So, let’s talk about laundry. Laundry is a chore, meaning there is never really a good time for it. You have to do it, so you make time for it. In my case, I made time before work as I have the privilege of working at home. So I shove my full load of laundry in my washer and wait for the alert that it finishes so I can migrate the load to the dryer. The dryer starts and I walk away so I can attend other matters.
Later on I notice that the dryer seems to be beeping more than usual–strange. I go and check on it and notice the dryer isn’t running. I had it set to 90 minutes and nowhere near that much time had passed. This is not something that was unheard of–I have run into the dryer beeping on its own (without input) but it usually went back to work on its own. This time the dryer consistently stopped about 30-60 seconds after starting. Upon stopping, alarms and a light show proceeded. This has gone from an annoyance now to an emergency.
I don’t have a lot of clothes as I am not the most fashion-oriented person. This rather large load of laundry consisted of a considerable portion of my wardrobe. If these clothes weren’t dry today, I would have to wear stinky clothes for probably a couple weeks. I’ve run into situations like this in the past, usually because I ran the washer, walked away, and completely forgot about the load of laundry so it dried in the washer (or just sat there wet). The result is stinky clothes even after a round in the dryer. I usually have to run the washer again (and waste water) if I don’t want stinky clothes.
So at this point, dryer won’t stay running and it’s about time for my work day to start. Great! Let’s focus on the dryer troubleshooting. So I notice when I start the dryer, within 30-60 seconds it stops, beeps away, and proceeds to blink a light show. I start looking up repair/troubleshooting manuals for my particular model 417.81122310 Kenmore unit. I researched and found that the number of beeps or types of light blinks don’t have any significance, so I let that go. I did find that there should be an error code if I can get to a field test mode on the dryer. Getting to the field test mode seemed like it required input of the Konami code. It was not the most intuitive process, but I managed to stumble across error code E68 which means that a button was stuck closed. OK! I found another diagnostic type of mode and tested each and every button on the front panel. They all worked. Head scratching resulted. Thankfully the reference “dryer tech data sheet” reported that in this particular scenario of E68 where the buttons were not stuck, that the electronic control panel was bad. The electronic control panel is the printed circuit board that interfaces with the keys and dryer inputs. It was pretty simple to get access to–it took about 8 screws to get to it.
The part ID in question is 137070890NH, leveraged by multiple makes of dryer including Kenmore, Frigidaire, and Crosley. My guess is that when the dryer starts to heat up that it introduces some sort of short in one of the button switches making the logic board think that the button is stuck closed. I could try swapping out switches but I don’t want to–I just want a working dryer. Therefore, I just ordered a new control panel. Not to mention if parts are failing on the control panel, the integrity of the entire panel is questionable.
In the past when I ran into appliance issues that I troubleshot to failed components, I looked into a local Marcone supply location that actually stored the components for immediate access. Their prices were a little higher, but the convenience made up for the cost as usually I could get the parts same day and have working appliances in short order. Unfortunately, within the past year or two, the local Marcone supply became wholesale only and stopped individual retail sales. I assume this is a result of the financial strain caused by the pandemic. The result of this is that I now have to introduce shipping logistics into my order of this control board. I should get my replacement board by early next week.
Meanwhile, I’ve got a load of wet clothes to deal with. My wife has a dryer rack for her items she can’t throw in the dryer. I commandeer this dryer rack and put it outside in front of a shop fan. Florida has humid heat which is not the best for drying clothes, so hopefully the shop fan helps fight the humidity. The results were reasonable given the emergency scenario. Drying clothes without fabric softener leads to a different type of dry clothing, but at least they aren’t wet.
Moral of this story is… when a chore goes left, it certainly isn’t fun.