Conservation of Bustedness

Heaters 220 and the motor is 120 ? lost a leg ? Popped a breaker / fuse on the heater. Might be the xxxx switch on the dryer - selecting the heat. If that is the case, try a different mode - e.g. permapress or Timed or ....

Martin

Yabbut... Heat Pumps work well enough in mild weather, and can be an economical alternative to oil or propane if the electric rates are halfway reasonable and the price for your fossil fuel of choice is spiking at the moment. (And no fuel delivery charges.) Worst case, it's a backup when you run out of fossil-fuel.

But you can't beat Natural Gas heat for efficiency with a Heat Pump unless they're practically giving the electricity away (Hydro generated at off-peak rates) or something very wrong is going on.

Oh well, for you it's a done deal. But it's something for others here to think about.

Same thing with one of the 'temperature setting' Klixon thermostats in the drum gone permanently open. Same solution - try other cycles and temperatures that use a different sensor.

Unless it's one of the master overheat/fire sensor Klixon's buried in the belly of the beast, in which case you'll never get any heat. Volt-ohmmeter, Wiggy and clamp-amp, and follow the circuits through the unit.

If you get the repair book with the wiring diagrams and trouble tree you don't have to parse out the whole circuit, it'll tell you where to poke the VM probe and there is supposed to be power, or not.

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One thing which I discovered (the hard way) is that if you don't keep the exhaust ducting to the outside clear of a buildup of lint, your heater will overheat and open. At that point, your task is to replace the heater. (This was on a Maytag from about 1976 or so.)

Good Luck, DoN.

I think his point was that the C of B principle is at work here. If he fixes the dryer with all your advice, then what will bust next?

As the curator of a big collection of busted stuff, I am masterfully controlling the turn over by not fixing things too often...

That depends entirely on one's location. The heat pump works well in October and April. But, winters here are just too cold, and the electric "backup" heat is needed much of the time November through March.

Many houses in my neighborhood were built with heat pumps or electric resistance heating - I guess the economics were different back in the late '60s and early '70s. Many houses have been converted to oil or propane since then. Natural gas is not available in my town, so I went with oil, which the least expensive and most common around these parts. My backup heat is a wood stove. Burning wood has been required to avoid $500 electric bills in January and February. I estimate $250 for oil for each of those months. I collect/cut/chop my firewood for free, but that is a LOT of work. Firewood sold for $195/cord last winter!

I have the repair book around here somewhere, along with the book for the washer. They're both Whirlpools, 18 years old. I've replaced the motor in the washer and the rollers in the dryer, both repairs were simple.