How to Troubleshoot & Replace Whirlpool AP6009347 / WP4391960 Dryer Heating Element

After turning off the breaker and then unplugging it, I opened the rear panel and reviewed the wiring diagram on the back of the control panel. (thank you Daddy for showing this girl how to read a circuit diagram!) Ohmed all parts along the heating system circuit and all were 0 ohms as they should be, except the heating coil which was infinity. Removed the coil and found it had snapped at one point near the middle. Performed a temporary fix by clearing the charred section of the coil and twisting the two ends together, tightening and cleaning until I got 10.6 ohms across the terminals for the coil. (should be 11.08 ohms per the specs) That got it working in the short term. (enough to at least dry the load that was already wet) Came here since I had such a great experience when my washing machine died a few years ago and the videos and comments here made diagnosing that issue a breeze! Found my model dryer and looked up other people's experiences with this dryer. With their comments in mind, I not only ordered a new heating coil, (plus a spare against future failure) but a new Cycling Thermostat, Thermal Cut-Off Kit, and Thermal Fuse... which accounts for the parts that are nearly 80% of failures of the heating system of this dryer model. Once the parts arrived, (super fast shipping... they were here in two days!) I spent an hour replacing all the parts with my new ones and vacuuming out the interior. I saved the old parts (except the temp-fixed coil) for future use should any of the new parts fail, since they were known good working parts when I took them out. 

Our 25-year-old Whirlpool dryer abruptly stopped producing heat, though it was otherwise running normally. The unit had never required service of any type and we were reluctant to replace it. After confirming that no circuit breakers had tripped, I reviewed the Whirlpool and AppliancePartsPro websites and concluded that the most likely causes of the problem were a failed heating element and/or thermal fuse. I ordered both (they arrived in two business days), installed them and the dryer works perfectly again. Neither part is particularly expensive, so I replaced them simultaneously and cannot say which was actually at fault. Either way, this very simple fix saved hundreds of dollars compared to a service call. Absent the "How To" videos on this site, I probably would not have attempted to perform this repair myself. 

Changed parts 

I replaced the heating element. Because my dryer is older and all videos online showed newer dryers, the back of my dryer wasn't as accessible as those in the videos. I had to lay the dryer on its front and found a screw at the bottom of the element in the back. This was not visible in an upright position. The element from Appliance Pros worked great -- no problems! 

Watched troubleshooting video on this site. found bad heating element. ordered new parts that arrived in just a few days with standard shipping option. had parts installed in a few minutes. Dryer is back up and running great. 

I removed the back panel to expose the sensors and element. removed the element to test and found element failed I also tested the 4 sensors which were found to be good. I cleaned the lint from the exhaust duct leading to the outlet vent. ordered the heating element on friday late morning I think, and received the part the next day , Saturday early afternoon! I was shocked! I thought it wouldn't get here till Tuesday or Wednesday. I was amazed at the timely manner it was shipped. Thank you. I replaced the element and all of the sensors, put the back panel back on plugged it in and fixed! 

I took the back off the dryer and found the hi-limit thermostat in pieces. I went to your web-site, found the part in the parts list, called you at 11:00 am saturday morning, ordered the part, and couldn't believe it when fed-ex showed up monday morning at 11:00 am, with the RIGHT part. Two days from Kentucky to upstate New York, in 2 days, over a weekend, I am impressed to say the least. Did I mention that the dryer is 27 years old. 

Ordered Dryer Heating Element and Thermal Fuse on Thursday. Received it Friday. Hubby changed both components out on Sunday. Our dryer has to be at least 25 years old as it was a hand me down from my mom who got it from my grandmother. Once hubby put the new parts on, I ran a full load of wet towels and they all came out dry in just one cycle. Success! Fingers crossed this dryer will keep on ticking a couple more years. 

The repair was the easy part. If you have ever worked on anything from Sears, well enough said the screw that held the heater box onto the dryer is inserted from the front of the dryer and you have to basically disassemble the dryer front, which means removing the top, just to get to that screw. Lets say if it ever has to be done again the screw is now accessible from the back! The only other problem I had decided since the cost was minimal while I was in it I would replace the the upper and lower thermostat on the heater box while into the repair. The new upper thermostat is slightly different with the wire positions and I had to go back and re-watch the repair video to see where the wires I had marked front and back now went when it came to an upper and lower choice. Luckily I could see in the video one of the red wires had a white stripe. The new thermostat has a red line on it and under the assumption that meant the solid red wire went there. That is what I tried and it worked. 

Replaced