Dryer taking longer to dry....suggestions...

[mldollins]

I have a maytag dryer and its easy to get to the coil. I pulled the coil housing out and can see the that there are no breaks in the coil. So the coil is fine.Could this possibly be a thermostat? I probably will order one tomorrow anyway and put it in.

Secondly, I am trying to figure out the wires that go to the housing. I know a wire goes to each end of the coil. Also, there are 2 wires that go to the thermostat. What are the other wires for that are side by side on some type of clay device...thanks....

[mldollins]

Okay...the other device is a thermal fuse...

Still, could this be a thermostat issue?

thanks

By the way, I have observed that for some reason over the years that if a dryer gets around 10 years old and parts are being replaced, for some reason they still take longer to dry....

[Our Little Farm]

Have you made sure that where the fluff catchment shield is, does not have fluff all the way deep down? . Tie a sock around a bent coat hanger and push it down and move it around as far as you can go. It's amazing how much escapes down there and it makes a huge difference to how much time the clothes take to dry.

I am sure you have probably already done this....

[Deacon Mike]

Put the clothes through one more spin cycle when they are in the washer. It's faster and cheaper than extra dryer time.

[blufford]

Make sure the gasket on the door hasn't slipped and slam the door tight.

[Big Dreamer]

Do you use dryer sheets? They will plug up the exhaust and the lint trap. We did use them and had the same or similar problem with our Kenmore. I had to take it apart and clean the lint out of the duct work and we also had a flex pipe exhaust duct to the outside. It was about 2/3 of the way plugged and I read that the ribs in those will make them loose about 25% of the efficiency when they are brand new and will catch the lint and it did. After cleaning out everything and replacing the flex pipe this smooth walled pipe it has worked great. Oh and I stopped using dryer sheets I guess the wax in them or what ever it is on them is what causes the lint to stick and things to plug up.

[Danaus29]

That is what I was going to suggest, clean lint trap and vent and check the exhaust pipe and outside opening. Lint still sticks even without the dryer sheets. Accumulation is going to happen.

[mldollins]

Here is what has happened... the vent is really short to the outside and clear. I just replaced it a year ago. However, we just bought a new washer that does oversized loads. My wife has been hanging clothes on the line this past summer. So it seems that the new washer might not be as efficient in getting the moisture out as the other one. It seemed to have taken place in the new washer transition.

Thanks for all the replies....

[tamsam]

Take the screen filter out and run a little water on it. If the water wants to stay on the screen wash it good with dish soap and shake dry. This will help even if there is another problem. We do this at least every other month. I can't remember where I learned this trick. Good luck with your drier plus if you are doing bigger loads it will take longer to dry. Sam

[UncleTom]

I had the same problem once. Thought there was something wrong with the dryer. It turned out to be the washing machine wasnt spinning fast enough to get a good spin on the clothes. What kind of washing machine do you have?

[tinknal]

Could it be the humid weather of late?

[Maura]

If you are putting extra large loads into an average dryer, there isn't enough space in the dryer to dry the clothes. Try putting an average size load into the dryer and see if it doesn't do just fine.

If the problem is the size of that extra large load, you might consider hanging things that will dry fast in order to get a smaller load into the dryer.

[TnAndy]

That's funny, because we bought a new washer also (I'd repaired the 20 year old one for the last time ) about a year ago, and are amazed how much faster it spins and how dry the clothes come out.

[meanwhile]

Did you clean it good already? I was stunned - absolutely stunned - to see how much lint and junk gets up under a clothes dryer and down that lint trap. What we do is to take a stick and wrap a wad of duct tape or regular masking tape back-wards around the stick - so the sticky side is OUT and then wiggle that all around under the lint trap hole. Also, we remove the vent in the back, stick the stick and tape up there too.

First, I should have said this first - we stick the vacuum wand as far up and down as we can, then we do the sticky-tape trick. There is always a bunch of lint and junk to haul out of there.

Try putting a dry towel in each load of wet clothes. We keep an old big towel on top of the dryer for that purpose. I think it really helps.

And yes, like someone above said - do an extra spin cycle on the washer and that helps too.

Buy one of those wooden drying racks. We have two and things like sheets, underwear, light weight clothes - you can dry those overnight on the drying racks. Later, when you turn on the heat for winter, the clothes on drying racks will dry even faster!

Good luck

[beaglebiz]

Originally Posted by Our Little Farm

the fluff catchment shield is

We call this a lint filter
for some reason this made me chuckle....
You have given good advice!

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by mldollins

I have a maytag dryer and its easy to get to the coil. I pulled the coil housing out and can see the that there are no breaks in the coil.....

Just because there are no breaks in the coil, doesn't mean it is working correctly. Using a volt-ohm meter measure the resistance across the coil. First remove the wires from the coil. Then, connect the two leads from the VOM to each end of the coil. If no resistance is measured, the coil is bad.

[Joshie]

Have you cleaned out all the lint? We found that ours stopped drying and that's what was wrong. It was linty underneath the dryer. There'd actually even been a small fire. Of course, it's important to clean out the venting too.

[DJ in WA]

I haven't had any trouble with clothes dryers for over ten years. Of course, that was about the time we sold it and did not replace.

Hang clothes on the line in the summer - put over furnace vents or put fan on them hung up in the winter, keeping the heat in the house.