clothes dryer still taking too long to dry

oldfella1962 · Apr 20, 2017

Okay, my clothes dryer was taking forever (three or four hour-long cycles!) so I bought the long flexible brushes and completely cleaned the venting from the dryer to the outside of the house. I removed wads and wads of wet lint built up over the years! I took the back off the dryer and cleaned all lint from everywhere in the dryer. I checked the inside of the dryer to see if it got hot (OUCH! Indeed it is hot) but to my surprise my dryer is still taking forever.

Any thoughts as to what the problem could be? BTW what does "automatic moisture sensing" and "wrinkle guard" do? We've never used them, but just asking in case it's relevant to my situation.
Could it be that all the moisture that was in the venting from the lint clogging it will take time to dry out? It was very wet lint so I'm thinking a lot of moisture would remain in the 15 feet long venting from my dryer to the outside of my house, which terminates in a "floating cap" style vent outlet. Any thoughts?

Lukikus2 · Apr 20, 2017

If the drum is getting hot that part is fine. Sometimes the duct from the lint catcher will get a buildup also especially if the lint was wet so you may need to clean it good. If it still has buildup in it the dryer will cycle the heat on and off taking longer than normal. Wrinkle rid just cycles it with less heat toward the end and moisture sensing the dryer will shut off once there is no more moisture in the load.

treemanjohn · Apr 20, 2017

Moisture and lint cause clogging. I'll bet the outlet on the exterior of your house is closed. I have a roof dryer vent and our dryer did the same thing. Climbed up on the roof and problem solved

NOYDB · Apr 20, 2017

You've checked the lint trap - good.
Check at the output vent, is there airflow coming out?
If not you may have missed a blockage.
Make sure the drum is turning, on some there is a belt around a drive pulley and the drum to make it turn. If the belt is broke or slipping the clothes sit in the bottom of the drum and don't dry very well if at all.

oldfella1962 · Apr 20, 2017

treemanjohn said:
Moisture and lint cause clogging. I'll bet the outlet on the exterior of your house is closed. I have a roof dryer vent and our dryer did the same thing. Climbed up on the roof and problem solved

No the dryer vent is fine - it's about knee level just above my foundation - it has a floating cap design and I can see the cap floating up and feel the air coming out.
And like I said I reamed out the whole distance from my dryer to the outside vent and replaced the metal flexible tube that comes out the back of the dryer to the wall.

oldfella1962 · Apr 20, 2017

NOYDB said:
You've checked the lint trap - good.
Check at the output vent, is there airflow coming out?
If not you may have missed a blockage.
Make sure the drum is turning, on some there is a belt around a drive pulley and the drum to make it turn. If the belt is broke or slipping the clothes sit in the bottom of the drum and don't dry very well if at all.

yep - the drum turns and I can feel air coming out from the outlet vent on the outside of my house.

Crakajak · Apr 20, 2017

If its electric the heating element could be bad and not keeping a constant heat temp thus causing excessive moisture(heat,cool,heat,cool) in the exhaust line

Davey · Apr 20, 2017

Dryer duct from dryer to out of house should be no more than 4 to 5 feet or it will cause these problems too..

elfiii · Apr 20, 2017

I'm suspicious of your flapper valve on the outside vent. It may not be opening enough to vent an adequate amount of vaporized moisture causing it to back up in the duct.

Consider replacing your outside vent with an always open vent and cover that with an animal exclusion cage to keep the chippermonks etc. out.

Just one problem, lint will collect in the animal exclusion cage so you need to clean it out periodically.

NOYDB · Apr 20, 2017

Do a load of T-shirts. Put them in dryer and inspect every 10 minutes. Observe the first 10 minutes. What symptoms do you see?
Assuming you have used the unit before what is different now?

oldfella1962 · Apr 20, 2017

Davey said:
Dryer duct from dryer to out of house should be no more than 4 to 5 feet or it will cause these problems too..

I can't control that - that's the way the house was designed. My 220 volts for the dryer is right in the center of the house - 15 or 20 feet to the nearest outside wall.

oldfella1962 · Apr 20, 2017

elfiii said:
I'm suspicious of your flapper valve on the outside vent. It may not be opening enough to vent an adequate amount of vaporized moisture causing it to back up in the duct.

Consider replacing your outside vent with an always open vent and cover that with an animal exclusion cage to keep the chippermonks etc. out.

Just one problem, lint will collect in the animal exclusion cage so you need to clean it out periodically.

I don't have the flapper vent kind - I have the "floating cap" which is a round PVC cap that floats up when the dryer air hits it, then drops back down to make a seal when the dryer is off.

Davey · Apr 20, 2017

oldfella1962 said:
I can't control that - that's the way the house was designed. My 220 volts for the dryer is right in the center of the house - 15 or 20 feet to the nearest outside wall.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Deflect-o-Lint-Trap-Kit-LTF/100021996

Crakajak · Apr 20, 2017

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=20985&usg=AFQjCNFJCk55hIXrVjDlrf2J1ypwf4ndIg

j_seph · Apr 20, 2017

Take the back cover off, there should be 3 small object that have wires going to them. Unplug dryer, each of these items are thermal fuse, thermostat, and thermostat fuse. Unplug the 2 wires off each and take an OHM meter and check for Ohms by touching probe to each terminal. I just replaced the themostat fuse on my parents because it would not get hot and dry. You can also check the heating element with Ohm meter. Google it for help with specific brand

Milkman · Apr 20, 2017

You must have a component letting your heating element shut off most of the time.

I bet a high limit device is failing. No way a regular load of clothing can take more than 1 hour to dry.

lagrangedave · Apr 20, 2017

Thinking out of the box here. Is your spin cycle on your washer working properly?

Wycliff · Apr 20, 2017

lagrangedave said:
Thinking out of the box here. Is your spin cycle on your washer working properly?

This is what I was thinking also

NOYDB · Apr 20, 2017

Who does the laundry at your house every day
(week, month, year, whatever)?

Did it just start happening?

Has it gotten worse all of a sudden?

What's different?

Lukikus2 · Apr 20, 2017

lagrangedave said:
Thinking out of the box here. Is your spin cycle on your washer working properly?

Explains the wet for sure.

clothes dryer still taking too long to dry

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