[george073]

When my electric clothes dryer is in cycle and I open the door, the drum stops spinning but the heat remains on to the point where I have to unplug the power. I think the heat should stop when the door is opened. Any suggestions?

[ApplianceJunk]

Hi,

Your heater maybe touching the case grounding it out and letting it heat all the time. That or the switch on the motor that cuts power to the heater when the dryer is not running has gone bad.

[george073]

Typically, if the heater element is grounding to the frame, the overcurrent protection would trip. Otherwise the frame would be hot. Can you tell me more about this motor switch?

[denman]

Frame should not go hot on a 3 wire hookup
Neutral = ground = frame so unless you loose your neutral going to the dryer, it cannot go hot.

As an example if the heater coil shorted to ground/frame half way along it's length, then it would get 120 volts all the time from the L1 side of the line.
Only way to shut off would be unplugging or setting timer to off. It would not blow the breaker.

Other possibility is the centrifugal switch on the motor.
Once the motor reaches operating speed it closes and supplies (L2 side) power to the heater. It is there to ensure that the blower is running before heat is produced. Could be clogged/jammed with lint, contacts shot or centrifugal sense mechanism broken.
There are 2 switches one for the heat and the other to switch out the start (aux) motor coil.
Quite often on older units this switch assy could be replaced, unfortunately most newer units require a motor assembly.

Since a motor is going to cost a lot more than a heater, I would check the heater first.

[george073]

denman and appliancejunk,
I took my dryer apart again and found the new heating element I just installed, not grounding to the frame. So I turned my attention to the centrifugal switch on the motor. I removed the switch and to my horror, it fell apart into about 8 pieces in my hands. I was able to put it back together and reinstall it. I reassembled the dryer and now everything works as it should. It's a beautiful thing! Thanks.

[AmpDraw]

Originally Posted by george073

Typically, if the heater element is grounding to the frame, the overcurrent protection would trip. Otherwise the frame would be hot. Can you tell me more about this motor switch?

Just for your own understanding and anyone else reading this post, and to clarify on what the other guys are telling you, this thinking of the breaker tripping is not always correct when it comes to heating elements. All too often it happens in the real world just like denman has described for you, the element breaks and shorts out to ground, this allows the 120 volt half of the circuit to pass through the element and to ground where its shorted. It will then always heat and what's left of the element between the wire and the shorted break allows for enough resistance in the circuit that you don't create an actual dead short to ground that trips your breaker.

I know this wasn't your problem this time, but just wanted to clarify because basic logic would lead one to assume as you have that such a short will always trip the breaker or if one side of the 240 volt circuit isn't present the element can't heat and this is in actuality not always correct depending on the location of the short in an element.

Hopefully three techs here saying the same thing in slightly different ways will help everyone understand one explanation or the other on this common phenomena that would defy basic thinking and logic.