Thermal fuses in appliances

Have a look for a small (normally red) button high up at the back. That's where it was on mine.

They mostly look like a small cylindrical component, metal case with one lead connected to it, and opposite end is plastic insulator, beveled, with the opposide lead going into it. The metal case is live, so they're sometimes in a PTFE sleeve, but I doubt they would be in a tumble drier where the are live elements anyway and quick response is required.

When you find it, try reading the temperature value off it before doing anything which might rub the markins off.

The connection is usually crimped or reveted or spot welded, as soldering them is likely to trip them!

Websites like:

bottom of:

NT

If yours is one like those at the very bottom, look carefully at the black body between the two metal tags and see if there is a hole. If there is, pushing something thin in (I've used the back end of a needle) will usually reset it.

SteveW

The washer/condensing drier we had had the above as last ditch protection if the self reseting sort bolted to the heating element housing failed closed or just the interior of the machine got to hot. Ours tripped FSVO "just in time" as the caked on acummulated fluff around the heating elements was just starting to char...

Yep...

They are supposed to be self resetting, but they often fail open circuit.

I would expect that type in a tumble dryer rather than the wire-ended ones mentioned earlier.

There is a manual reset version of them, with a tiny red reset button in the middle.

You may well find both types.

Well I'd have thought they would auto reset myself. I have one on a fan heater that once unplugged for about half an hour will reset itself. Brian

The one in my old washer dryer's dryer heater was a one shot. The idea was that if it went you probably needed to unclog the heater housing where the fuse was.

Are people talking at cross purposes here? Is the OP talking about thermal cutouts, which are probably klixon, or thermal fuses which don't reset once blown?

There are two of these devices mounted above the heating element shroud; one had popped open circuit so I've drilled a tiny hole and reset it as instructed here elsewhere. The other one hadn't tripped, so they're now both closed circuit again according to my ohmeter. However, still no heat so it looks like there's something still lurking somewhere that needs attention. Any ideas?

Scrub that. There was heat after all. I simply forgot the importance of re-fitting the cowling at the back so the heat simply wasn't going into the appliance. D'oh!

This kind don't. Like I was told earlier up the thread, you have to drill a little hole in the centre and pop 'em out with a suitably thin drift.

About 20 years ago I was very puzzled (for a few minutes) when a replacement non-resettable thermal fuse failed to fix the problem - after I had soldered it in! Duh!