Notice the laundry isn’t drying right and I’m trying to figure out why.
If the dryer sits for awhile it will heat up for a few minutes and then stop. Everything is turning and sounding like it’s working, but it just won’t stay hot for long. I read a little here about problem solving and disconeted the vent to see if it ran fine, but it does not. I usually clean the vent hose every 3-5 months and sometimes this dryer actually vents back into the basement since the hose is attached to a dryer re-direct vent to heat our basement.
What’s my next step?
Your gas dryer is probably only igniting the burner at the very beginning of the cycle, so when it first starts you will find heat inside the drum, but if you check it 10 minutes later, it will be cool again. The gas valve has two coils that begin to fail with age resulting in them only working a couple times at the start of a cycle, then they won’t work again until they have a chance to cool down. Check to see that the igniter is glowing but not igniting the gas (there is a small square plug that you can remove from the lower left front panel and peek inside). If this is the case, then a couple new coils ([COLOR=#800080]Coil kit (gas valve) - 2 coils[/COLOR]) should help.
That seems to be what is happening. Are those just drop in parts? How do I get into the dryer to replace those parts?
The parts are easy to replace. The top can be removed by grabbing each rear corner, pulling it toward the front then lifting it up. The front panel is held in place by a couple screws on the inside, then lift it off the lower clips. The coils are part of the burner and you just need a screwdriver to change them. They only go on one way so it’s not to bad.