[PHRoberts]

Our dryer is not turning off in the Auto cycle. The display doesn't show "Wet" at first. Then eventually it will show "Damp" and sort of freeze with about 11 or 12 minutes left on the countdown timer.

A week or two ago, my wife dried a particularly fuzzy blanket that overloaded the lint trap. I took the cover off that contains the lint trap and mositure sensor bars and vacuumed everything out. I'm 95% sure I put the two wires back on the correct elements when I reconnected the bars (if that even maters).

I just took it apart again to see if I left a connection loose, and checked the bars with a multimeter. They check open with nothing touching them, and somewhere around 200K ohms (numbers jump around quite a bit) with a moistened finger across them - so I think the bars are OK, but I really have no idea what the specification is.

I see some mention of a diagnostic mode on other sites but the pictures are really small, and when I try to zoom on them they blur to the point that they can't be read.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Heath

[denman]

See the attachment for a better quality tech sheet.

[PHRoberts]

Originally Posted by denman

See the attachment for a better quality tech sheet.

Thank you very much denman! The moisture sensor test beeps when I touch the moisture bars and flashes "CO" on the display. I also checked the MOVs using test 4 and everything checks open as it should.

Could hooking up the connections to the moisture sensor backwards cause an issue? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know for sure?

Heath

[denman]

I also believe that switching the wires should not make a difference.

You could try unplugging it at the control board.
This would simulate a dry clothes status.
Then if it does not advance odds are that the control board needs replacing.

[PHRoberts]

Originally Posted by denman

I also believe that switching the wires should not make a difference.

You could try unplugging it at the control board.
This would simulate a dry clothes status.
Then if it does not advance odds are that the control board needs replacing.

Will do.

I'm guessing the MOVs are in the circuit to keep static electricity from the rotating clothes from frying the board? I don't know much about them, but I remember MOVs being in a circuit for motor drive controllers on the old big dish satelite systems my dad installed back in the 1980s. They would go bad after a lightning strike, but everything would still work - then the next big storm would blow the top off of the chips in the now unprotected controller. He eventually started installing trailer hitch plugs in the wiring between the controller and arm so that the homeowner could unplug the wiring during a storm if they were home.

Thanks again for your help!

Heath

[PHRoberts]

Well... just for fun, I reversed the connections on the moisture sensor and it worked correctly. It took about 50 minutes for an automatic drying cycle in the "normal" setting that started out with a 40 minute estimate.

To test my theory I swapped the wires back, and on the next cycle it hung up at 7 minutes left on the countdown timer and ran for about 65 minutes before I stopped the dryer manually.

Swapped them back for the next load and it worked again.

So either I have an intermittent problem, or that cured it. If it works for a few months I'll feel better about it.

For anyone reading this in the future, the "correct" wiring at the sensor seems to be black wire on the bottom bar, yellow/red on the top.

Heath