Paging rufeldt... Dryer not working after power outage

We had a power outage last night. It was a short one, about 45 seconds, and as near I can tell nothing in the house was damaged.... EXCEPT our gas dryer. The dryer was running during the outage.

Dryer is an Amana NGD7200TW. Came with the house.

It still is operating, but it isn't heating and it seems to "pause" itself at times or forget what it's doing--I set a 53 minute load, and came back 10 minutes and it said 0 minutes remaining. Or, it "paused" itself at 8 minutes until I hit start again. Never during any of this was it heating. Any ideas?

Sure it was not a power surge that then triggered the breaker at the substation? If the dryer is one of those new computer CONTROLES ones they don't take well to power surges and if it was running at the time it is more suseptable.

Could have been a power surge. No bad weather.

Pilot light out?

Might want to go over the instructions for first start, it might need a specific procedure followed.

The computer could be fried. Try unplugging it to reset the computer. The gas valve also could be locked out. Unplugging it might help that too.

I'm thinking the computer is fried.

We're unplugging it for the day today. Ran a load last night; the vent in the very back was warm to the touch but not hot. Clothes were slightly warm, but still damp. Nothing in the lint trap either, if that makes a difference.

sorry i'm late to the party here, been busy and not on the forums as much as i'd like. Computers can get fried super easily by power surges. Like, really really easy. Damage can even manifest up to a month later.

Is it this one?

I image searched the model number. If yes, then i'm sorry but you'll have bad luck finding parts. That was produced when Amana was owned by Maytag, right before it went bankrupt. That's an early LG product rebadged as an Amana. Check the model plate, if it says "Made in Korea" then that's what it is. You might be able to get parts, but probably won't be cheap. Not many of those left around me, but our water tends to destroy the washers and people often pitch the dryer at the same time because of deals on matched sets, etc... LG only provides parts for their products for 5 years. After that, if it isn't in a warehouse in the USA, you ain't getting one. We were told this by an LG employee. Even worse, that's from before Whirlpool purchased Maytag/Amana, and Whirlpool doesn't seem so keen on supporting the pre-buyout products either.

Good news is that it doesn't say "Made in Korea".... it says "Assembled in Korea"!

Better news is that we left it unplugged for a day, and now it works like normal. Dunno what's going on with that. I did clean out the lint hose, but there wasn't enough in there to stop it from drying... not sure if that has anything to do with it or not.

After this though, we're going speed queen and never looking back.

Oh, and yes--that is the exact model we have.

Hooray! Yeah LG circuit boards go crazy when they sense power issues. We have even told a few people with chronic problems (old wiring they couldn't afford to replace, etc...) to plug the machine into a power strip so they can easily cut power for a while anytime it started acting up. Very strange machines.

Bump...

Dryer has been working fine until yesterday. Not blowing hot air. I took the hose off the back to see if there was a lint block, but it still wasn't getting hot. Any thoughts? Easy trouble shooting? I thought that the exhaust in the back felt hot for a second, but I may have just been hopeful. This happens on timed dry as well as the sensor dry cycles, so I don't think it is a sensor. 

Check the various thermal sensors.  If it powers up but doesn't allow the gas to fire off it might be that.  (Simple continuity test)

it's gas, does the gas try to fire at all?  

If it gets hot when you first turn it on but 5 or 10 minutes later it’s cold and then never heats again, it’s the burner coils.  

If it never gets hot to begin with it could be any number of things.  Thermal fuse, igniter, flame switch, computer relay, centrifugal switch in the motor, (Korean dryers have some unusual and problematic wiring through the centrifugal switch, anything.  They want to make really berking sure it does not open the gas valve if anything at all is wrong, so any problem can cause a no-heat situation.  Gas dryers usually won’t heat for just a second and stop, they don’t start heating for about 30 seconds anyway, then they *should* stay on for a while.

depending on the exact one you have, you could have the burner coils that almost every dryer made has, or you could have the ones that LG tried to make themselves briefly before deciding they sucked and just started using the normal ones.  The LG specific ones may not be available.

korean dryers also tend to burn out safeties for no reason, there are usually a few of them if I remember right.  One cycles off of it gets too hot but will close once it cools back down, the other will blow.

in gas dryers, the boards don’t usually cause a no-heat problem, not enough amperage going through the relay to torch the thing.

id say if it’s an Amanda badged LG and you haven’t replaced the safeties/thermal fuse, it’s time for those to blow.

So I ordered the heating element (since it was very cheap) and the thermal fuse, they're on their way... But last night, it started working again! 

Any thoughts? What could that possibly mean? We're probably calling someone in to take a look at it, since at this point I think it is beyond my abilities and I don't want to waste effort replacing things that won't fix it. 

This is starting to fall under the umbrella for all really weird electrical problems: If your electrical circuit behaves like the president of the USA, it has a grounding issue".

The periodic working/not working sounds like what mine does when it needs coils.    

Heating element? I thought you said it was a gas dryer. or do you mean the ignitor?  Intermittent flame can be coils, but also could be safeties on the burner tube.  Some LG safeties are supposed to be self resetting, but they start sticking with time.  Unfortunately you have to catch it in the act with a multimeter to be sure, or just replace them and the coils and see what happens.

Rufledt said:

Heating element? I thought you said it was a gas dryer. or do you mean the ignitor?  Intermittent flame can be coils, but also could be safeties on the burner tube.  Some LG safeties are supposed to be self resetting, but they start sticking with time.  Unfortunately you have to catch it in the act with a multimeter to be sure, or just replace them and the coils and see what happens.

Sorry, I meant coils. Not sure why my brain translated that to heater unit. 

But at what point do we throw in the towel and get something new from the sears outlet? 

And what do you recommend on the cheap end of things?

 If your electrical circuit behaves like the president of the USA, it has a grounding issue".

 

That right there is funny.  I don’t care who you are.  

cheap dryers are fine, throw in the towel whenever you feel like it.  cheap washers, however, suck beyond sucking.  Make sure the new dryer says whirlpool, maytag, amana, or frigidaire on it.  Don't go with anything else.  A new amana dryer is nothing like the korean "amana" dryer you have right now.  Oh, and if you do get a new cheap dryer, careful not to turn the timer when the thing is running.  New cheapie machines have SUPER cheap timers and arcing the points murders them.  Oh yeah, don't turn the knob counter clockwise either.  If you want a true good machine, get a speed queen dryer.

We bit the bullet and got a new washer and dryer. Speed Queen. There was $2k I wasn't planning on spending any time soon. 

Expensive, but worth it in the long run.  that old one would be nickel and diming you until you couldn't get parts anymore.  A good tip to make the speed queen washer last even longer, leave the water level cranked up.  NEVER use below medium load.  Washing 4 socks? that's a medium load.  Leave it on max if water isn't cripplingly expensive.  The reason many HE machines die quick (besides being built as cheaply as possible) is that they don't use enough water.  You can, so do it.  We have known people who burned out the motor points in the timer and cooked the motor in 6 years trying to "save water".  The timers aren't cheap, neither are motors.  Leave the water level up and you won't have to worry about it.  My dad's neighbor has one that's 30 years old, original motor and timer.  She leaves water on max.  

Don't listen these idiots, it's going to suck but you'll have to call somebody that actually knows his stuff, and most importantly, somebody that can see your appliance in person, most of these people are the reason why things break down thinking they know everything. 

theli333 said:

Don't listen these idiots, it's going to suck but you'll have to call somebody that actually knows his stuff, and most importantly, somebody that can see your appliance in person, most of these people are the reason why things break down thinking they know everything. 

You're new around here, aren't you?

You might want to dial it down a bit.