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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.

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  • What model is said dryer?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Sep 12 '18 at 14:08
  • @ThreePhaseEel for some reason I can't find the model number.. From a cursory search it seems identical to YNED4655EW.
    – ApplePie
    Sep 12 '18 at 14:18
  • You replaced the cycling thermostat, good. I would check all the connections to it and from it very carefully. Dryers vibrate and connections are common failure points.
    – Steve Wellens
    Sep 2 '20 at 14:06
  • 2
    I’m voting to close this question because it's been abandoned.
    – FreeMan
    Dec 31 '20 at 18:19
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I have seen things like sand buildup in the bottom of the blower housing the dryer was still blowing but the flow was limited causing the dryer to take longer to dry because of low flow and they only called me when the thermal fuse blew. I tilted the dryer on its back and ended up removing about 3 cups of sand after that the dryer worked normaly

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  • Hey, thanks for your answer. The blower is rather clean so I wouldn't suspect dirt / lint / sand blocking the blower to be the culprit in my case.
    – ApplePie
    Sep 12 '18 at 14:19
  • Along the same line, I found lint had built up inside the dryer internal chambers and was restricting the airflow. Also the vent to the outside could still be partially blocked even though you feel a breeze. It should be a strong airflow, compare to the strength of the air flow at the dryer.
    – Programmer66
    Sep 2 '20 at 14:37
  • I guess I did not see the response from the op that dryer was my sons it and the discharge pump were immaculate. The sand built up from beach trips. Did you ever get your dryer problem solved?
    – Ed Beal
    Sep 2 '20 at 14:44

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