What would cause a clothes dryers thermal cutoff to keep tripping

dryerthermostat

I have Kenmore dryer model 110.96588210. For about 10 years it worked flawlessly.

Then, its thermal cutoff started blowing in an unreasonable frequency. Since the hi-limit thermostat must be replaced as well when replacing the thermal cutoff, I now have a collection of about 10 perfect (but useless) thermostats…

The replacement kit is the so called 279769 kit. You can see an example here.

The rate at which this component has been failing is unreasonable, and in my search for explanation I eliminated the following possible causes:

  1. I verified the the vent is not
    blocked in any way.
  2. I verified the lint screen is
    totally clean.
  3. I verified that the blower wheel is
    good.

What possibly could explain a situation that has gotten worse to a point where the cutoff does not even last one full drying cycle?

Best Answer

How did you check the vent? Mine had an open airway, but after years of use, I picked up a cleaning brush and was amazed as how much lint came out of the vent. If your dryer is anywhere other than on an outside wall, I'd pickup a cleaning kit just because they are nice to have and reduce your fire risk. Here's one from Amazon:

enter image description here

That reminds me, I should clean it again soon.

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