Model Number: DV42H5200EW/A3
Brand: Brand
Age: 1-5 years
The model is DV42H5200EW/A3. The dryer spins and functions completely normally other than most but not all of the time it won't heat. I started to notice that the dryer was running for a long time and not heating my clothes, then I noticed that during these times the dryer was not blowing hot air. It seemed to happen more and more frequently and now I can rarely get it to turn the heater on. The dryer is located in the garage and the temps have slowly gotten lower with winter, the garage has been around 30-40F lately. I have verified that the high level thermostat and thermal fuses are all good, I have replaced the coil and all fuses and thermostats. I decided to do some deeper troubleshooting, here is what I am seeing:
-In any dry mode, the heat relay is not activating (no conductivity) which is why there is no heat. Randomly every 20 or so times that I start it though the relay will activate and I will get heat.
-When I put the dryer into "Smart Install" mode, the heater relay clicks and the heater gets hot, the diagnostic reports "OK". I did this several times and it worked every time.
-The thermistor reads 31kohm at about 35F in my garage, with a blow dryer I can get that resistance to steadily drop, so I believe the thermistor is fine.
-I replaced the thermistor for a 10kohm resistor but it still only intermittently would start the heater at startup.
-The control board is correctly noticing when I have the thermistor unplugged (open) and spits out a "tE" error code.
-Went in the "Data Display Mode" diagnostics mode, here is what I see:
-"Mode 5: Temperature data" reads "0005" when the thermistor is at 31kohm, it reads "0430" with a 10kohm resistor
-"Mode 6: Average temperature data for 1 minute" always reads "0000" no matter what.
-"Mode 7: Temperature data for detecting vent clog up" always reads "-"
This troubleshooting has told me several things: The fuses are good, the element is good, the thermistor is good, the heater relay is good, the cabling is good. The only other thing it could be would be the control board, but everything else about it makes me think the control board is working fine especially since it is able to detect a thermistor problem when the thermistor is unplugged.
Could having the dryer in a cold garage be causing any problems? I tried using a hair dryer to warm up the thermistor before starting but it didn't change anything. What could be the problem? It's driving me crazy.