electric dryer not drying so fast

[Red Green]

"J" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Go here:

on Lookup Model # It will show you where the plate is. Go back and put it in the model box.

That will probably get you the owners manual. Maybe a parts diagram. The actual schematic tech diagram I may be able to get with a full model number.

[Floyd L. Davidson]

A dryer basically does only two things, and one of them is actually optional.

It moves a lot of air, and it optionally heats the air.

You can of course determine fairly easily if the heating element is working or not, by setting it for maximum heat and running the dryer with a medium sized load (of already dry clothes) for half an hour or so. The clothes should get very warm. On my dryer the buttons on a shirt, or metal zippers on pants, are too hot to hold onto when the clothes are removed from the dryer.

If yours are not warm at all, or just barely warm, look at the heating element circuit.

Otherwise, it is simply a matter of moving *lots* of air. You've said nothing specific about cleaning out the "lint trap"; so while you probably have... I'll mention it just to make sure. It should be cleaned out

*every* time a new load is put into the dryer.

In another following article you mention that there does appear to be air flow. That's one you need to evaluate again. There should pretty much be a *blast* of air coming out of it. A half clogged up vent will still have a lot of air, but it will take twice as long to dry the clothes too, so it is relatively difficult to judge what is enough air flow. One way you can do it is to clean the lint trap and then run a load of clothes with the outside air ducting removed, letting it vent inside. If it works well that way, but not when the ducting is connected... clean out the ducting.

[John Grabowski]

This is the dryer vent cleaner that I bought:

I run the dryer with no heat and shove the rotating wand into the duct from outside. I push it in a little and then pull it out then push it in further (Hmm, reminds me of another activity). As I do this the air from the dryer blows the lint out. After I do that I remove the flex duct from the back of the dryer and push the wand through that a few times. I use the lint brush to grab the lint inside the dryer through the vent hole. I also use the lint brush to clean out the lint trap cavity.

After I do all this the drying time is considerably shorter.

[J]

Just to be clear, I do remove the lint from the lint trap after every load. I like your idea of just running the dryer without the hose connected -- just letting it run inside the house for testing purposes. I'll give that a shot.