# Kenmore dryer has trouble under a load



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Need a real model #.
Check out repairclinic.com.
It will have trouble testing, videos, and even the price of parts.


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## chitownken (Nov 22, 2012)

Does sound like the motor has issues. Get the model number from the sticker inside the door.


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

Sometimes the rollers that the drum sits on wear out. Or one wears out and the others are fine making it hard for the motor to turn the drum. Rollers are relatively cheap.......if you can find the proper ones for your model. Just a thought before you decide to replace the motor.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

Thanks guys- in the mean time, I've noticed that while the dryer has a lot of trouble starting, if I push it by hand to give it a kickstart, it handles the rest just fine. 

So my temporary solution is to tape down the door latch (so it thinks the door is already closed), and reach inside as I press the START button to give the drum a little manual push. Then slam the door closed and let it do its thing. 

Annoying, but workable until I can figure out what else to do. Would that be a sign of the motor going? Because it seems to handle spinning the drum just fine once it has started.


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## chitownken (Nov 22, 2012)

The old Kenmore dryers used a motor that has a centrifugal switch to energize the start windings that provide the needed torque to get things moving. If the start winding is bad, only recourse is to replace the motor. If the switch is bad, it used to be available from Sears, but might not be available any longer depending upon how old your dryer is. Might be able to find one at a place like Grainger, maybe not.

Need your model number to even start looking. The switch is relatively inexpensive. the motor is not.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

chitownken said:


> The old Kenmore dryers used a motor that has a centrifugal switch to energize the start windings that provide the needed torque to get things moving. If the start winding is bad, only recourse is to replace the motor. If the switch is bad, it used to be available from Sears, but might not be available any longer depending upon how old your dryer is. Might be able to find one at a place like Grainger, maybe not.
> 
> Need your model number to even start looking. The switch is relatively inexpensive. the motor is not.


It's an old machine. 

Here's the model info:


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

In case you can't read it, that says 110.6917702. 

Latest update: Some of the times I tried starting it, it looks like the drum is about to spin, but only moves about a half of an inch then gives up with a loud humming noise and tripping the thermal fuse. My manual starts by hand don't seem to help anymore either. 
Luckily the laundry machines are in the same room as my boiler and heating sytem, so hanging a light load to dry was ready overnight. But I clearly need to do something about this sooner rather than later!

Someone told me it isn't worth repairing this unit, but I'm hoping they are wrong!


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## chitownken (Nov 22, 2012)

Here is one site that has the motor for your dryer. They want $83 for the motor which is not TOO bad. Might be other sites that have it cheaper, but this was the first one I tried.
http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDet...4?modelNumber=110.6917702&ss=a8b6d161721&mr=1

Before you buy a motor, try a few things. Unplug the dryer. Take the belt that turns the drum off of the motor pull and just let it hang free. Pay attention to how it feeds through the inside of the idler pulley. the drum should turn fairly easily when you push it by hand. There will be some effort needed because the drum has significant mass and there will be drag from the front and rear seals. Since you dryer runs without a load, I would suspect that the drum will turn fairly easily. If you remove the back of the dryer, you will see the fan box which contains the blower wheel in the lower left corner. It should have a duct that is fastened on by probably about 6 or so hex head screws. It is the duct which contains the lint screen. If you haven't opened the top of the dryer already, you will need to pull out the lint screen and remove the 2 screws that fasten the dryer lid to the lint screen duct. Remove the duct and inspect the fan box to make sure there is not lint buildup there that could be putting excess drag on the motor. If you are changing the motor you have to take this cover off anyway to remove the blower wheel from the old motor.

If you replace the motor, you should replace the belt and the idler assembly as well. The idler assembly is 12 dollars and the belt is 13. So that would get your investment up to about $125 by the time you pay tax and shipping. If you are reasonably handy, you can replace the motor in about 2 hours. If the rest of the dryer seems to be in good shape, it works properly, the drum and the cabinet are not rusted and the various spot welds have not broken loose, meaning the cabinet still seems sturdy, Then you need to decide if the dryer still serves your needs or if you want to spend $500 and up for a new dryer that may have additional features or increased capacity.

If you have to hire a tech to replace the motor, you can easily end up with a bill for $300 - $400 which I would suspect puts the dryer in the "not worth fixing" category, Doing the work yourself would make the repair much more affordable.

This is the switch I mentioned earlier, and repairclinic.com lists it as no longer available.
http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDet...7?modelNumber=110.6917702&ss=a8b6d161721&mr=1 You might be able to cross reference it to something at a place like Grainger, but there is no certainty that the fault is the switch, and it sounds as if the motor is getting cooked from the repeated"manual starts" and might no longer be usable even if the switch is replaced.

If you do decide to do the repair, thoroughly clean all the dust and lint from inside the cabinet. Be really careful when working in the area of the ignitor. They are very fragile and it's a $22 part. Lubricate the drum rollers on that bulkhead and replace them if they are wobbly.


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## MaineLL (Jun 23, 2013)

Make your decision about repair or replace very soon. The Black Friday sales are happening right now and will end shortly after Thanksgiving. Just so you can be prepared.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

Using the extremely informative videos on repairclinic, I took apart the dryer to see if I could figure it out. 

It is extremely dusty in there. I'm going to vacuum up the lint around the motor and blow wheel as best I can, but I noticed that the lower roller wheel does not spin freely. I'm not sure how easily they are supposed to be able to spin, but the one on the right seems to spin fairly easily, but the bottom one does not. I'm going to take it off and see if I can get it unstuck. Maybe that is my problem? Is that supposed to seize up like a brake or something to stop the drum, or is it always supposed to spin?


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

The rollers spin much like a bicycle tire and should produce no resistance when spinning. Once the cycle of the dryer is over, the motor stops and the rollers stop.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

Gymschu said:


> The rollers spin much like a bicycle tire and should produce no resistance when spinning. Once the cycle of the dryer is over, the motor stops and the rollers stop.


So that's definitely contributing to the problem then. I took the stuck roller off, cleaned it up a bit and got it to spin freely. I put the drum back in and reassembled everything (vacuumed up the blower a bit too while I was disassembled), and sure enough the thing fired right up. The first time, at least. After that it refused to start again. I can see it trying to spin the drum (it inches along in sputtered false starts before blowing the thermal fuse and giving up).

It could be that the roller got stuck again. This was at about 1am, so I called it a night at that point and didn't check the roller. So, I think I'm going to order a new set of rollers from repairclinic, and hope it isn't a combination of that AND the motor. There's not a lot of space in my laundry room, so taking this apart is a frustrating experience.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

Hey guys- been pushing this off and hang-drying clothes for the last few months, but its getting a little crazy (big things like towels don't get washed as often because it takes too long to dry).

Finally got around to ordering new rollers a couple of weeks ago, but it turns out that didn't fix it. It fired up the first time after a brief hesitation when testing, but once I pushed it back into position and attached the vent duct, it did the same thing- buzz, try to spin, burn out thermal fuse. I guess it really is the motor?

Here's the thing- the price on that motor just went up from $83 to $104 at repairclinic. Still not terribly expensive, but pushing it closer to the "maybe I should replace the whole danged thing" bracket. 
I see repairclinic calls it "Kenmore Dryer Drive Motor 279827". A quick Google search shows me that places like Walmart have what appears to be the same thing for... that can't be right, $48? I didn't even know Walmart carried these things at all!
Am I dreaming or is this the same thing??
http://www.walmart.com/ip/40104969?...8238632&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=104160364352&veh=sem


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

Hey now, Amazon prime with free 2 day shipping! Can someone here please help me confirm that this is the right part? I'm scared that this is too good to be true!
http://www.amazon.com/Whirlpool-279...ie=UTF8&qid=1427467545&sr=8-1&keywords=279827


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## jimn (Nov 13, 2010)

Likely a made in China copycat, (Of course the OEM is probably also made in China ) Could be good could not be . Not sure what's up with blue stripes through the UL label. Decision is up to you. Kind of like buying a harbor freight crosscut saw. It will cut a reasonably true cut for a period of time and then the machine dies after a year or two. The DeWalt costs a couple of hundred more, will cut a dead true cut and last many years. Unless my budget doesn't allow I would get the OEM part . If the rest of the dryer still works well and you might get a few more years out of it


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## thefixer56 (Feb 23, 2014)

Don't buy it. You will not get the one in the photo, you will get the cheap Chinese made piece of junk that won't last if it even fits properly in the first place. Never buy appliance parts from amazon or ebay.

The ubiquitous Whirlpool direct drive washing machine. People are always buying motor couplers and clutches from amazon. Absolute JUNK!!!!


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

jimn01 said:


> Likely a made in China copycat, (Of course the OEM is probably also made in China ) Could be good could not be . Not sure what's up with blue stripes through the UL label. Decision is up to you. Kind of like buying a harbor freight crosscut saw. It will cut a reasonably true cut for a period of time and then the machine dies after a year or two. The DeWalt costs a couple of hundred more, will cut a dead true cut and last many years. Unless my budget doesn't allow I would get the OEM part . If the rest of the dryer still works well and you might get a few more years out of it


The listing says the product is by Whirlpool and is a genuine OEM part, made in Mexico. See screenshot here:









If you look at the original on RepairClinic http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDet...4?modelNumber=110.6917702&ss=a8b6d161721&mr=1
you'll see that it also has the blue lines on the label, right where it lists the patent numbers (patent numbers on a fake? doubtful!).

There are other matches on Amazon that say things like "replaces Whirlpool part #" and looks like a knock off. So either this is the real deal, or this seller is lying! Aren't those usually sold through Amazon affiliates and not Amazon's prime warehouses though? Usually stuff actually sold by Amazon from the manufacturer is legit, or at least I'd think it is?



thefixer56 said:


> Don't buy it. You will not get the one in the photo, you will get the cheap Chinese made piece of junk that won't last if it even fits properly in the first place. Never buy appliance parts from amazon or ebay.
> 
> The ubiquitous Whirlpool direct drive washing machine. People are always buying motor couplers and clutches from amazon. Absolute JUNK!!!!


Ebay I hear you, plenty of fly-by-night sellers... but Amazon? And not just an affiliate seller, but an actual Prime product? If the listing goes out of its way to state its a genuine OEM part and shows the picture of the original made in Mexico, wouldn't they be required to sell you what they are describing/selling, or else be in a lot of trouble? There are others on Amazon that don't match this picture and say "replacement for", but not this one. 

Meanwhile, you guys made me hesitate and now that one is out of stock. The only ones left in stock now look like the made in China knock offs. 

What about the Walmart link? Also shows a picture of the real one with the label that says made in Mexico?


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

No follow up comments on that? I'm going to likely do the Walmart one (so I can return it to a local store if not what I ordered), unless you guys have a good reason I should still avoid either of these. I still think the Amazon listing is an OEM part since they clearly went out of their way to say so, versus other more vague listings.


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## chitownken (Nov 22, 2012)

I would try the Amazon one over the Walmart one. Easy to return to Amazon as well. They pick it up at your house so you don't have to drive anywhere. Have seen some really strange price deals on Amazon. Ordered some table hardware that is $50 on Rockler.com but was $28 on Amazon from Rockler as the vendor. Showed up in the Rockler packaging from Rockler. No clue as to why it was almost half the price at Amazon.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

chitownken said:


> I would try the Amazon one over the Walmart one. Easy to return to Amazon as well. They pick it up at your house so you don't have to drive anywhere. Have seen some really strange price deals on Amazon. Ordered some table hardware that is $50 on Rockler.com but was $28 on Amazon from Rockler as the vendor. Showed up in the Rockler packaging from Rockler. No clue as to why it was almost half the price at Amazon.


^ thank you! I was wondering why all the nay-saying if it says Whirpool is the vendor and the description says OEM PART! Yes, sure, there are knock-offs that are cheap, and a smart buyer must be careful... but then they wouldn't be able to say OEM and the company name as the manufacturer, would they?

And if they do send me something other than what they describe, that's a free return and return shipping paid for!

Only problem is these guys made me hesitate and the OEM one is out of stock. 
So, looks like my options are Walmart, or wait for this to be in stock. I have a lot of extended family coming for 10 days starting this weekend, and the idea of air-drying all this bedding and laundry is making my head spin!


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## chitownken (Nov 22, 2012)

Click on the link you put in post #15. It shows 6 in stock right now.


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## dishe (Apr 30, 2013)

chitownken said:


> Click on the link you put in post #15. It shows 6 in stock right now.


Amazon is funny the way they work. That listing you see right now is not actually being sold by Amazon, it says its being sold by "LaundryDoc". 

Amazon sells items directly, but also have affiliated stores that sell through them if they don't carry the item. When I first went to look, the price was $48.42 and it listed "sold by: Amazon" as the seller, as well as offering free Prime shipping. There were 3 left in stock, when I checked back later, it was sold out... but available from other sellers as well. 
You can see a list of places you can buy through Amazon.com here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00DM8JA5S
Notice the top one, from Amazon.com, says temporarily out of stock.

If you click the link on the previous page now, it defaults to another seller since Amazon is sold out (default now is "LaundryDoc"), which is a third party affiliate, with a different price, different shipping, and not necessarily the same standards and policies as Amazon.com's own products. I don't know if I'm getting the item as described, or what kind of return policy they'll accept, which I think is what those guys above were being skeptical about. 

Meanwhile, earlier today I checked on my phone and Amazon.com had a couple of them back in stock with Prime shipping, but by the time I got to my computer, it was sold out again. I think if I keep checking each day, they get more in here and there.


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