How to Troubleshoot & Replace Samsung AP4201899 / DC47-00019A Dryer Heating Element

I watched the online video on Appliance Parts Pro site. I am mechanically inclined and like saving money so I decided to fix it myself. Video is excellent and easy to understand if you follow every step and mark wires and take pictures on phone before you take off wires and parts to use as reference later. My Samsung front loader was purchased in 2009. I had a good idea that the heating element was the problem and had a couple of friends tell me the same thing from their experiences. When I removed the front panel of the front loader, I was shocked to see over 4 inches of lint and a few coins in the bottom of the dryer and inside of the heating element assembly. I could see where the lint was blackened and looked like it tried to ignite. I removed the element and looked at it but couldn't find a break. I tested with my ohm meter with the beep setting every couple of inches and finally found a bad area. Upon closer look and moving the coils the break was evident. I checked the thermal fuse and thermister with the ohm meter and they tested ok. I ordered the original and pricey Samsung heating element from Appliance Parts Pro even though I could get a cheap reproduction for under $10 on Amazon. Sometimes you can get away with a cheap product but I decided that didn't want to have to go through this replacement again. I did a final cleaning/vacuuming of everything that I could reach. I removed the screws on the lint remover/filter assembly on the front loader. I was amazed of how much lint was lodged down in the exhaust pipe. I put everything back together and after drying 6 loads of clothes everything is working fine. I believe that the Number 1 reason a dryer fails is from the excessive buildup of lint that escapes back into the dryer when the exhaust vent pipe becomes blocked with lint and the exhaust pipe has too many tight bends. I removed the cheap foil vent pipe and had a tremendous buildup of lint. I replaced the vent pipe with a round sheet metal pipe to eliminate a few of the bends. I would recommend that if you have a dryer that is more than a few years old, to take off the front panel and clean/vacuum the inside of the dryer where the heating element is located before the element breaks or starts a fire. Also, clean the exhaust vent pipe every year or two. 

I fixed by just removing 4 screws. Three from around the dry vent so that the dryer vent would come out of the back of the dryer. The other one, is all the way to the front of the dryer and facing away from the worker which needs a bit of dexterity to reach with a short shafted Philips screw driver, that holds the element housing in place. Then I unpluged the two power wires to the element housing and removed it through the vent hole. There are several screws holding the element housing together but come out very quickly. The old element contacts have a little ear that holds them in their holes which I bent straight with a needle nose pliers and reversed that procedure with the new element. I was unable to use the short screw to hold the element housing in place because when I tried to start the screw with my hand the knuckles on my hand hit the element housing structure raising it so the the two holes would come unaligned. I got around this by just using an 1 1/4" long screw of the same diameter, which I was able to easily start and turn almost all the way in before needing the Philips driver again. Then I put a small flash light it the dryer vent line so that I could see to alien it with the female plastic housing in the front of the dryer and replace the 3 holding screws for the vent frame. I did vacuum out all the dust and lint that I could see once inside the dryer housing (which was a lot by my surprise) so I will be opening that up from time to time to clean it out. I think that we have had the dryer for around seven years or so and it and the washer have done very well so far. 

It's Stay at Home time in Texas due to the Carona virus, which is in high gear here, and my clothing piles started to pile up when the dryer stopped producing hot air. Thought the fix might be a DIY kind of thing. Found AppliancePartsPros.com online. Took dryer apart following the looks-so-easy directions on your site, which were not true for my machine. The molded corners back on my model could not come off. It was built with top/front access only. There were also not slots/tabs as shown in the tutorial, only awkwardly placed screws, that required a stumpy screw driver and acrobatic hugging of the dryer parts, blindly groping and photographing with a phone to find two hidden screws. Once the dryer heater housing was removed, and my husband's bleeding knuckles bandaged, we checked meter readings on all possible heater related parts and determined that the heater coil was cracked. Ordered the part, paid for 2-5 day delivery, and received the package in a fast three days. The job required an extra part, an electric connector. Which meant a trip to a local hardware store. Unlike other experiences we read about, the inside dryer parts and venting were not full of lint, so that did not contribute to the part failure. Empty your lint trap every time you dry, and there will be less problems with this. Fingers bandaged on all knuckles to avoid more nicks, hubby genuflected before the machine again to reinstall the stand with the new heater coil safely buttoned up in its housing, and we started the machine with no spare screws, and high hopes nothing would go clatter bang. Other than an alarming burning metal smell that lasted through the first load, the machine is fixed, and piles of clothes dealt with. I hope the new part lasts longer than 2 years, am grateful I have a handy husband who is good at improvising, and appreciate receiving the new part so quickly. If the back of your machine is molded rather than panels that screw together--the time involved and difficulty level will increase, but it can still be done. Requires patience and band-aids. 

Amazing, that's all I can say. Initially, I wasn't in the mood of making the repair to the dryer, called several APPLIANCE REPAIR places that I had found on line and with our present situation with the virus, I experienced a slow response. This is the second time I would have to repair the dryer for no heat. The first repair on a 2011 dryer cost me $325.00 in the second year of ownership. Figuring that this repair would cost somewhere around the $400 range after being contacted, I explained that I would analyze the problem and get back with the results, Well, that didn't go over with the guy. His policy is to Diagnose the Problem, Order the Part, Make a Return Visit bringing the cost to the previously stated amount. After going back and forth with attempts to make the arrangement, I decided to make the repair myself and went on line, clicked on Appliance PartsPros.com, went to the area of My Appliance, My Issue, saw that in addition to having the part, they offered a VIDEO HOW TO MAKE THE CHANGE OF ELEMENT STEP BY STEP.. At 4:15 on Monday June 1, 2020, I called. I asked several questions regarding the replacement element, got all the Correct Answers and Ordered the Part. I had also found out that I had made purchases from them years before. I Charged the heating element on my card and anticipated the delivery by the end of the week, possibly the beginning of the next which would have been June 8, 2020. The following day, Tuesday, June 2,2020, I checked tracking and found out that the part Had been Delivered and was ON MY FRONT STEPS. Later in the day, I had the part installed and have done several washes, TOTALLY, TOTALLY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS. THE VIDEO, THE AVAILABILITY OF THE PART, THE DELIVERY TIME, AND ESPECIALLY FOR THE INITIAL PLEASANT CONVERSATION I HAD WHEN I CALLED, I MADE THE RIGHT DECISION WITH APPLIANCE PARTS PROS. 

Reviewed multiple repair sites which pointed to heating elements being a consistent reason for this problem - even in newer model dryers like mine. Following another repair site video, began taking apart dryer, but it didn't show all the required screws on my dryer. Found Fix-it-Felix on youtube which lead me through remaining process to remove the heating element. I recommend taking photos of the element casing when you first pull it out - top to see where screws go, side to see where wires go, and another picture when you open the casing. Quick inspection with flashlight found the break in coils. Lots of different options to purchase replacement heating elements from $15 knock-off to OEM at about $150. I chose OEM after seeing several poor reviews on the knock-offs. Since my dryer is under 3 years old, I plan to keep it for several years. If you were planning on buying a new dryer in a couple months, might be worth taking a chance on a cheaper heating element. Appliance Part Pros was middle-range priced for OEM ($135), but very helpful in details and research on the item, it's replacement process and had great reviews on timely delivery. Element arrived in 3 days which was awesome in Covid time! Appliance Parts Pros repair video was watched to instruct how to replace element and reseal the dryer. Very helpful and similar to my model. As others have written, there was a strong metal burning smell on the first running of the dryer, but it went away by the 2nd load. We have done 5-10 loads and all is well so far. 

First step was to access the dryer electric heater to confirm that the heating coil was defective. Removed two screws from the back of the top panel, slide it forward, then up, and then back. Then remove four screws from the front panel, plus three screws around the door (be sure to unplug the door connector). Then lift up the front panel. The heater assembly is in the lower right front of the dryer. With an ohmmeter, you can check the heater coil for an open circuit (a defective heater coil will read open circuit). Remove the four screws (two in the front and two hidden in the back - you will need a stubby phillips screwdriver for the two rear screws) of the mounting bracket supporting the heating coil assembly and one screw holding the heating coil assembly to the mounitng bracket. Then remove the mounting bracket, so that you can slide the heating coil assembly out. When removing the heating coil assembly, take a photo of the wiring connections (or write down the wiring connections) and then carefully remove all six connections, before removing the assembly from the dryer. At this point, you can either replace just the heater coil or the whole assembly. I replaced just the heater coil as it was a bit less money (about $25 to $30 less) than the entire assembly. Taking the assembly apart was fairly simple. I removed screws from both sides, leaving the two sensors in place. Then remove the two spade lugs for the heater coil (use pliers to straighten the spade lugs) from the ceramic socket. At this point, you can carefully slide the heater coil out of the housing assembly (just carefully spread the assembly apart to remove the coil). Replace with the new coil. Insert the two spade lugs back into the ceramic socket (be sure to bend the spade lugs with pliers to lock them). Then replace all of the screws. Place the heater assembly back into the dryer, reconnect the wiring (use the photo you took before - also note that the two spade lugs for the actual heater coil are slightly larger than the other spade lugs), then carefully slide the assembly back into the general position. Next place the mounting bracket back in place. The rear two srews will be very hard to reinsert (you can't see them when you are inserting them). Then properly position the dryer assembly in position (watch the back side of the assembly - positioned properly) and reinsert the one screw holding it in place Place the front panel back in position, don't forget the door sensor cable. Four screws on top, and three on the front by the door. Then replace/reposition the top panel, two screws on the back. 

I removed the top. front panel and also the control panel. I then remove the screws on the small stand and bracket holding the heating coil in place and pulled it out the front and verified that both thermal fuses were still good, having continuity between the two leads, and I had already checked the coil and found that it had infinite resistance meaning that it had a break in it somewhere and so was bad. I disassembled the heating coil assembly and put one lead on one of the coil leads and ran the other lead down the length of the coil wires until I no longer had continuity and then noticed the brake in the coil wire on the bottom side. I used my shop vac and cleaned out the inch thick blanket of lent in the bottom of the dryer and cleaned the top and bottom heater coil housing and reassembled the heater coil assembly and put it back inside the dryer and screwed it back in place and reassembled the dryer and test operated it and it had plenty of heat. Note, you do not have to remove the drum and then belt as the heating coil assembly is in the lower right corner of the dryer which is accessible by just removing the top and front panels and the control panel. This saves a lot of time and is especially a plus if you don't have a lot of room. And if I wasn't so anal about my work, I could have had this done in about 30 to 45 minutes. But I cleaned it very well I blew out the vents from inside the dryer tub to make sure there was no Lent inside and just attention to detail. I only used a small impact driver and a Phillips head on it. I also put the corresponding screws back in their holes when I remove the panels and control board, so I don't miss place any and they're right there when I put everything back together. This was a simple job if you just have a will do can do attitude. I can't imagine paying somebody to do it. Plus the satisfaction of doing the job yourself and fixing the problem. 

1) Unplug dryer 2) Remove top - 2 screws on the back. 3) Move control unit out of the way - 4 screws on top 4) Remove front pannel. - 4 screws on top of pannel, 2 screws in front, by the door. 5) The heating unit is on the bottom, right hand corner -- looks like a thick pipe with thermostats coming out of it, on the left hand side. 6) Remove the whole heating unit - 1 screw holding it to the base. Remove the base (2 screws) to allow the heating unit to come out. Need to umplug 2 thermostats and heating element. 7) Take heating unit apart by removing screws in the middle & one side of the thermostats -- it opens in the middle. 8) Remove old heating unit and replace with new one. -- Wires won't come out of the base unless you straighten the little metal bend on the plug -- this prevents the wires from falling from the plug. 9) Put everything back together. 7 

Replaced heating element and thermostat, took me about 2 hours but that's because i had to vacuum out the dryer inside and I also checked the fan before I closed the dryer back up. I have a Samsung DV448AAEP. Works great and saved my family money! 

Tested my heater element with an ohm meter and it didn't have continuity. I tore it out, ordered one from AppliancePartsPros.com, and had it back up and running in a snap.