Our Duet dryer is about 6 months old. We have it stacked on the washer. Recently, it has started tripping the circuit breaker. We've noticed that the right side of the dryer is getting incredibly hot, the left side feels what we consider to be normal. Running on low heat seems to not be a problem. Warm or hot definately trip the breaker.
We've had a repair man out that after checking airflow and various other things said we'd have to use a wet vent (?) or vent the dryer straight out the back to the outside. Told us not to run it down, under the house and then outside. The manual says we can vent out up to 26 feet in length, we were definately under 10. However, even with no vent pipe attached, the dryer is still getting insanely hot and tripping the circuit breaker. Repair man was to come by again today but didn't make it by. Either he was busy or stumped.
Any suggestions????
What size is your breaker how many amps it should say on breaker are you cleaning the lint screen with it on top if the drier is getting too hot there is a device in it that's called a thermal limiter that would blow before the breaker would trip what kind or you in a house or apt. now on high heat can you hold your hand on the side of the drier.or cant touch it look at the vent under your house and tell me 1is it hanging down under the house then coming up to the hood 2whats its diameter3whats it made of we will go from there ok.there are three thermostats in that drier the first one runs at about 150 160 max second is a safety in case the first one fails it cycles at about 250 third is a safety if the drier exceeds 300 it will shut the heater down and wont rest it has to be replaced
ok first keep in mind im not there but from your telling me ill give you my best thoughts i think your breaker tripping is a breaker problem there just like us they get old .id replace them with a single throw breaker consult your installation specs for size and also clearances on the space you have them in which cant be much if you had to stack them.like i explained in my previous answer there are safety's in the drier that would go before the breaker would trip.if your facing the drier the heater is on the left hand side the blower on the right on the blower is the control thermostat 165 degrees is hot and will make the side hot.esp if its in a small space .your hot water in your sink is 130 degrees how long can you hold your hand in it lol ok too much air flow can be as bad as too little.there needs to be some resistance to air flow to let the control sense the heat pipe length and turns ads Resistance .Here is an easy way to do your vent .Go to the hardware store and get 4 inch pvc drain pipe you can get it in 8 10 20 foot sections and cut it with a hack saw and tack it to the floor joists with plastic or metal straps come up through the floor with a short piece then connect there with the metal vent .Also you cant have it on a ground fault breaker .as far as the breaker tripping id look to outlet for loose connections like the clamps the drier cord paddels fit into being open too much,loose cord at drier terminal block,or weak breaker,the last being my first choice hope this helps should fix it let me know.ps you don't have many problems with whirlpool driers and check your pockets before you wash your clothes to prevent washer promblems
i am whirlpool check your installation inst for drier clearances read my post carefully about slowing air flow on the control therm and the pvc vent will work great my money like i said is on the breaker.i have seen them go to three hundred degrees with out tripping the breaker make sure its not a ground fault breaker and ask your tech what the control therm is cycling at if its over 225-250 it needs replacment but i have never seen a bad thermostat trip a breaker if i had your model number i could look up instalation inst for you
hey your welcome get some mor air to the right side of the drier but just run it get them clothes and fix the vent thanks for the kind words and the four boxes
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There are 2 30 amp breakers for the dryer. The numbers are all but wore off. The house is 15-20 years old and the breakers are like that old as well.
Yes, the lint screen is cleaned religiously. We are in a house.
The drier is too hot to touch. It is on the right side (as you're looking at it) that gets this hot. The left side feels what we think is normal. It is touchable.
Up until the problem started, it was flexible tubing, 4 inches in diameter. Then we read in the manual that we should be using rigid metal, so it's now 4" rigid metal tubing. Because we ran out of the metal, the dryer is currently venting to the crawlspace. There is a good 5 feet of clearance between the end of the tubing and the ground. It is not venting to the hood at the time being.
The dryer is tripping the breaker when there is no tubing at all hooked up to the dryer.
Thank you for posting so quickly! I believe I've answered all your questions. With 5 kids, we needed these machines to keep up with their dirty clothes. Without the dryer, the clothes are piling up!! :)
We may already have a single throw breaker. It's 2 30 amp breakers attached together. They take up two slots in the breaker box but can be tripped and reset as a single breaker.
We didn't have to stack them, we just did to allow us to set up a table to hold detergent and what-not. We could set them side by side. The room is wide enough for that. The machines would just fit that way. The room is deep, maybe 9 feet deep by whatever width the two machines need - 6 ft?? They are stacked and in the back right corner. So the right side of the machines is by the wall. There is probably 3-4 inches of clearance (guessing the distance) between the machines and the wall.
I believe the repairman said it was blowing fine (that was 2 days ago). But I'm wondering if the blower is on the right hand side and the side of the machine is getting hot, could something be blocking the blown air, redirecting it, restricting it or just something wrong? Should we move the machines so the right side is not against a wall? But this wouldn't seem too likely if people generally place them side by side - the right side would be by a wall or the washer.
I believe all the connections have been inspected. We'll look more at the breaker. The repairman has come back and is looking at it again though. Since he told us to run it without venting it (until we made a new hole in the wall or got a water vent(???) because that is what Whirlpool would tell us to do after all elsechecks out on the dryer) and it was still tripping the breaker, we thought we'd let him look at it again.
Thanks for the suggestions. We'll look at everything again and will let you know if we get it going or we have more questions.
The guy just left. So I wasn't able to have him check the thermostat.
You had your money on the right thing. It seems that the wires going into the breaker were loose. He tightened them up and said we may have to replace them at some point in time. He did put a meter on the wires coming out of the dryer and it never went over 25. Not enough to trip the wires. I believe it is not on a GF breaker.
Thanks for all your help!!! Turns out the breaker wires were something we could do on our own. Even though we didn't do the fix on our own, the info was incredibly helpful. Kind of keeps our repairman honest! Had he said it was something else, I was prepared to challenge it!
Glad we found this site. Next time there is a problem, I know where to go :)
The 2nd time the dryer has just stopped working, last time the repairman said it was due to the vent being blocked & it tripped the dryer to stop. The previous repair, same thing, the vent has been cleaned, not sure??
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