The $9 dollar part that kept tripping breakers on 3 dryers

Last month I had three different calls in Tacoma where dryers kept tripping the breaker after 10 minutes. First two I swapped the heating element and the thermostats, still failed. Third one I checked the blower wheel fins first because they looked warped, and that was it, the motor was drawing too much current and overheating. Replaced the wheel for $9 and the dryer ran a full cycle fine. Went back to the first two jobs and did the same fix, problem solved both times. Has anyone else seen warped blower wheels cause intermittent breaker trips instead of a straight thermal cutout?

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emma_young9d ago

That "motor was drawing too much current" part really hits home. I had almost the same thing happen with a customer's dryer a few months back, and it drove me crazy for two visits. I was dead set on the element and even checked the thermostats twice, but it kept tripping after about eight minutes. Finally I looked at the blower wheel out of pure frustration and the fins were bent just enough to make the motor work way harder than it should. That little $9 part fixed it and I felt like an idiot for not checking it sooner. It's wild how a tiny plastic piece can mess with the whole electrical load like that, you really expect a thermal cutout before a breaker. Thanks for posting this, it makes me feel better knowing someone else got burned by the same sneaky issue.