Whirlpool WP3387747 Dryer Heating Element OEM Part

I am not an electrician, just a housewife with limited funds and a desire to DIY. I used the provided videos for knowing how to replace everything except the heating element which I just guessed based on other reviews and seeing how the other parts worked. Our dryer is 11 years old Whirlpool Gold HE and I have only ever cleaned the lint tray. My husband replaced the belt about five years ago and he did clean out the inside of the dryer. Started by ordering a thermal fuse because it was stated that is often the reason for not heat. Figured I'd save a few bucks and got the cheapest shipping (won't do that again, pay the extra and get it sooner) and when it arrived about a week later I replaced the thermal fuse. Still no heat. But I did notice a lot of lint build up and spent time cleaning that out. Ordered the Heating Element, moisture sensor bar, thermal cut off kit, and dryer thermister. (Paid for faster delivery time although it wasn't truly Two Day since it was Friday when I ordered it, but package did arrive on Tuesday). When they arrived I replaced each of those not bothering to check if they were in fact defective but instead assuming they were due to lack of heat and lint build up. The videos were extremely helpful. There's no way I could have figured out the replacement process otherwise because I'm a visual learner. I also ordered the multi tool but I could have saved myself some money by not getting it. What would have been more helpful would have been a power nut driver or 1/4" ratchet. I did have a difficult time getting some of the nuts loosened but was able to get some with a 1/4" monkey wrench and others my husband helped to take off. After much swearing and sweating I got the job finished. The actual repairs were only around five minutes each, but it took longer then that for me to keep watching the videos and wait for my husband to help with the screws I couldn't get. He was pretty proud of me doing the job mostly by myself. After replacing the parts I started the dryer on high heat and ran it for a few seconds before I smelt a weird odor. I turned it off and googled the burning smell (like when the heat first comes in in the winter) and found it to be normal. So I ran the dryer for 15 minutes on Air Dry only. Then tried the heat cycle again and did not have any odor. I'm still waiting for my lint duct cleaning kit to arrive and once it does I will clean the ducts thoroughly and put that on my spring and fall cleaning lists. Definitely glad I found this site and that they provide the helpful videos. I suppose I might have saved a few bucks by testing each part first and then only ordering and using the ones I needed, but having been without a dryer for almost two weeks I wasn't wasting anymore time.

This is a 15 to 20 minute repair. First and foremost, ALWAYS UNPLUG THE MACHINE!!! After that you pop off the lower cover of the dryer with a putty knife. You pull the heat shield out, then the single sheet metal screw holding the heating element in place and the load line (2 wires) for the element. You pull the old element out and replace it with the new one and reinstall the wiring, heat shield and lower cover for the dryer and you are drying your clothes once again. This is the quick repair version. I do not do it this way. Our clothes dryer is used heavily every day so I always do the full service and maintenance version. I pull the top off of the dryer, then the front panel with the door, this comes off with the two front support wheels for the drum. Next I pull up on the tensioning pulley for the drum belt and remove the drum entirely, it is light in weight and slides out very easily. Now you have a very clear view of the motor, heat chamber, blower fan and exhaust venting. I grab the shop vac and vacuum out all the lint in the bottom of the dryer. This lint build-up is one of the main causes for house fires every year. I then remove: the blower fan and shroud; heat chamber with heating element; and the exhaust venting. I thoroughly clean all of these with the shop vac and a damp soapy shop cloth. I check all four drum support wheels, two in front on the front panel and two in the back of the machine, for lint build-up and entangled hair. I lubricate them very lightly with a spray lubricant to ensure smooth operation. I have found that is easier to reinstall the heat chamber in the machine before reinstalling the heating element. Sometimes it is a tight fit and you can get better leverage this way. Even though you have vacuumed it out, there are areas that you cannot get to by this method. I reverse the hose on the vacuum and blow the entire base out. After this I reverse the dismantling procedures, put it all back together and we are back to drying our clothes once again.

A few months prior the dryer heat worked off an on for a couple weeks, but then it healed itself somehow. This time there was no heat at all, so I started with the how-to videos--and narrowed it down to fuses or heating element based on the fact that the dryer was running but not heating. Unfortunately there was no specific video on my Kenmore 110.68722700 dryer, and some videos suggested that I'd have to access things from the back, others said from the front. Since I had a removable front panel, I started there--and much of the suspect parts were visible once the panel was off. I tested them with a cheap multimeter--which I learned to use watching more videos. This confirmed that the heating element was dead. (The new element also tested fine prior to install). I watched about 3 or 4 Kenmore videos before I found one with an element that looked like mine. I took off the front heat shield and the 1 screw I could see that connected the heating element to the chamber around it, and pulled, but the element would not move--I wasn't sure how hard I could pull without breaking it. I re-watched the video and they said it could be snug, so I pulled harder with a pair of vise-grips and it came loose. The new one also slid back in fine, and the fit was similarly snug. I put it all back together, and the multimeter again confirmed that my install was successful. Since I had the front open and the blower cover was right there, I opened it (4 screws) to see how clean it was. Pretty mild, lint and crud (14 year old dryer). I cleaned that, and all the loose lint in the base of the machine, and closed everything up. I ran it for 10 mins, and the dryer heated (yay!) but the but the exhaust pipes did not warm up, so I figured there must be a clog. After cleaning them out (I have about 12 feet of metal venting to the outside) everything worked great. $85 bucks for the element was a win. Last note: I was surprised at how much lint had accumulated since I cleaned it last year. But then I remembered that I had cleaned at the beginning of the COVID lockdown, so it had been almost 3 years. So, if you see heavier than expected lint coming out of your exhaust vent, trust what you see, not what you remember.

This was a pretty easy diagnosis of a broken heating element. As a precaution, we also replaced the thermistor with no luck. The reason we replaced the thermistor first is because of the symptom of graduating and fluctuating heat. In reality it was just slowly declining. Replacing the heating element in our dryer, a front loading Kenmore Elite, was a bit more complicated since we had to remove the front and back panels to properly access the heating element. The lower front panel of the dryer needs to be replaced because the element housing connection to the front support needs to be disconnected so that you can remove the heating element housing; and therefore the heating element from the housing. The rear panel, and therefore the top panel, needs to be removed so that you can easily access the wires to the heating element. Be sure to take a picture of how the wires are connected to the heating element through the housing. Once you remove the heating element housing, you can easily remove and replace the element. Be sure to wear some type of gloves so you do not get any oils on the heating element coils themselves. Removing the front and back panels sounds like a lot. But doing so allows you to thoroughly clean the dryer as well. And if you're at the stage where you need to replace a heating element, you're probably at the point where you need to clean the unit as well. All the bolts are 1/4 inch except for two which connect the wiring bus to the frame. You will need a ratchet wrench, an extender screwdriver that can hold the 1/4 filing to remove the bolts, pliers to easily remove the element from the housing, and a Philips head to reattach the power cord wiring assembly. I'd say the complete job is probably an hour tops, once you know what and how to access.

It was pretty simple actually I just popped open the front bottom panel of the dryer and swapped out the heating element. There was just one screw holding it in. The hardest part was pulling out the old element only cause it fit pretty snug in the compartment that it was in. Other then that piece of cake.