You pull a load out of the dryer and it's still damp. The drum was spinning, you heard it running the whole cycle, but the clothes are cold and wet. So you run it again. Same thing. Now you've got a pile of laundry going nowhere and a dryer that seems to be working but isn't actually doing its one job.
A dryer that runs but won't heat is one of the most common appliance calls we get. The good news: a large share of these are airflow problems you can fix yourself in under an hour, often for free. The rest are real repairs, but knowing which is which saves you a service call.
Here are the seven things to check, in order from easiest to most involved. Work through them top to bottom.
After
Before1. Clean the Lint Trap and Check the Vent
We're starting here because it's the cause more often than anything else on this list, and it's free. A dryer dries clothes by pushing hot air through them and carrying the moisture out the vent. If the airflow is restricted, the moist air has nowhere to go. The clothes stay damp even when the heating element is working perfectly.
Start with the lint screen. Pull it out and clean it, even if it looks clean. Then go a step further: if you use dryer sheets, a thin invisible film builds up on the screen over time and chokes airflow. Run the screen under water and scrub it with a little dish soap and a brush. If water pools on top instead of flowing through, that film is your problem.
Then check the vent itself. Pull the dryer out, disconnect the flexible duct, and look for lint buildup. Check the exterior wall vent too, where the dryer exhausts outside. Birds nest in them, lint packs them solid, and the flapper can get stuck shut. A clogged exterior vent is extremely common and easy to miss because it's out of sight.
When to call a pro: If you can't reach the full vent run (long ducts through walls or roofs are common), a technician or vent-cleaning service can clear it with proper tools. This isn't just about drying performance. A clogged dryer vent is one of the leading causes of house fires, which is why our techs clean the full vent line as part of a dryer service visit.
A real dryer exhaust outlet our techs found on a Sonoma County call. That round opening should be wide open. It was choking off nearly all the airflow, which is exactly why the dryer wasn't drying.
2. Confirm the Power (Electric Dryers Need 240V)
Here's a quirk that fools a lot of people. Electric dryers run on a 240-volt circuit with a double-pole breaker. The drum motor and the control panel only need 120 volts (one leg of the circuit), but the heating element needs the full 240 volts (both legs).
When only one half of the double-pole breaker trips, you get exactly the symptom we're troubleshooting: the dryer turns on, the drum spins, the light works, but there's no heat. The motor has its 120V, but the heating element is starved.
What to do: Go to your breaker panel and find the dryer breaker. Flip it fully off, then back on. Sometimes a half-tripped breaker doesn't look tripped, so cycle it completely. If it trips again right away, stop. That's a sign of a short, which is not a DIY fix. Gas dryers also need 120V power for the igniter and controls, so check the outlet there too.
3. Check the Gas Supply (Gas Dryers)
If you have a gas dryer, no heat could simply mean no gas. Confirm the gas shutoff valve behind the dryer is fully open (handle parallel to the pipe). Check that your other gas appliances, like the stove or water heater, are working. If they're also out, the issue is your gas supply, not the dryer.
For homes on propane rather than natural gas, an empty or low tank is an easy thing to overlook. Check the tank gauge before assuming the dryer is broken.
4. Test the Heating Element (Electric Dryers)
If the power is good and the airflow is clear but an electric dryer still won't heat, the heating element itself is a prime suspect. The element is a long coil of metal wire that glows hot as electricity passes through it, similar to an oven element. Over years of heating and cooling, the coil eventually breaks. Once it breaks, the circuit is open and no heat is produced.
You can sometimes see the break by removing the element and inspecting the coil for a visible gap or burned spot. The proper test is to check it for electrical continuity with a multimeter. A good element shows continuity; a failed one shows none.
When to call a pro: Replacing a heating element involves opening up the dryer cabinet and disconnecting electrical components, with the dryer unplugged. It's doable for a confident DIYer with the right part for the model, but it's also exactly the kind of repair our techs finish in 30 minutes with the part already on the truck. We service dryers across Sonoma, Marin, and Napa.
5. Check the Thermal Fuse
The thermal fuse is a small safety device that permanently cuts the heating circuit if the dryer overheats. It's a one-time fuse. Once it blows, it does not reset. It must be replaced. When the thermal fuse is blown, the most common symptom is exactly what we're chasing: the dryer runs but produces zero heat.
Here's the critical part most people miss. A thermal fuse rarely blows on its own. It blows because the dryer overheated, and the most common reason a dryer overheats is a clogged vent (see item 1). So if you replace the thermal fuse without clearing the vent, the brand-new fuse will blow again, sometimes within a single cycle. This is the single most common mistake we see homeowners make on dryer repairs.
When to call a pro: The fuse itself is inexpensive, but the diagnosis matters. A technician will replace the fuse AND find out why it blew, so it doesn't happen again. There may also be a failed thermostat or cycling thermostat involved, which a tech checks at the same time.
6. Inspect the Igniter and Flame Sensor (Gas Dryers)
On a gas dryer, the heat comes from a gas burner that's lit by an igniter. The igniter glows red-hot, the flame sensor confirms it's hot enough, and then the gas valve opens and the burner lights. If the igniter fails, or the flame sensor doesn't signal correctly, the gas never lights and you get a dryer that tumbles with no heat.
A failing gas igniter is one of the most common gas-dryer repairs, similar to the igniter problem we see on gas ovens. The igniter is a fragile ceramic part that weakens over time until it can no longer get hot enough to light the gas.
When to call a pro: Anything involving the gas burner assembly should be handled by a technician. It's not just about the repair, it's about safely verifying the gas connection afterward. Book a visit here.
7. Double-Check the Cycle Settings
We save the most embarrassing one for last because it happens more than you'd think. Most dryers have an Air Fluff, Air Dry, or No Heat setting that tumbles the drum without turning on the heat. It's designed for fluffing pillows or freshening clothes without heat. If someone bumped the dial or pressed the wrong button, the dryer will run a full cycle stone cold, exactly as designed.
What to do: Before you tear anything apart, make sure you're on a normal heated cycle like Normal, Cottons, or Timed Dry with a heat level selected. It costs you ten seconds to rule out, and we've all done it.
The One Thing That Causes Most of These
If you take one thing away from this article, make it this: clean your dryer vent. A clogged vent is the root cause behind the majority of dryer heat complaints. It directly traps moisture so clothes stay damp, and it indirectly causes overheating that blows thermal fuses and shortens the life of heating elements.
It's also a genuine safety issue. The US Fire Administration attributes thousands of house fires every year to clothes dryers, and the leading factor is failure to clean them. Lint is highly flammable, and a packed vent plus a hot dryer is a real risk.
A close-up of the lint our techs pulled from one dryer. All of this was packed inside the machine, out of sight, where it traps heat and feeds a fire risk.
Clean the lint screen every load. Clean the full vent line at least once a year. If you have a long or hard-to-reach vent run, or you just want it done right, our techs handle vent cleaning as part of a service visit.
When to Call Kelly's
Most dryer heat problems come down to airflow, a heating element, a thermal fuse, or a gas igniter. If you've cleaned the vent, confirmed the power, and checked the settings but the dryer still won't heat, the next steps involve testing electrical components or the gas burner, and that's where a technician saves you time and guesswork.
Kelly's Appliance Center has been repairing dryers in Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties since 1975. We're Diamond Certified, factory authorized for all major brands, and we carry common dryer parts (heating elements, thermal fuses, igniters) on our trucks, so a lot of these repairs finish in a single visit.
Book a dryer repair online or call us at (707) 664-9702. Not sure if it's worth a visit? Try a virtual diagnostic first. 15 minutes on a video call with a technician for $40, and we can usually tell you whether it's a quick DIY fix or a real repair.
