You might think your dryer is completely ruined or in need of expensive repairs when you experience certain problems. However, the issue might not be so hard to fix, you might easily diagnose it yourself.
One thing that can be frustrating is when your dryer works perfectly, but then it doesn’t produce enough heat, or no heat at all. Nevertheless, there are a few aspects of your dryer that you should look to first once you start experiencing heating problems.
So if you’re wondering “why is my dryer running but not heating?” We have the answers for you on what might be the problem.
Reasons Why Your Dryer Isn’t Producing Heat
If your dryer is still spinning, it means the appliance hasn’t stopped receiving power. It also means that the motor that’s responsible for turning the drum is still functioning.
If you notice the issue is heat not being produced, hence your clothes aren’t being sufficiently dried, then you need to narrow down your investigation to the parts that are responsible for distributing, managing, and producing heat. The following are some of the parts you might need to look at further.
Thermal Fuse
If you notice your dryer is running but is not producing the necessary level of heat, the first part you should check is the thermal fuse. It’s usually installed in dryers for safety purposes. The thermal fuse usually trips if the temperature in your dryer gets too high. It does this to try and prevent a fire.
Once it does this, your dryer will still continue functioning perfectly, but the tripped fuses will prevent heat inside the dryer from increasing to dangerous levels. If you’re using newer models, then the dryer might completely shut down once the thermal fuse trips, in order to control the temperature.
The thermal fuse is usually only usable once. Therefore, if it’s the problem, you might need to replace it in order to have the dryer heat properly. It’s usually located near the exhaust vent. Knowing where it is will make it easier for you to locate it.
In some cases, you might be able to reset the fuse with some models, but most of the time you’d need to change it to have your dryer producing heat again. Before rushing to fix your fuse, investigate why it tripped in the first place, so that needs to be checked too. Otherwise, you’ll end up with several blown thermal fuses.
Exhaust Vent
You should check your exhaust vent if the thermal fuse was the issue with your dryer not heating up. The problem might be the metal hose used to attach your dryer to the vent. There might be a buildup of lint, which could be responsible for blocking the proper release of hot, wet air from the dryer.
That can lead to the dryer heating up. The thermal fuse might have blown because the hose was blocked up. It needs to be cleaned out if it was a contributing factor to the dryer not heating up.
You might need to seek the services of a professional with the proper tools to clear the vent if the clog has gone beyond the metal hose itself.
The Temperature and Thermostat
Other things you might want to consider include:
Heating Coils
Another cause for no heat being produced is a faulty heating coil. You can locate the heating coil by removing the back panel of the dryer. There are wires that are coiled together. Remove the lead to assess the terminals. You can use a multimeter to test it. If the reading is zero, you need to replace the coil.
Timer
If the timer is faulty, it won’t advance the cycle. For some models, the timer might help keep the heat running until it becomes too hot. For other models, there might be no heat being released at all. The dryer continues spinning while waiting for a signal to enable it to move to the next cycle, but that doesn’t happen.
Open the panel by removing the knob to find out whether the timer is damaged. Check for continuity after the leads are disconnected from the motor. If the reading on the multimeter is infinity, then the timer needs to be replaced.
