drum holding,just a small piece torn off but warm air leaked out, not cold in. And lint out, built up lint had been substituting for torn piece for a while, looked just the same till I started feeling around. Nice thick layer of lint all inside front panel wall too. Wasn't blocking anything up there, maybe was an insulator keeping heat in, waiting to become an igniter letting lot more heat out.

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Jonny3777

Well I went back to my original idea after someone posted it on this thread. I replaced the two solenoid pieces and it is heating super hot again. Thank you all for the feedback.

notmrjohn

Solenoids? Would that be what that one site called "coils?" From description it sure sounded like a solenoid. What the other called a "radiant sensor" sounded like a thermocouple.
Thanks to various questioners and hardware's answers my class in Gas Dryer Technology is progressing nicely. If everyone would just agree on terminology I might pass the final. What some call a spade others call a neutered.
Is this them solenoids?

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Jonny3777

Yep those are the ones.