Thread: Front load dryer struggles

Boy Mike, your one handy guy to have around! Any idea what would cause a electric stove's temperature to be off? Seems to be off by 50 to 100 degrees depending on how high it's set.

I'm in NY and the local PC Richards used to sell 10 year warranty. And I bought it every time. Nothing ever lasted 10 years here. One dishwasher only made it to 18 months. Everything is engineered with one weak link to guarantee replacement.

If the temp gets more wrong as the heat goes up it’s related to your Thermoprobe/thermocouple most likely.
Depending on brand it’s usually along the back wall or under the splash pan.
Can sometimes scour them with emery cloth to get them working but that’s more for reading low.
Also sometimes just plugging and unplugging them cleans their contacts. They work off changing resistance and there is resistance at the connector as well. So sometimes just getting them jostled, or tightened works.

Originally Posted by tintin

Boy Mike, your one handy guy to have around! Any idea what would cause a electric stove's temperature to be off? Seems to be off by 50 to 100 degrees depending on how high it's set.

Is it off hot or cold? Where and how are you measuring it? You should be able to calibrate it if it was less but 50 to 100 is a lot.

Originally Posted by 32t

Is it off hot or cold? Where and how are you measuring it? You should be able to calibrate it if it was less but 50 to 100 is a lot.

It is colder than it reads on the display. i measured it with a regular oven thermometer toward the front of the stove as well as my IR thermometer shined on the back of the stove. Maybe it isn't as much as 100 off but it doesn't seem to be a consistant amount from low to high.

There's a probe type thing sticking out of the upper left back corner. Is that the thermoprobe?

Sounds like your in the right place on cleaning the probe. Some people dont ever clean the probe. Too much buildup and its just not going to read right.

I just got done fixing my samsung gas oven last Thursday. It would not light up on the bottom but the top would light. The igniter is electronic and wouldnt heat up enough to light the gas so the safety valve wouldnt allow the gas valve to open.

300 bucks to have a service guy come out, 170 bucks for factory igniter, or do it myself buying an igniter on ebay for 33 bucks.
It took me 15 minutes to fix.

Our dryer is starting to squeak so Im tempted to just by new rollers and cross my fingers that is it.

Nice fix Jerry. And yes that’s the thermoprobe sounds like.
Maybe clean it off, see how it’s connected and where. If it’s bendable possibly move its position slightly to force a different result?

Cleaning the probe sounds like a good idea so start. The measurements should be taken in the middle of the oven where you do your cooking. There can be a big differences from the upper left to the front by the door. There is also a difference as the oven cycles during use.

I deal more with refrigeration and that is why unless it is a very expensive model they use numbers for settings. They can't put a temperature on the dial because they vary so much.

6 times apart,,, yup sounds about right to get to the root at home.
Hehe.
And each time you can do it with less screws holding the thing together too,, so efficient,,,,

The bearings in our washing machine failed a while back: sounding like a jet taking off in the spin cycle. It seemed like a simple fix, so I got a bearing and seal kit and got to work. But because I went with a cheaper kit instead of OEM, it didn't include a tool needed to properly seat the front seal, and found out the hard way that wasn't the greatest move. To top it off, the cheap kit came with (surprise!) cheap bearings. Anyway, I got it all together as well as I could, ran a test cycle, and filled the basement with white smoke. Not good. Also, because things weren't seated properly, I could either cinch everything down tight (which kept it from spinning properly) or loosen the bolt on the drive pulley which let it spin but made the belt fall off. I must have sounded a bit like the Dad in Christmas Story when he was fighting with his furnace...

Figured out that the front seal hadn't seated properly, so the tub was smooshed in tight to it, leading to the smoke and the rapid death of seal #1. This in turn led to moisture getting to the bearings which as I said before seemed kind of crap to begin with.

So, ordered a proper OEM seal kit and some bearings from a good bearing supply place. Got them installed yesterday and I *think* it's working properly now.

I think I must have had that damn machine apart a half dozen times in the past couple of weeks. And at least I now have the balls and races from four bearings instead of two to turn into a knife one of these days. But I have to say I think appliance repair is edging pretty close to plumbing on my list of things I really don't enjoy doing. Super satisfying to keep a machine working, but man oh man do I ever hate the process. Being 6'1" and working in in unfinished basement with beams at about 5'10" probably doesn't help much.

Good job getting your dryer up and running again. My washer's bearings were really rough, but yours looks like it blowed up real good!