Symptom: Clothes dryer operates, but no heat
Possible Causes: Tripped/failed thermal fuse, failed ignitor, no gas supply, failed flame detector
First, and easiest, fix would be a tripped thermal fuse. This sometimes happens if there is significant lint buildup in the exhaust duct. So I checked the duct first and found a LOT of lint buildup, almost completely blocking the line at the exterior vent. Yikes!
Once the duct and vent were cleared of lint, I checked the dryer’s resettable thermal fuse to see if it was tripped; there is a reset button inside underneath the burner tube that you can push if 1) you know exactly where it is, and 2) if you are a contortionist. In my case, I finally found where it was but it didn’t seem to be tripped. So, to make sure and investigate further, I went to step two: dryer disassembly.
After removing the top cover, the control panel, the steam assembly, the front cover, and the drum I was finally able to access the thermal fuses – of which there are no less than three for this dryer. All of them tested as having continuity, which means that they were all good and didn’t need replacement. However, in order to test this properly, I had to go to Walmart and buy a new digital multimeter to replace my old one that finally and irrevocably gave up the ghost right in the middle of this repair effort.
So, if it’s not the thermal fuses (or the “thermistor” sensor, which I also checked as a potential culprit), what could it be? Time for some deep background investigation courtesy of YouTube. Hmmm. The way a dryer works, apparently, is that there is this glowy coil thingy called an “ignitor” and when it’s glowing really hot, another thingy called a “flame sensor” sees the glowy ignitor and tells the gas valve it’s ok to send gas to the furnace. When the gas reaches the ignitor, it ignites. (Hence the name.) Let’s look at the ignitor next and see if it’s broken.
This ignitor looks a bit worse for the wear. There’s a little spot on the side of the coil that appears to have a tiny gap when looked at with the iPhone magnifier app. That could indeed be a problem!
Even though the local appliance parts store didn’t have one in stock, I was able to order one off of Amazon for about a third of the price and delivered overnight to my front door. Sweet.
Removing and replacing the ignitor turned out to be a really simple process; it’s held in place by a single screw. So, if you ignore the “take the entire dryer apart and then put it all back together again” part, overall it’s a really straightforward job.
After reassembly, we plugged things in and ran a test of the Normal cycle with high heat. About thirty seconds into the cycle, there was a click followed by a “whoosh” of the gas burner igniting; a minute later we stopped the test and confirmed that we definitely had heat in the drum again! Success!
So, our LG dryer lives to dry clothes for a while longer at least. And I’ve now become an expert at disassembling and reassembling a clothes dryer faster than Domino’s can deliver a pizza. Achievement unlocked.