I have a Maytag MDE2400AYW electric dryer. I’ve owned the dryer for about 4 and half years and the dryer was manufactured in 2005. The dryer has been used daily during this time and for the most part has operated well. However, within the past few months the drying/heat has been erratic and more recently within the past two weeks there has been no heat at all.

Here’s what I’ve done so far. I checked the 220 volt line coming in and that was good. Then I started to disassemble the dryer to clean it. Since I have a dog and dry clothes daily there was a good build up of lint and dog hair. The only place I did not clean was the inlet for the vent (I guess this would be the blower area/intake). I put it back together and turned the dryer on and there was no change. The dryer spins freely, but I did not get a temperature higher than 27 degrees Celsius (the dryer has a function for which I can check the temperature as it spins).

My next attempt at repairing the dryer included removing the heating element, two thermal fuses and thermistor. The heating element and thermal fuses checked out ok with the multi-meter. I then brought the heating element, thermal fuses and thermistor to the local appliance repair place and they confirmed the heating element and thermal fuses were ok. However, they could not check the thermistor for me.

So, I wiped down all the removed parts and cleaned the contacts and put them back into the dryer. I turned the dryer on the normal cycle with high heat with no load in the dryer. The temperature slowly heated up to about 39 degrees Celsius in about 5 minutes, but then dropped again to 25-26 degrees Celsius and stayed at that level. I then put some damp clothes in the dryer and same result. My manual says the dryer should heat up to about 60 degrees Celsius.

Just a few other notes as they add to the puzzle. Over the course of use I’ve had two dryer fires. They were not big and were promptly put out with a small amount of water. The dryer was allowed to air dry each time. The dryer has worked fine after each one of these events.

As I mentioned before I did not take off the front end of the dryer as I was having issues accessing a screw or two. However, the discharge end of the dryer appears to have plenty of air flow.

When I removed the heating element I inspected it. I can see that there are three wires going into the housing. These three wires, I believe, should sit in the honeycomb holes used to thread the coils up and down. However, my three did not sit well in these holes. Also, at the end where the three wires come in I noticed that the coil (which looks like a spring) was not attached to anything, it kind of just sat there. Now I don’t know if it should just be resting there or if it should be attached to anything. What I do know is that at this coil end there is some discoloration on the honeycomb.

So basically after trying to repair this, the best my dryer did was get up to 39 degrees Celsius and then drops and stays at 25-26 degrees. I’ve tried using other drying modes and they do not work any better either. I do not know where to go from here. Are there more parts I can check and if so where would they be located. Also, if anyone can direct me to a repair manual or drawings or something that would be a great help. I know the dryer comes with a small manual built into the machine, but I lost it. Please help.

I'm having the same problem, but have a question. I'm trying to locate the fuse to test it, and can't find anything in the service manual labeled "fuse". The two fuse/battery-like objects connected to the heater from the inside back are both labeled "thermostat" on the service manual, while the only other candidates -- the black plastic box labeled "heater" on the PCB, and the white plastic box at the tail end of the cords that come down from the heater, just above the opening at the bottom back, don't really appear to be fuses either.

I'm assuming that one of the two things that look like fuses (the two round disks with prongs) is the fuse, and the other the thermostat, but why would both be labeled thermostat? I've checked those with a multimeter and found no resistance on either. I can't figure out how to check the resistance on the element itself.

Any help is much appreciated!