[donspicer1@hotmail.com]

The same fuse in the fusebox blows, usually once a week. the dryer continues to run, no heat, no timer function. i disassembled the machine completely, looking for anything obvious, found lots of garbage and dirt everywhere, but nothing obvious. looking at the schematic, points to the heater asembly as the likely problem. but why does it work for a few days and THEN fail? I guess i better buy a wizywg.

[abadfish66]

Are you talking a fuse, or circuit breaker?

[donspicer1@hotmail.com]

The system has a dedicated fuse box w a disconnect in the basement, same fuse (30 amp) blows. I never find anything wrong in the machine.

[abadfish66]

What I need to know is what is the fuse, is it a round screw in fuse, a buss type fuse, or a breaker that you can turn off and on?

[donspicer1@hotmail.com]

not a circuit breaker. it is a screw-in fuse.

[abadfish66]

ok. If you visually inspected the dryer and made sure the heating element coils are not touching, or close to touching any part of the dryer, indications point to the fuse panel. You can use simple ohms law to determin if the heater is ok. take a resistance reading of the heater and divide that by the voltage at the wall. This will tell you the amp draw the heater is pulling, it should be around 21-26 amps.

[donspicer1@hotmail.com]

do you see these heaters fail this way much?

[abadfish66]

No. When I run into these problems, it is always the house wiring or fuse/breaker box.

[donspicer1@hotmail.com]

what should I look for? loose connections, that sort of thing? the fuse box has quite an odor when it goes. there must be a loose connection on that leg somewhere, I guess. i put an amp clamp on it, 20 amps. maybe the in-rush is getting it. i wonder if there is a slo-blow screw-in fuse? it's been ok for years.

[abadfish66]

Look for burnt wiring, blackened wire, corrosion, anything out of the ordinary, even a loose wire will cause this. I'm not to sure about a slo-blow fuse for it, usually those are buss type fuses. I run into microwaves that do this quite a bit on circuit breakers where the magnetic draw on the wire will trip the breaker, not beacause there is too much of an amp draw, simply because the magnetic energy pulled on that leg of the breaker will trip it. But in your case inspect the connection at the panel.