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The 30 second ohm check on dryer heating elements that new guys keep skipping
I've been fixing appliances for 22 years now, mostly out of a little shop in Dayton, and the one habit I see younger techs drop is testing a dryer element with a meter before they yank it. They pull the whole drum out, toss in a new element, button it up, and three days later the customer calls back because it still won't heat. Nine times out of ten the element was fine and the real problem was a blown thermal fuse or a bad leg on the 240 circuit, and I know that because I did the exact same thing back in 2004 on a Whirlpool that cost me a free callback and about $45 in gas driving back out to Miamisburg. Now I keep a cheap multimeter in my top drawer and check ohms right at the terminals, takes maybe 30 seconds, and it has saved me more wasted trips than any tool I own. The thing nobody talks about is that a hairline break in the coil can still read close to normal until it heats up and separates, so I also wiggle the leads and look for a reading that jumps around. If you're newer to the trade, do the meter check first, every single time, before the screws come out. What's the one quick test you wish somebody had drilled into you in your first month?
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charles_kelly431d ago
Pull the element and bench test it. That's the part I'd push back on. Ohming at the terminals while it's still bolted in tells you it's not open, sure, but it won't tell you if the coil is shorting to the housing once it gets hot and starts to sag, and I've had two in the last year that read a clean 10 ohms cold and still popped the breaker at 15 minutes. Wiggle test helps with a break but not a ground fault. Meter from each terminal to the frame is the other half of that 30 seconds, and most guys skip that half too. I learned that one on a Kenmore that ate three elements before I figured out the vent was blocked and the thing was cooking itself.
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