Can we talk about the old advice to always replace a thermal fuse?

I was fixing a dryer for a friend and the thermal fuse was blown. My go to move for years has been to just swap it out and call it done. But this time, I found a post on a forum where a guy said, 'If you don't find the clog, you're just putting a band aid on a bullet wound.' He was right. I spent an extra twenty minutes pulling the whole vent line off the back. Sure enough, it was packed solid with lint, about the size of a football. The new fuse would have just blown again in a week. Now I check the full exhaust path every single time I see a bad thermal fuse. It adds maybe thirty minutes to the job, but it saves a callback. Has anyone else made this a standard part of their dryer repair routine?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_fox9227d ago

Totally agree that checking the vent is key. Do you also pull the lint trap housing inside the dryer itself? I've found bad clogs there too, right after the screen, that a camera snake won't even see.

mason_flores217h ago

Yeah, that spot right after the screen is a real trap. I pulled mine last month and it was shocking how much was crammed in there. Makes a huge difference when you clear it out.

kaiblack26d ago

Always pull the lint trap housing. I found one so packed it was forcing lint back into the drum. A quick vacuum of that cavity and the chute behind it fixes a lot of airflow issues people miss.