My dryer stopped heating. It turns on and spins but that's about it
Samsung Dryer – Model DV42H5000EW/A3
I have found this article which has helped to disassemble and troubleshoot but I still have a few questions. (link)
I'm trying to test the heating element with an OHM tester however I don't know how to interpret the results, if the 8-9 reading means its good or bad?
FYI the meter reads 1 when not touching anything
Then I hook it up to the heating element and it reads 8 or 9
Furthermore in the link they talk about
Check the thermostat and the high limit cut off fuse to be sure those
components are not causing the dryer to not heat
any ideas how to check those 2 components?
Here are the readings from the other 2 components
the thermostat (reading 0, maybe this is the bad piece!)
this is the "high limit", it reads 1 but as mentioned above the meter reads 1 when nothing is touching it (so it doesnt change when touching it to this component!)
Best Answer
It would be normal to see a few ohms of resistance in a cold heater coil. So your reading of 8 or 9 ohms is not unrealistic and probably indicates that the heater element is not burned to an open circuit.
To check the other components you will have to locate them in your dryer by using common sense and any electrical diagram you can find for your dryer. Often times such diagram is located pasted onto some panel of the dryer unit.
The most common wiring for a dryer is that the thermostat and high temperature cutout fuse are wired in series with the heater element and so you may be able to find them by tracing the wires that connect to the heater element. If you use your OHM tester you should be able to place your probes across each of these and read a low reading of just an ohm or two (not more) for each one. If it shows a high reading or an open circuit then you have located the faulty component.
Be aware that there is a good probability that the dryer may have overheated and caused one or the other of the thermostat or the high temperature cutout to go to open circuit. After you replace the faulty component it will be necessary to determine why the dryer may have overheated in the first place. It could be a vent line that got crushed, a vent line clogged up with lint, an outside vent screen jammed with lint or even a snow bank that blocked off the vent outlet.
Update:
The 000 reading for the thermostat indicates that the thermostat is a closed switch at room temperature and is a strong indication that this component is OK.
Your meter appears to read a 1 in the left most digit when the meter is detecting an open circuit. The fact that you do not see any change in the reading when you check across the high temperature cutout indicates that this is the faulty component. Something caused the cutout to open circuit and this is then causing the heater coils to not get any current to create heat.
If you feel that the high temperature cutout has opened up due to age or a one time overheating event then it should be OK to replace it with a new one and start using the dryer again.
I know you said in comments that the vent is clear. Do be aware that the overheating event could also have been caused by a lint capture screen in the dryer being clogged up and not being cleaned before every load is started.
There is also the possibility that if you have a bad lint screen in the dryer or were operating without one in place that lint can build up right inside the dryer air flow path and cause overheating even though the venting may be fine. So be sure to check the air path inside the dryer as well.