I hope someone has some suggestions; thanks in advance!

Thanks to all the help on here, I learned to replace my faulty heating element. The original faulty element had a simple, clean break in the coil.

After replacing the heating element from my local S ears parts store (and testing the continuity on the following passing items), I fired up the dryer on LOW.

Within seconds, there was a loud POP and flash, and the circuit breaker tripped.

This time, the heating element failed catastrophically - instead of a simple, clean break, the coil was blown out of shape. Pieces of the coil littered the bottom of the dryer, and molten metal was left against the inside of the "box" (I think they mean "heat chimney").

So I'm afraid to try again; here are results of my tests:

-dryer thermal fuse (closed)
-dryer heat-limit thermostat (closed when cold)
-dryer cycling thermostat (closed when cold)
-temperature selector
--low (closed)
--mid (6000 K ohms)
--high (open)

Any ideas? I don't see any obvious shorts, other than the inside of the heat chimney, but I don't think it shorted until the coil blew up (unless the coil warped inappropriately when heated).

The coil blew out right where the thermostat connects to the coil, if that's any help.

I'm ready to call S ears ::shudder::

Thanks,
Dan