Well, this was frustrating but here goes. My 16 yo Kenmore Elite electric clothes dryer stopped heating. I did a bit of youtube sleuthing and found it could be one of several parts. So, I ordered a kit off Amazon which included all the replaceable parts (I mean the heating element, thermal cut off fuses, thermistor, etc.) so, before I ordered the kit, I did take the dryer apart, grabbed my multimeter and checked all the parts in the dryer. I found that everything was working except the heating element. So, then, why did I order an entire kit? So the reason I ordered an entire kit was because I thought "may as well" since I'm in there and I thought "you know, with my luck, I'll replace one part and then a month later another will break and so and so forth, why not just rip and replace everything now while I've got it apart?" I work in IT and I, quite literally, NEVER do this. I always, always, always do one software patch at a time, one O/S patch at a time, one hardware upgrade at a time, etc. because I've found that when I try to do 2+ things at a time and something doesn't work, you spend way, way, way more time trying to track down which patch, upgrade, etc. broke your environment. So, I broke my own #1 rule, sigh.
So, I learned some valuable lessons. Anyway, I replaced all the parts, the dryer worked for 10 minutes and then it stopped heating again. I took pictures before hand so I know I replaced like for like exactly as they were removed so, I was uber-frustrated so I called in an expert. The guy came out, he asked a few questions, replaced the EXACT same parts that I just replaced except for the heating element, I paid the guy $150 (parts+labor) and the dryer was working again plus I did have him fix my wonky dryer vent hose that was pulling itself out of the wall or getting crushed every time I moved it in and out so, at least that's all cleaned out and fixed properly now. He said "that heating element you bought isn't going to last very long, I can already see it developing hot spots" and he also said "I replace a lot of cheap, knock off, Amazon parts, you should try and buy oem parts whenever you can." He also said "your washer and dryer are the best units you can buy, those things are tanks and they last forever. I've been doing this for 13 years and I have, quite literally, never seen one fail and all the parts are still available. Don't ever waste your money on these newer models, they aren't built as well as these but if you do, call me first, I will buy them from you even if they aren't working."
So, if I were to do it over again, I would purchase oem parts from an online dealer instead of using Amazon, and I would replace one part at a time, however, even with the repairman visit and the online parts and what not, it was all still cheaper than a new dryer so there's that I guess.
