No Heat- again

Dryer Repair
,
1

I was here about 3 years ago, and you guys helped me fix a no heat issue, and had all the parts I needed in the online store, so I figured I’d stop back in :slight_smile:

Well, basically the same problem as before, Dryer works, but I have no heat.

Diagnoses:

Thermal fuse OK
Hi-limit OK
Thermal cutoff OK
Ignitor OK

When pulling the dryer out, I noticed a small odor of gas. Upon playing with the flex line a bit, I noticed an audible leak where the flex line meets the metal fitting.

Cycling t-stat untested as of yet.

I will be replacing the flex line, and I need to take a look at the hi-limit and cutoff, I had the dryer running and tested them with the meter, accidentally shorting against the air duct, thus blowing the unit.

Anyways.. before I was testing things with the power on, blowing a cutoff/hi-limit like a noob, This is what I have: Start cycle and the motor runs normal. Ignitor glows bright orange for somewhere between 15-30 seconds, then turns off. Motor continues running. I did NOT test with the gas on, as a small leak was in the hose.

Any ideas where to run with this? I’ll be testing the cycling t-stat today, and after that I’m stuck.

There’s also a unit with 2 wires on the outside of the flame shield, that I’m thinking could possibly be an issue, but I’m unsure what this is, and how to test it.

Thank you all in advance!

2

Ok the new flex line is installed.

I have retested the thermal fuse, hi-limit, and thermal cutoff, all are functioning properly, with a closed circuit across all 3.

I’m going to start looking into the cycling t-stat now, I’ll keep checking the thread for replies. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: I was looking into the flame sensor, and it seemed more probable. Based on information I found here: http://www.wikihow.com/Test-a-Flame-Sensor I tested it, and it tested BAD. Ran over to the appliance parts store, and the guy tells me that it works fine, and they just run a continuity/reistance check on them, and that they rarely ever go bad.

He told me re-test the thermal fuse, and try to bypass it for testing. I reinstalled the flame sensor. Bypassed the thermal fuse with some wire, and I suddenly have flame. I took the bypass wire off, retest, and I still have flame.

For both tests, the ignitor turned on, glowed about 10 seconds, then I got a nice flame and instant heat.

The only thing that has been changed is the flex line that had a tiny leak. Am I looking at an intermittent problem here? Or did the leaking gas line cause this due to maybe a low pressure/safety reading?

I’m stumped.