Kenmore Dryer Repair in Reston, VA

Kenmore dryers are mostly Whirlpool (110) or LG (796) designs, in gas and electric. On a Whirlpool-built electric that tumbles without heat, we meter the one-time fuse first, then the coil element and its limit thermostat; on a gas model, a glowing igniter that never lights the burner points to the valve coils. A dryer that won't start at all often has a blown thermal fuse or a failed door switch. Squealing, thumping or a scraping drum means rollers, the idler pulley or drum glides. LG-built models have their own sensor and board logic and often show a code. Behind almost every heating failure is airflow, so we look at the vent run, especially the long ducts that snake through basement ceilings in older houses.

Also: Kenmore began as a Sears label and never had factories of its own; the three digits before the dot in the model number name the maker, such as 106 for Whirlpool, 253 for Frigidaire and 795 for LG.

The first things we check on this model line: Thermal fuse blown; Heating element open; Gas valve coils failing; Drum rollers or idler squealing; Restricted exhaust vent.

Those are starting points, not a verdict. One symptom can trace to a cheap part or an expensive one, so the cause is confirmed at your home before you're quoted.

A dryer upstairs in a Reston townhouse usually vents through an outside wall or up through the roof, and a long vertical run collects lint where no one sees it.

An upstairs dryer in Reston often vents through a long run to a side wall or the roof; clean the whole run every so often, not just the lint screen.

Whatever the brand, the dryer complaint most often misread is a dryer that has had its thermal fuse or heating element replaced more than once while the blocked vent that caused the first failure is still in the wall.

The local factor to keep in mind in Reston, where most homes are townhouses and high-rise condos: vent runs that cross a finished lower level or climb through a second floor to the roof, stacked dryers exhausting into building ducts, and heavy, damp lint in humid weather.

A refrigerator in a garage lives outside the conditions it was built for for much of the year. Cleaning its condenser coil twice a year and leaving space around the cabinet help it through the summer heat.

The manual's ambient rating is the first thing to read on a garage unit. We read it too, and if the garage is the problem, that's what we'll tell you.