I have a Kenmore electric dryer. It was starting to take a long time to dry a load of clothes. After searching Google groups for answers, I spent a torturous afternoon cleaning the 4 inch vent (from middle of the house with two 90 degree turns). I never did get the flexible vent brush all the way through but I do believe I finally crushed all the lint together from each side. Then when I jammed rags around an electric leaf blower nozzle and blew out the clogs they left an ejecta trail 20 feet into the yard. At this point the exhaust vent honestly seems pretty clear. When I go outside the airflow feels practically as strong as it does straight out of the dryer.
It is working a whole lot better but still doesn't work as well as it used to. It seems to get hot enough. But the timer advances before the clothes are dry. If not for this I think you could put a full load into it and come back to find dry clothes.
Thankfully, Sears has exploded drawings available:
When I look at the exploded drawing, item 34 (very top of the drawing, center of the page) is called 'electrode sensor'. Does anyone know if this is a moisture sensor and, if so, do you think it could be worn out? Dirty? Time to cough up the cash for a service call?
I do know that the timer did not used to advance this way. It might have run a long time if you were drying something big and heavy but when it stopped the load would be dry.
If I'm on the wrong track here, thanks in advance for any ideas that might help me get this machine working well again.
Tom