We noticed our Amana electric dryer making a rattling noise as well as overheating (top of the appliance, air duct and clothes in the dryer are very hot).
Here are things I checked for:
- Air vent is unobstructed and clean. It's a flexible 'accordion' metal vent that appears to be slightly damaged (one 'layer' of metal has teared) although it does not appear to 'leak' air in any way. Also, I can feel a breeze from the outside which reinforces the idea that the vent is unobstructed.
- Cycling thermostat has conductivity;
- Wheel blower was the source of rattling because it was wobbly. I gave it a couple of spins counter clockwise (facing the appliance from behind) and that seemed to secure it properly. (Edit: Initially I thought I had fixed the wheel blower but after running a cycle and observing the same overheating issue I retested the wheel blower only to notice that it doesn't seem to spin freely. I will try to change it.)
- Heating element does not have visible breaks or warps and has conductivity (between the 'prongs' where electric connectors are but not between prongs and casing which I understand would be a short);
- The exhaust duct (where the lint screen goes) is unobstructed, all the way to the metal part where the vent connects to.
I tried simply replacing the cycling thermostat as it was inexpensive and I did not see other possible causes but that changed nothing (dryer still hot).
Note: the dryer was not moved or changed in any way between its well-functioning state and the current overheating state.
What could be the source of overheating ? I thought about the fuse and high-limit thermostat but wouldn't those help avoid damage to the dryer in case of overheating but not actually prevent overheating ? My understanding may be incorrect.
The model number is most likely YNED4655EW although I did not find it specifically on my dryer.
