I have a Kenmore 110.76912692 gas clothes dryer. The 186ºF non-resettable thermal fuse opened which caused the burner to cut out. There was a considerable amount of lint built up so I cleaned it all out. I'm about to replace the fuse but I also had some other questions regarding the operation of the thermostat.
When I disassembled the dryer, there was a nice schematic (more of a block diagram) hiding under the control panel. According to the diagram, the series of devices in line with the heating circuit is as follows:
186ºF thermal fuse. Operating thermostat, 150ºF or 155ºF. High limit thermostat 205ºF.Then from there, it goes to the gas burner assembly.
If the thermal fuse is set at 186º what's the point of having a high limit switch at 205º?
The operating thermostat is a 4 terminal device which sits right next to the thermal fuse. Two of the terminals make up a single pole switch. The other two terminals have a resistance of 7k ohms and from what I can figure out at the company's website (see link below) that makes this device, it uses some sort of biasing to alter the cutoff point. Is this correct?