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Fixed a 20 year old dryer that kept tripping the breaker... the thermal fuse looked fine but the cycling thermostat was welded shut.
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bennett.harper2mo ago
My uncle's dryer did the same thing last year. He said a stuck thermostat can make the heating element run nonstop, which pulls too much current. That's what finally trips the breaker.
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anna4912mo ago
Wait, a welded thermostat sounds bad but is that really what kept tripping the breaker? Seems like a short or a bad heating element would cause that, not just a stuck switch.
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nguyen.angela1mo ago
Read a post about this on a home repair forum once, and someone pointed out that a welded thermostat keeps the heat on full blast even when the drum isn't moving fast enough. @bennett.harper is right - that stuck switch makes the heating element run nonstop, which pulls way more amps over time and eventually trips the breaker. A quick thermal runaway like that can overload the circuit just as easily as a short, especially on an older setup.
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