Kenmore Elite He4 Dryer NO POWER?

Dryer Repair
1

This might help someone one day..

Our Kenmore Elite He4 Dryer doesn’t like to start somedays..

#1 FAILURE:
YouTube - Kenmore Elite He4 Dryer DEFECTS and PROBLEMS

The first time it went nuts the timer button was sticking from moisture as seen in that video.. A Hair-Dryer was the cure until I cut the trace on the board… The button would stick ON and rotate the selector light CONSTANTLY.. It did dry the clothes but the timer beep would drive you NUTS..

#2 FAILURE:
This time the Hair-Dryer did the same trick but for another area.. The wife told me that it wouldn’t start at all this time.. no lights.. nothing.. I metered out all of the fuses and sensors and they were fine.. I then metered out the door-switch and found that it would not make connection UNTIL you did the Hair-Dryer trick on it..

The white “CHERRY” switch on the doors on the He4 fail constantly when any moisture enters.. the contacts get corrosion on them and fail.. metering it out they check good.. but in action it fails.. So TRY that Hair-Dryer trick FIRST..

Moisture is a little HARD to avoid since you are drying clothes.. I’m looking for a way to seal-off this switch in a better way once I get a new one..

The buttons on the control panel are TINY and almost impossible to replace.. these get moisture in them and just don’t work at all OR they stick ON and refuse to release.. I’m working on a better set of buttons to replace all of the units currently on my control-panel..

Will let you all know how this goes!

Rob :smiley:

2

On my He4 Dryer (almost identical to the He3 I’m guessing) that I posted about only a few hours ago:

PROBLEM:
99% of my problems were with (as I said) the buttons on the Control Panel either sticking ON or not making contact.. likely from dirty contact points inside each one…

This renders the unit power-less as the push-button selector wheel IS what turns the thing ON..

Ours appeared to have no power but that was determined false with a volt-meter.. It had power..

CURE: (unplug it first)
I removed the top cover (three or four screws in the rear) then slid it back a little and pulled it up and off…

I then removed the screws securing the side panel and control panel (it pulls UP out of a slot at each end)

I unplugged the door-switch and both ribbon cables from the control panel by pressing in the tiny clips that hold them on the main-board in the middle of each plug… (not in the control panel.. the board under the metal plate on the left)

I then took the black sheetmetal plate OFF the back of the control panel on the kitchen table exposing the back-side of the green PC board with all the buttons solder points visible..

The black-plastic area that the boards mount into pulls up and out once you find all of the little clips surrounding the area that release it from the white plastic frame…

Once you get that apart the other side shows you all of the tiny white-headed buttons in each hole.. the factory marks them with a red dot (marker) in-all there is one for each button on the face-dial of the machine.. and a few remotely mounted ones for the alarm etc.

CONTACT CLEANER:
Now first RULE with contact-cleaner is DONT GO NUTS as it can melt the plastic and/or remove the text printed on the face of your control unit… NO It won’t hurt the board or the plugs but with too-much used it will melt plastic.. anything you spray should be a slow accurate burst…

On mine with the buttons facing UP I used a DROP on each button until the red marker spots they made with a marker faded away.. and I mean a DROP.. I didn’t stand there spraying the stuff ON.. I got the tube full then wet each button completely and used a small screwdriver to push them up and down moving around the fluid I just sprayed in.. it dries FAST so work FAST..

I also cleaned out each connection on the ribbon-cable quickly with a quick burst on the main board and control-panel.. the larger one on mine had some signs of moisture but the cleaner removed it and any water that built up.. I seriously think that the coating they used on these connections actually prevents them from working..

The MAGIC FLUID: We used “CRC - Electra Clean” contact cleaner.. $13.00

http://www.amazon.com/CRC-02125-Contact-Cleaner-GROUND/dp/B0013J1U1A/ref=60510100057-20
Amazon has it and most Hardware Stores carry something similiar..

I kid you not.. the second I dropped it all in re-secured everything, plugged it in and hit the button it started.. I even did three more loads of laundry and it has yet to fail 4 hours later.. as to a week later I’ll let you know…

So my video on the Hair-Dryer trick was accurate.. It dried out the buttons temporarily and allowed it to start.. But wasn’t the perfect CURE.. “Contact Cleaner” was needed to clean them off internally without removing them from the board or replacing them completely…

Being a Field Service Technitian for the Foodservice Industry at least 15 years I should have thought of this earlier… :rolleyes:

EDIT: As to it being a problem with the door-switch? Mine wasn’t the problem that I stated earlier.. Because it’s so close to the buttons the Hair-Dryer hit them and of course they too dried out temporarily…

HOPING that this post makes it to anyone with an HE Kenmore Washer or Dryer with “bad buttons” as yes.. they use the same buttons on MANY Models…

Rob

3

To original poster MANY THANKS.

This fix worked on my HE4. I had it running in under 1hr. From googling the issue to taking it apart, doing the diags from the tech sheet, to hair dryer and reassembly.

I realize the hairdryer was a temporary fix, until I go pick up some contact cleaner. I will pick some up and keep it handy if/when the problem occurs again in the future.

The wife was VERY happy, seeing as today is laundry day. I was not looking forward to buying a new $299 control panel, let alone having to wait for it to arrive.

MUCH MUCH THANKS

4

Well after many a repair (at least 7 times) mine is finally DEAD.. I’m not impressed with this machine at all.. many headaches that all had to do with the buttons not working.. wires with bad connections.. all ending up at the control panel.. Now my control panel is JUNK.. it’s buttons are bad.. in fact they are so small on the board I’m amazed they every worked in the first place.. the machine is fine.. the panel refuses to start the motor.. If you ask me? Waaay over-designed and too much computer junk inside to do a simple job.. start a motor and turn on the heat..

I might have a cure for that…

I work on Electric Chicken Rotisseries all day that use crank-timers that turn on the heat and determine how long they cook for.. I just might trace-out the wiring to do the same thing on my Dryer once it’s in the Garage and out of the cellar.. maybe as a backup.. Crank the thing to say 45 minutes and it will activate the motor and the heater.. when the time is up.. it’s done! :smiley:

PS: The original Video I posted of my washer is lost.. sorry

Rob

5

Thanks and sorry to hear about your board.

Isn’t this your video…?

YouTube - Kenmore Elite He4 Dryer DEFECTS and PROBLEMS

6

:smiley:
I have had my dryer since 2005, no probs until last night. Blinking lights etc, you know that drill. Then dead. Only inside light worked. Followed your instructions and it works! Thank you very much. I called Sears repair back and told them to go to @#$%.
G

[quote=BerkelUSA;97214]On my He4 Dryer (almost identical to the He3 I’m guessing) that I posted about only a few hours ago:

PROBLEM:
99% of my problems were with (as I said) the buttons on the Control Panel either sticking ON or not making contact.. likely from dirty contact points inside each one…

This renders the unit power-less as the push-button selector wheel IS what turns the thing ON..

Ours appeared to have no power but that was determined false with a volt-meter.. It had power..

CURE: (unplug it first)
I removed the top cover (three or four screws in the rear) then slid it back a little and pulled it up and off…

I then removed the screws securing the side panel and control panel (it pulls UP out of a slot at each end)

I unplugged the door-switch and both ribbon cables from the control panel by pressing in the tiny clips that hold them on the main-board in the middle of each plug… (not in the control panel.. the board under the metal plate on the left)

I then took the black sheetmetal plate OFF the back of the control panel on the kitchen table exposing the back-side of the green PC board with all the buttons solder points visible..

The black-plastic area that the boards mount into pulls up and out once you find all of the little clips surrounding the area that release it from the white plastic frame…

Once you get that apart the other side shows you all of the tiny white-headed buttons in each hole.. the factory marks them with a red dot (marker) in-all there is one for each button on the face-dial of the machine.. and a few remotely mounted ones for the alarm etc.

CONTACT CLEANER:
Now first RULE with contact-cleaner is DONT GO NUTS as it can melt the plastic and/or remove the text printed on the face of your control unit… NO It won’t hurt the board or the plugs but with too-much used it will melt plastic.. anything you spray should be a slow accurate burst…

On mine with the buttons facing UP I used a DROP on each button until the red marker spots they made with a marker faded away.. and I mean a DROP.. I didn’t stand there spraying the stuff ON.. I got the tube full then wet each button completely and used a small screwdriver to push them up and down moving around the fluid I just sprayed in.. it dries FAST so work FAST..

I also cleaned out each connection on the ribbon-cable quickly with a quick burst on the main board and control-panel.. the larger one on mine had some signs of moisture but the cleaner removed it and any water that built up.. I seriously think that the coating they used on these connections actually prevents them from working..

The MAGIC FLUID: We used “CRC - Electra Clean” contact cleaner.. $13.00

http://www.amazon.com/CRC-02125-Contact-Cleaner-GROUND/dp/B0013J1U1A/ref=60510100057-20
Amazon has it and most Hardware Stores carry something similiar..

I kid you not.. the second I dropped it all in re-secured everything, plugged it in and hit the button it started.. I even did three more loads of laundry and it has yet to fail 4 hours later.. as to a week later I’ll let you know…

So my video on the Hair-Dryer trick was accurate.. It dried out the buttons temporarily and allowed it to start.. But wasn’t the perfect CURE.. “Contact Cleaner” was needed to clean them off internally without removing them from the board or replacing them completely…

Being a Field Service Technitian for the Foodservice Industry at least 15 years I should have thought of this earlier… :rolleyes:

EDIT: As to it being a problem with the door-switch? Mine wasn’t the problem that I stated earlier.. Because it’s so close to the buttons the Hair-Dryer hit them and of course they too dried out temporarily…

HOPING that this post makes it to anyone with an HE Kenmore Washer or Dryer with “bad buttons” as yes.. they use the same buttons on MANY Models…

Rob[/quote]

7

Left wet rag on top of dryer, and locked light went on but nothing else worked. I took back off, per discussion by BerkelUSA, to get at the control panel. Tried the hair dryer, but still did not work. Buzzed out the boards on front to check for a short. LEDs worked, switches worked, resistors okay.

Next day purchased contact cleaner at hardware store and sprayed it on the connectors between boards. Wiped off excess. Used compressed air to dry, then hair dryer, then let air dry for an hour. Put everything back together, a little tricky. Has been working ever since.

Thanks for all the great information. Saved $500 in parts and labor.

8

The blow dryer worked only briefly for us. Our dryer is stuck on the heavy duty dry cycle. My wife found that if she ran her finger in a circle around the cycle controls it would free up the button so that we could select a different cycle. Temporary fix, but maybe this will help some others out there.:wink:

9

TUE 11/20/2012
After more than a year the same symptom reappeared. I totally replaced the main display panel with a brand new one.
After ONE MONTH the new panel has failed!!!
I GIVE UP - I just bought an old mechanical Kenmore dryer for $75 to replace it.

Mon 6/11/2012
9 months - working perfectly and the wife is happy!

Sun 12/11/2011
It is now 3 months without a failure. Wife is really pleased! I’m convinced the ‘partial assembly’ fix is good. DO NOT SCREW DOWN THE CIRCUIT BOARD - IT CAUSES MECHANICAL FATIGUE THAT MAKES IT VULNERABLE TO HEAT!

Mon 10/3/11 5PM
It has now been 23 days and the dryer continues to work - previously, the ‘hair-dryer fix’ only lasted a day or less. My solution was as described below, ‘wiggle P3’ and partially reassemble. I suspect that the ‘partial reassembly’ had more impact than the connector ‘wiggle’. When I say ‘partial reassembly’ I mean that I did not attach the front panel to the dryer - it is just resting on the frame without any screws. My theory is that screwing down the front panel tightly causes mechanical strain on the circuit boards. This mechanical strain is causing cracks in the solder joints to open, causing an open circuit. I will continue to monitor.

Sat 9/10/11 5PM:
I have been monitoring this thread since our dryer has started exhibiting these symptoms several weeks ago. The solution offered (hair dryer) does work, temporarily. I suspect though that the failure mode is something other than bad button contacts and/or moisture…
The past week our dryer has been dead - wife is getting quite peeved going to laundromat &^) During this time I have been experimenting… We have not had any wet/moist items in the dryer for the duration, yet the symptoms persist. I can “blow-dry” the touchpad control board and restore operation. In a short while the same “dead” symptom appears. Today I just “wiggled” the P3 connector on the touchpad board, partially reassembled, and IT WORKED! NO BLOW DRYING. I am right now running the dryer, waiting for another failure, at which point I will try the same test and advise.

10

I took the dryer apart like you suggested but I did not have the CRC so I merely blew out the front control board with dry air. Put everything back together again and Wallah! it works like advertised.
Many thanks for your knowledge and willingness to share.
Tom:)

11

I am not getting any lights on the selection panel!

12

The front panel of my Kenmore HE4 Elite Dryer was completely dead. Light inside dryer was working so I knew power was ok. Took off the top panel by removing the three screws in the rear. Lifted up the side machine electronics panels by removing three screws, and unplugged two ribbon cable connectors. I also unplugged the connector to the door switch. I ohmed out the switch with a meter and it was ok. I then removed the front control panel by removing screws on top and then screws holding panel to frame. I carefully pulled back on the seven tabs holding the circuit board assembly to the plastic front panel. I sprayed CRC contact spray on all of the buttons and ribbon cable connections. Reassembled everything and it works fine. I am thinking contact cleaner is a better solution than a hair dryer, but whatever works.

Also took the time to cleanout and replace the dryer vent ductwork, it was pretty caked with lint and had holes in it.

I appreciate the post, saved me a bunch of money. :slight_smile:

13

I had the problem where there would be two dimly light bars on the LCD display and nothing would happen when you hit any of the buttons. I could hit it with a hair dryer and it would start to work again temporarily. Eventually it stopped working all together. I pulled the board and tested all the switches thinking there may be moister causing them to fail. Switches all tested fine. I also tested the regular diodes and they tested fine. Then I started testing the LEDs and found one that showed conductivity where all the others showed none. This was with the board removed and no power applied. I pulled the LED and everything had been working.

14

My wife called me at work to let me know the dryer had crapped out. I asked for the symptoms and they were very erratic, but all pointed toward a bad board. I immediately assumed that the 11 year old dryer was going to need replaced. Did some searching online found the youtube vid that lead me here. I had CRC electrical parts cleaner, but no contact cleaner. A little more searching…Lowes carries it, picked some up on the way home and cleaned all the buttons as described above and viola, the dryer works like a champ. Thank you for saving me a ton of $$$!

15

Hello all.
I thought I would spend some time to post this because I have received help from others and their tips. The hair dryer method worked for me too with surprise. So I needed to find out why. In my case, when I used the hair dryer at the front control panel, the dryer would start. But then, after a few minutes, it would not start again. I found out that the LEDs are causing this issue. The diodes were failing. They are basically diodes. But they were internally shorting out. I just shorted the terminals of the LEDs and saw that the intermittent failures became more certain. So, I decided to clip off the faulty LED and the dryer has been working greater ever since. My assumption is that the heat from the hair dryer temporarily increases the internal resistance of the LEDs. Once the LED that is failing cools, the problem occurs again. This would physically make sense. I saw another post about the small switches failing and moisture on the back of the circuit board, but I don’t think so. Moisture is not the issue. The switches are not the issue. If you go through and short out one LED at a time, you will be able to replicate the numeric display showing a “11” or another number. Try it. Then once you know which LED is causing the problem, just wiggle it enough so that the leads break off. You won’t have the indication by the LED light anymore, but it sure beats paying $350 for the part. Or about $500 for sears to fix it. Haha.

16

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17

A couple years ago my dryer panel was completely dead - no lights, no response from any buttons. I broke out the hair dryer, and it worked perfectly until this weekend, when the same thing happened. The hair dryer seemed to work at first but then it started having other intermittent problems and even when it did work I got the cycling/beeping of the signal volume as seen in the video.

I was ready to give up and buy a new (non-Kenmore!) dryer but then I saw the video and thought I’d give it one more shot. I took the boards out but didn’t have any contact cleaner so I sprayed everything down (buttons and connectors) with WD-40. However, I think the real problem this time was that one of the ribbon connectors wasn’t making a good connection - it was the smaller connector, on the board that runs down the left side of the dryer. Using the diag mode I could see that when I put backwards pressure on the connector, all of the LEDs would light up properly, otherwise they were intermittent. So, I made some shims out of the end of a wire tie, and just kind of jammed them between the connector and the socket so the connector made better contact with the pins. It seems fine now - I can wiggle the cable to my heart’s content and all the lights stay on solid and all of the buttons work. Hopefully it holds up; if it fails again I’ll probably cut off the connectors and just solder them directly to the board.