Dryer Overheating When Not Running

Dryer Repair
1

My dryer flipped the circuit breaker in the garage a few days ago. I flipped the circuit breaker back on and plugged the dryer back into the wall outlet. I pushed the start button on the dryer and this flipped the master breaker to the entire house. I checked the dryer and found that the two wires coming off of the heating element had fused together. I replaced these wires and found that the dryer was getting very hot when it was not even running. I have since replaced the heating element, cycling thermostat, thermal fuse, hi limit thermostat & thermal cut off. I had already ordered these parts before I purchased a multimeter. I tested all of the old parts for continuity and couldn’t find any issues. There are no venting issues as everything has been recently checked and cleaned.

The top & sides of the dryer still get very hot when it is plugged in and not turned on. I carefully monitored a load of clothes on the delicate & the high heat settings and the clothes dried fine. The outside of the dryer is not hot when the dryer is running. This only happens when you plug it in. Something is causing the heating element to heat up right after the unit is plugged in. Could something inside of the timer be bad?

2

The dryer uses 220 volts to make the element heat up. 110 volts comes to the element from the timer, and another 110 volts comes from the motor switch on the motor. You should only get 110 volts when motor is not running. So unless you missed a short in the wiring somewhere, it sounds like the switch on the motor is bad and is sending power to the element when not running. If that is the case, then you will need to replace the motor. It would require some live voltage testing to verify this, and I do not recommend you do any live voltage testing. Very dangerous. Instead, you can unplug the machine, and then unplug the wires from the motor switch, after you have marked them to make sure they go back to correct terminals, and then use the wiring diagram in the control panel to test for continuity based on the hot wire that supplies power when running to the element. You will need to throw the centrifugal switch for it to have continuity, like when it is running. Without the centrifugal switch thrown, it should NOT have continuity to the element. Hope that all makes sense and helps you out!
Ken’s Appliance Repair