Oddly enough, two weeks after my GE Profile washer broke (which turned to be an easy home fix), now my dryer is broke.
This is a about 2.5 years old GE Profile dryer that uses natural gas for heating. This is a relatively high priced piece and I would hazard to guess that it has electronic ignition.
The symptom is that it tumbles, but stays cold. There is NO heat whatsoever produced.
I am open to any suggestions. Thanks
step 1 - check for fire - if there is none, check themal switches step 2 - order the manual for $30 from one of the usual places and troubleshoot in the usual manner - it's not too hard.
ignition is usually a heated ceramic element that incadesces - you should hear the valve click and the element light -
I've had several gas dryer failures of this type over the years...
Most gas dryers tend to have glow start ignition, not electronic spark ignition...
Typically, it has been the coil of the gas valve that died. You can tell by pulling the kick panel and watching the action while it tries to start. Once the drum is spinning, you will usually see a glow from the heater (starter), and once it glows a bright orange, the unit will sense the temperature of the glow bar and you should hear a click as the gas valve opens. Once the gas ignites, it senses the higher temperature and keeps the gas valve open. (An alternate control system just turns on the glow bar for a preset number of seconds and opens the gas valve. If it then senses heat from the flame, the valve stays open, if not, it closes the valve. This is known as single stage detection.) If you hear a light click but you don't get ignition, then you have a dual valve system and one coil is bad. Either way, if you see the bright orange of the glow bar and no click/gas flow as your symptom, you likely need a new coil or valve assembly.
If, on the other hand, you do have an electronic spark ignition, when you start the dryer, after a few seconds you will hear a pop-pop-pop of the spark ignitor, then you should also hear the click from the main gas valve opening. If the gas valve coil is bad, you won't get any gas out, and the pop-pop will continue for some number of seconds before the control circuitry gives up. If, on the other hand, you have electronic spark ignition, and you don't hear the pop-pop sound, and the gas valve opens, you will have gas flow for a few seconds, but because a thermocouple doesn't sense heat, it will shut down the gas flow right away. If this is the case, you will have a slight smell of gas for a few seconds until it dissipates. Because dryers are not typically directly monitored during operation (like a cooktop, for example), Dryers don't typically use this sort of ignition. I had someone tell me there is one out there, but have never seen one myself. All of the gas dryers in my experience have had the glow bar type ignition.
A reasonably brief online search should turn up the resultant part and you're on your way to a repair. Installing the valve coil isn't a big deal, and is fairly obvious. With some systems, you can just remove a screw, slide off the old coil and slide the new one on without disturbing the actual gas connections at all. If your model requires replacement of the gas valve assembly, make sure you test the connections with soapy water before you actually apply power to the dryer after the repair.
Disclaimer: "This information is offered based on my personal experience and is for educational purposes only. I am not a trained appliance repairman nor do I play one on TV. Your experience may vary. Appliances contain sharp edges that can cut or otherwise cause injury. You shouldn't work on anything using electrical power, gas or any other dangerous material or fuel without training or a competently trained and licensed repairman present."
Does it "try" to light?
IOW: do you see an ignitor glow hot and the gas valve open for a bit?
If you dryer has EVERYTHING be figured out by the "circuit board," then the odds are that the circuit board is at fault.
Dryers may well NOT have an "electronic" ignition. The design them so that there are minimum differences between the wiring of the electric model and the gas model. That means that the "gas assembly" goes on when power (usually 120 volts) is applied and it "monitors" within itself whether the flame is present, etc. So if you are handy and can find the wiring diagram (usually behind the control panel) you can see whether the "gas module" is being turned on or not. If it is then the next stop is to check the resistance of the windings that control the gas valves. Believe it or not gas stuff is often much less expensive than "electronic" stuff but you have to price it to be sure.
Like it or not, you might end up being stuck for 2 service calls: one to diagnose and the other to install the broken part.
Expensive electronics makes those "extended coverage" plans cost effective. You have to pay a lot for stuff that can fail for no particular reason.
Just as an example, we got last year a new Kenmore electric dryer. It failed "out of the box" and it took a total of 4 visits to fix it. Without coverage, it would not have been worth fixing. If it fails again and it's nothing obvious, I will replace it. Even the silly little "electronic" module that helps sense whether the clothes are dry cost over $100.
You know its probably made in china. only a commercial unit is equal to home owner stuff of years ago now. What a shame we had a commercial unit for 30 yrs? Now you dont know what you get, it all seams to be made to last 1 yr 1 mo
(...)
Mouse over the illustration for troubleshooting tips:
--Winston
Did you try all cycles? Try it on the "timed" cycle. If the heat comes on, you probably have a bad timer, which is an easy fix.
My Kenmore just did the same thing. After a bit of troubleshooting guided by this site:
I think Rick is on the money with this one. I had a similar problem with my dryer and found the part at
Roger Paskell
And those ceramic elements can and do go bad . See if you can get covers off enough to watch when it starts - there should be quite a bit of light coming from that ignitor . Or just pull the damn thing and check it with an ohmmeter - it should show high resistance - if it shows infinite it's bad (just replaced the one in my 9 yr old furnace) .
Sounds like no fire. Fire needs fuel, oxygen, and heat to burn. Find out what's missing and fix it!
Just a little update. I opened up the case. The ignitor is fine.
And yes, I did pay my gas bill on time, or else it would be rather cold in here. :)
Barring some unlikely discovery, I will order a manual tomorrow.
i
Look online for a manual. Also my library has a generic repair manual that have worked well for electric driers. And I second JR's comment. Karl
Just because it "looks" fine doesn't mean it's OK. I've encountered many ignitors that looked OK. A closer inspection usually reveals a minute spot that keeps the ignitor from working.
Need to check the current draw of the ignitor, while it's trying to start up. I had that problem with an electric oven, one time. Ignitor glowed, but the current draw wasn't correct, so the gas valve didn't open.
The one gas drier I fixed, the problem was the solenoid for the gas valve, the ignitor was fine.
I believe that I may have found the problem. It was a poor contact on the connector that connected the igniter to its power supply. So it was finicky and sometimes worked and sometimes did not, depending on how it was disturbed.
I pushed the connector a little bit tighter, and as of now the machine is fully reassembled, works and I could not find any way to make it not work. I tried powering it on and off, opening and closing doors, changing cycles in various sequences, but it still ignotes and runs appropriately hot.
I have good hopes that this is it, but I am not yet 100% convinced due to intermittent nature of the problems.
i
Iggy, if it still acts up, replace the darned hot surface ignitor and be done with it. They are too cheap to fight with.
A LOT of the time, the Silicon Nitride ceramic that the igniter heater is made of gets a fracture in it - it has a spiral cut up the side after molding to make that ceramic into a big spring element, and it only needs a fracture at one spot.
It looks like it's all in one piece and nothing rattles or moves, and it appears to work fine - but the current is reduced because the
120VAC is arcing across the crack and wasting energy jumping the gap instead of heating the full length of the element evenly.If you want to take it out and stick it under a microscope, prove it to yourself. I'm sure you can find a microscope...
It will glow, it may light, but it's going to be variable because it isn't getting quite hot enough. And as the crack gets worse, or the element connection tabs shift in it's holder clips, it will get worse and better.
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Everything I have seen so far is that it glows very well when it glows. Its entire body glows bright orange.
If you want it not to work, try pouring buckets of salt water into the mechanism.
On the other hand, you may wish to quit here.
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